Just how long the U.S. Postal Service can survive without Congress
passing a bill to let it make fundamental changes may become more clear
today when the agency reports its 11th consecutive quarterly loss.
Management will update the board on when the service may temporarily run out of cash before rebounding during the Christmas holiday season. The service has said its cash would touch zero in October, a forecast that assumed it wouldn’t make $11.6 billion in required payments to the U.S. Treasury for future retirees’ health-care costs.
Senator Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat who is a sponsor of the postal overhaul legislation the Senate passed in April, said he expects today’s results to show the service’s condition is worsening.
“It’s going to be kind of hand to mouth,” said Art Sackler, coordinator of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, whose members include heavy mailers such as Bank of America Corp. and EBay Inc. “Their cash is so low, their liquidity overall is so low, that they’re going to be depending on the cash flow coming in the door.”
Congress went on recess Aug. 3, two days after the Postal Service defaulted on a $5.5 billion health-care payment, without passing a bill to allow changes the service says it needs to survive.
The service, which gets no direct taxpayer funding, is trying to close thousands of post offices and mail processing plants and cut about 220,000 jobs, more than a third of its workforce. Many of those changes require Congress’s approval.
$9.1 Billion
Management will update the board on when the service may temporarily run out of cash before rebounding during the Christmas holiday season. The service has said its cash would touch zero in October, a forecast that assumed it wouldn’t make $11.6 billion in required payments to the U.S. Treasury for future retirees’ health-care costs.
Senator Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat who is a sponsor of the postal overhaul legislation the Senate passed in April, said he expects today’s results to show the service’s condition is worsening.
“It’s going to be kind of hand to mouth,” said Art Sackler, coordinator of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, whose members include heavy mailers such as Bank of America Corp. and EBay Inc. “Their cash is so low, their liquidity overall is so low, that they’re going to be depending on the cash flow coming in the door.”
Congress went on recess Aug. 3, two days after the Postal Service defaulted on a $5.5 billion health-care payment, without passing a bill to allow changes the service says it needs to survive.
The service, which gets no direct taxpayer funding, is trying to close thousands of post offices and mail processing plants and cut about 220,000 jobs, more than a third of its workforce. Many of those changes require Congress’s approval.
$9.1 Billion
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