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December 2011

pushpin[December 14th]

House Republicans Attack Postal and Federal Retirement Benefits
excerpted from APWU Web News Article 131-2011

U.S. Senator Susan Collins, Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and one of the authors of bipartisan postal reform legislation, today issued the following statement regarding the Postal Regulatory Commission's advisory opinion on the U.S. Postal Service's plan to close as almost 3700 post offices and other retail facilities. The Postal Service is required to ask the PRC for a non binding opinion on nationwide service changes.

The PRC said "the Commission's primary finding is that the (closure plan) was not designed to optimize the network. The Commission recommends the use of modern optimization tools and techniques to better maximize net retail revenues while fulfilling statutory service obligations."

"The Commission's unanimous findings support my and many of my colleagues' skepticism about the wisdom of mass postal closures without a more thoughtful, transparent, and data-driven process," said Senator Collins. "Fortunately, such a process is included in the 21st Century Postal Reform Act, which I authored along with Senators Lieberman, Carper and Brown. Our bill would require the Postal Service to find savings and internal efficiencies first —before raising prices and cutting service that could drive away the very customers keeping the mail in business. Today's PRC opinion only highlights the increasing urgency for Congress to pass comprehensive postal reform if we are to preserve the Postal Service for the next generation of Americans."

pushpin[December 14th]

House Republicans Attack Postal and Federal Retirement Benefits
excerpted from APWU Web News Article 131-2011

The House of Representatives voted 243-193 on Dec. 13 to pass the so-called "Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011," which would cut take-home pay for postal and federal workers by increasing their contributions to the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). The bill also would slash unemployment benefits, place unreasonable burdens on unemployed workers, and cut vital healthcare programs.

Voting in favor of H.R. 3630 were 224 Republicans and 10 Democrats. Fourteen Republicans and 179 Democrats voted no. Action on the bill now moves to the Senate.

The bill was introduced by Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), and co-sponsored by Reps. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Frank Lucas (R-OK), Dan Lungren (R-CA), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), and Fred Upton (R-MI).

The bill also would change the calculation of pensions for new hires with less than five years of creditable service and eliminate the FERS annuity supplement, which is designed to provide a benefit approximating the pension retirees would receive once they become eligible for earned Social Security benefits.

pushpin[December 13th]

USPS agrees to moratorium on post office and plant closings until May 2012
via Postcom.org

An agreement was made earlier today between the US Postal Service and multiple U.S. Senators to delay the closing of post offices and mail processing facilities until May 15, 2012. Please be aware that while facility closings will be delayed, the Postal Service will continue with all of the efforts necessary to fully review facilities previously announced as part of our study.

As part of this review, we intend to continue to conduct both industry outreach meetings and public meetings. In addition, the Postal Service intends to continue with the rulemaking process and to participate in the service change proceedings before the PRC. It is premature to speculate on what we will do or when we will implement any changes to our service standards until these processes have unfolded.



pushpin[December 13th]

Moratorium Agreement Reached Between USPS and Senate Members
via NAPUS

Today, at 3:00 PM Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Jon Tester (D-MT), Mark Begich (D-AK), Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) announced an agreement with the U.S Postal Service to impose a 5-month moratorium on the closing of postal facilities, including post offices. This suspension of closings and consolidations will extend through May 15, 2012.

The announcement comes in the wake of a letter authored by 22 Members of the Senate calling for the closing moratorium, pending the enactment of postal relief legislation. Yesterday, the Postmaster General and the Chairman of the Postal Board of Governors were summoned to Capitol Hill by Senator Durbin to meet with the signers of the letter, in part, regarding the impact of postal closings on service.



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