http://www.usps.com/communications/news/press/2006/pr06_pmg1209.htm
I personally am thinking test..no, more like Oh my God.
How much more money does Timmy really need?
Statement of Postmaster General John E. Potter
Passage of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act
The Congress is to be congratulated on the passage of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006. I would single out for extraordinary effort Senators Susan Collins, Joseph Lieberman and Thomas Carper and Representatives Thomas Davis, Henry Waxman, John McHugh and Danny Davis for making reform a reality.
We are grateful that the funding for USPS retiree military service obligations will be borne by the Treasury.
This, combined with release of the escrow funds, will be used for retiree health benefits. We look forward to working with the mailing community, USPS employees, the Postal Regulatory Commission and the Treasury on implementation of the pending legislation and delivery of affordable universal service to all Americans for many years to come.
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/omb/legislative/sap/109-1/hr22sap-h.pdf
The substantial pension savings from P.L. 108-18 provide an excellent
opportunity to transition to a financially self-sufficient USPS. The President's FY 2006
Budget proposes to use the amounts that would otherwise be held in escrow to enable
USPS to contribute $42.5 billion over the next 10 years toward paying down its
substantial retiree health benefits liability. If these unfunded retiree health benefit
liabilities are not fully addressed now, unnecessarily large spending will be needed in the
future to pay these health benefits costs as they come due.
The President's Budget proposal would allow the elimination of the statutory escrow
requirement to be accomplished in a manner that would have no adverse budget impact.
However, H.R. 22 would allow USPS to use a portion of the escrow as a subsidy for
current operations, and thus would have an adverse budget impact.
Treatment of Military Service Obligations. The Administration believes that USPS must
continue to be responsible for pension costs connected with military service credits for
postal employees under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and opposes
provisions in the current version of H.R 22 that would grant USPS a subsidy with a net
present value of $27 billion by transferring all of these military service pension credit
obligations to the General Fund of the Treasury. USPS's responsibility for paying this
military service pension credit obligation is a cost of doing business, and USPS should
not be absolved of its responsibility to pay for these unfunded liabilities
Consequently, we will simply not have the means to meet all of our required obligations as we close the fiscal year. This will have a direct effect on our ability to meet the scheduled payment of $5.4 billion to the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefit Fund, which is required on September 30, by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006
