For Immediate Release	Contact: Leslie K. Paige 202-467-5334
April 18, 2013	Luke Gelber 202-467-5318

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) issued a statement in response to yesterday’s testimony by Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on the fiscal straits faced by the United States Postal Service (USPS).  CCAGW has long supported Postal Service reform in order to prevent an expensive taxpayer bailout, but Congress has not allowed the USPS to do what is necessary to cut costs.

“Yesterday’s testimony by Postmaster General Donahoe made painfully clear that, regardless of whether Congress chooses to sit on its hands or to act, the Postal Service is hemorrhaging cash at an alarming rate,” said CCAGW President Tom Schatz.  “Despite the fact that first-class mail volume has declined by 33 percent since its 2001 peak, very little has changed in the way the Postal Service does business.  As a result, the USPS recorded losses of $15.9 billion in fiscal year 2012 and has netted losses of $41 billion over the last six fiscal years.  According to Postmaster General Donahoe, the USPS currently averages losses of $25 million per day. 

“Yet modest reforms, such as switching to a five-day delivery schedule of first-class mail, which the USPS estimates would save $2 billion annually, have consistently been obstructed by Congress.  Closing excess facilities and downsizing the Postal Service’s workforce have proved similarly problematic.  Congress’s most significant action on postal reform occurred nearly a year ago, when the Senate approved legislation to allow a woefully inadequate amount of facility closures in 2012 while adding to the red tape in the approval process for future closures and delaying the move to five-day delivery by two years. 

“Conversely, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) Postal Reform Act, first introduced in 2011, would establish the Postal Service Financial Responsibility and Management Assistance Authority upon a USPS default on debt to the federal government for more than 30 days.  Once the USPS has met pre-established benchmarks of financial health, the authority would be disbanded.  The bill would help right-size an agency that threatens to gouge taxpayers for billions due to its own mismanagement.      

“Congress must allow the USPS to make changes that any private-sector firm with even a hint of a self-preservation instinct would have made years ago.  As Postmaster General Donahoe explained in his testimony, ‘Every option has to be put on the table … piecemeal efforts simply will not work.’ 

“While it may be politically convenient for certain members of Congress to hold the line and block Postal Service reform in the present, it is becoming increasingly clear that, barring significant reform, there may not be a Postal Service to defend in the future.  If taxpayers bear that burden, CCAGW will be there to hold lawmakers accountable.  The Postal Service is sinking, and Congress must get out of the way in order for the agency to stay afloat,” Schatz concluded.

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.