National Association of Postal Supervisors
Legislative and Regulatory Update - November 12, 2008

Election Results Could Mean Change for the Postal Service

We have witnessed history.  A Democratic electoral headwind swept Sen. Barack Obama into the White House and significantly widened that party's majorities in both chambers of Congress.  As we look toward Inauguration Day and the start-up of the 111th Congress, here’s what an Obama White House and a larger Democratic majority in Congress could mean for the Postal Service, its workforce and retirees.

The Economy and Postal Service Finances. Congress and the White House will devote their foremost attention over the coming months to curing a sick economy and restoring jobs. For the Postal Service, the sooner the economy returns to normal, the sooner the Postal Service’s finances will become more stable.  Postal volume has been in near freefall over the past year as the recession has worsened, falling by 9 billion pieces to 1977 levels.  It is likely to decline even more in coming months.  Credit card companies are expected to send a billion fewer unsolicited offers to consumers by the end of the year, dropping from 5.2 billion offers last year, according to the Washington Post.  The Postal Service will continue to spill red ink in 2009, on top of the $3 billion loss in 2008.  These financial pressures, until the economy returns to health, will continue to prompt greater USPS cost-cutting and job-shedding.  The return of the financial health of the Postal Service indeed depends in large part upon the success of the nation’s economic recovery.

Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund Payments.  As a result of financial pressures, the Postal Service is expected to seek early next year to gain Congressional approval of a change in the payment schedule, imposed by the 2006 Postal Act, that requires the Postal Service to pay $5.4 billion annually into a fund for the future retiree health benefits of today’s workers. These payments are in addition to the $2.3 billion that the Postal Service annually pays as its employer share for current retiree health benefits.  The thinking is that if the Postal Service’s payment schedule for future retiree health benefits were revisited and spread out over a longer term, lowering annual USPS costs, that its financial health would be strengthened, without harming retiree health benefits.

FEHBP.  Although the timeline may be pushed back, the Obama White House is still expected to try to make good on its promise to install a national health care plan, one that, in Obama’s words, is “based on benefits available to members of Congress.”  That plan to which Obama referred, of course, is the FEHBP, which covers nine million federal and postal employees, retirees and family members, not merely 535 members of Congress. As the Obama Administration and the Congress craft a health care reform plan, the primary challenge for NAPS and the federal and postal employee and retiree community will be to assure that any national health care plan that comes about is one that runs parallel to FEHBP, and does not absorb FEHBP into a national plan, consolidating its participants and risk pool.  Otherwise, health care costs for federal and postal employees and retirees would sykyrocket upward. 

Medicare Part D.  An Obama White House may be more receptive to assuring that the Postal Service receives the rebate for the Medicare Part D prescription coverage that USPS makes available to postal retirees, a reimbursement that could provide several hundred million dollars annually to the Postal Service.  The Bush Administration had opposed USPS efforts to permit the Postal Service to receive the rebate, which is made available to all employers who provide prescription coverage directly to their retirees.

Voting by Mail.  The expansion of voting by mail – which could provide additional volume and income to the Postal Service – is likely to pick up steam in 2009.  During the past election, more than 25 million voters cast ballots in states where early voting was allowed, including no-excuse absentee balloting, providing convenience for voters and averting overwhelming turnout at some poll locations. The tidal wave of early voters in the recent election may prompt Congress to mandate voting by mail in future elections, at least in federal races.

Twenty-eight states now allow voters to cast absentee, mail-in ballots without providing an excuse.  Oregon administers its elections entirely by mail.  Some states, like California, permit voters to have their absentee ballots sent to their homes for every election.

During the last Congress, legislation (H.R. 281 ) that would have forced all states to offer no-excuse mail-in balloting stalled. Although the legislation is likely to be reintroduced in the 111th Congress, its major obstacles are Republican fear that absentee voting will provide a partisan advantage to Democrats (a misguided fear) and the control that states have over deciding voting procedures.

That’s why NAPS will continue its efforts in the 111th Congress , but in addition also pursue voting by mail legislation in a dozen or so states (New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Florida, Montana, Minnesota, Michigan, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Idaho, and Utah) in league with other postal employee organizations and the Voting by Mail Project.

Bruce Moyer
NAPS Legislative Counsel