Sen. Carper: USPS Financial Losses Underscore Urgent Need For Action on Postal Reform Legislation

WASHINGTON – Today, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate subcommittee that oversees the U.S. Postal Service, released the following reaction to the announcement that the U.S. Postal Service lost $15.9 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2012: 

“Since August, the U.S. Postal Service has defaulted on not one but two payments to the U.S. Treasury – a first for this ailing American institution. Furthermore, last month, the Postal Service reached its $15 billion borrowing limit, and today the U.S. Postal Service’s financial situation continued to spiral downward with the announcement that it lost $15.9 billion in this final quarter of Fiscal Year 2012 – more than the rest of the year’s losses combined. Nearly $5 billion of these losses were operational and not related to the Postal Service’s retiree health pre-funding payments. As the nation creeps toward the ‘fiscal cliff,’ the U.S. Postal Service is clearly marching toward a financial collapse of its own. The Postal Service’s financial crisis is growing worse, not better. It is imperative that Congress get to work on this issue and find a solution immediately. I am hopeful that now that the elections are over my colleagues and I can come together and pass postal reform legislation so that a final bill can be signed into law by the end of the year.”

Sen. Carper is a co-author of the 21^st Century Postal Act.