Lawmakers work to prevent need for U.S. Postal Service bailout

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TheHill:

Key lawmakers from both parties, and in both chambers, agree that the United States Postal Service needs to make some serious changes.

But the legislative prescriptions to bring stability to the USPS are not all on the same page on several crucial issues, including health care and retirement costs, a potential roadblock to bipartisan efforts to overhaul the struggling agency.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, on Thursday became the latest member of Congress to introduce legislation on the matter, with USPS expected to run a deficit north of $8 billion for a second consecutive year.
The California Republican says his legislation is aimed at preventing a taxpayer bailout of the Postal Service, which currently doesn’t use taxpayer dollars for operating costs.

“If we don’t do something about it, this’ll end up more like Freddie and Fannie, where not paying attention to solvency eventually catches up and now we’re putting billions and billions into it,” Issa said on CNBC Friday, comparing USPS to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage giants.

But Issa’s legislation also does not touch what USPS says some of its major problems are: required pre-payments for retiree health insurance and overpayments into retirement programs.