- July 28, 2009
Sen. Carper Expresses Alarm Over Financial State Of The U.S. Postal Service
WASHINGTON – Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate subcommittee that oversees the U.S. Postal Service, issued the following statement today in response to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) adding the financial condition of the Postal Service to its High-Risk List of federal areas in need of transformation.
Sen. Carper said:
“I am disappointed that the state of the Postal Service has deteriorated to the point that it must be placed once again on GAO’s High-Risk List. That said, the Comptroller General’s decision should not come as a surprise to anyone who has followed postal matters in recent years.
“Americans continue to migrate away from hard-copy mail in favor of e-mail, electronic bill pay and other electronic forms of communication. At the same time, the economic slowdown has hit the mailing industry especially hard.
“It is my hope that the attention GAO’s designation is likely to attract to the Postal Service will encourage postal management and the Congress to make the necessary changes to the way the Postal Service does business. It is also imperative that Congress extend temporary economic assistance to the Postal Service in order to help it get by as we wait for the economy to recover.”
Late last week, as chairman of the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services and International Security, Sen. Carper introduced his Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Funding Reform Act of 2009 to restructure the postal service’s retiree health payment schedule to produce significant cost savings over the next several years. The Carper bill also gives the postal service more borrowing authority to meet its financial obligations and get through this current fiscal year and next.