21st Century Postal Service Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I hope my colleagues listened to what Senator Collins said with respect to the way this has been scored. It is a very important point. As much as anybody in this Chamber, I am interested in reducing the budget deficit. I want Senators to keep in mind these three points: One, for a number of years, the Postal Service has overpaid its obligation into the Federal Employees Retirement System--$12 billion to $13 billion in overpayment. They are owed that money. They should be given that money. They are going to use it to help 100,000 postal employees who are eligible to retire to retire. They will use that money to pay down their debt--$13 billion--and almost wipe it out. They will use it for that purpose. CBO scores that as something that makes the budget deficit bigger. If they overpaid the money into the Federal Employees Retirement System, they ought to get it back. They should get people who are eligible to retire and want to retire to retire. They should use it to pay down a $12 billion line of credit to the Federal Government.

The second point I wish to make is the one offered by Senator Lieberman. If we do nothing and we get to May 15, the Postal Service is free to close post offices across the country--3,700 of them. They are free to close as many as 200 to 300 mail processing centers. There is a smarter way to do this, which is in this legislation.

Lastly, we are going to have the opportunity today and tomorrow for all of us to better understand the amendments that have been agreed to and offered by both sides, what has been agreed to and put into the managers' amendment, which we will, frankly, have a lot more confidence in.

The Postal Service tells us today they are going to lose $23 million. They lost that much yesterday. They are going to lose that much again tomorrow, the next day, and the next day. They owe $13 billion to the Treasury. What I think is more important to keep in mind is when we finish our work today and tomorrow, and we look to see what that means for the Postal Service, in terms of their operation on a daily basis and where will they be in terms of paying their obligation by 2016, we need to keep our eye on the ball. I urge Senators not to vote for this. Give us a day for the body to work its will and then make your decision. If we have not made any more progress, vote against it.

Lastly, several of our colleagues have well-intentioned amendments that will literally drive up the cost and make it harder for the Postal Service to move toward a balanced situation, to a sovereign situation. I urge Senators--and some of these amendments are offered by people we love and it is hard to say no to them. But in this case, maybe the greater devotion should be to the taxpayers of our country, to the people who work for the Postal Service, and to their customers.

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Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, just briefly, I support this amendment. I am happy Senator Coburn has offered this amendment and it was debated. I hope it is accepted on a voice vote.

Let me say, we brought a bill to the floor that has been brought together by two Republicans and two Democrats. We just had a vote on whether to waive a budget point of order. Give us a chance to air the bill, offer amendments, and look to see what we can agree on in a bipartisan vote. We have an early opportunity to go back and forth on amendments not just for the Democratic amendments but Republican amendments as well.

My hope is at the end of the day we will approve both. Hopefully, we will be able to say we passed a bill with bipartisan support.

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Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I say to my colleagues that this is another good amendment offered by the Senator from Oklahoma. What the Postmaster General has in mind for our communities across America, where there are 33,000 post offices, is to give a number of them an option--a menu, if you will--to see whether it makes sense in those communities to shorten somewhat the length of time the post office is open in a day--maybe to 6 or 4 hours a day--whether to use a colocator in a supermarket maybe or in a convenience store or to in some cases, say, to State and local government operations in those communities: Why don't we put them under the same roof? Why doesn't that make sense?

Frankly, all those ideas may make sense. The idea is not to tell a community which of those options they have to choose but to say: This is the menu. And this is one of the great options that should be on the menu.

I commend the Senator for offering the amendment. I urge a ``yes'' vote on the amendment.

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