As hundreds of cyclists poured through the Summit City, there was hope that the event would not only bring some exercise and entertainment to the participants but hopefully a changed view of the community in general.The U.S. Postal Service is asking three Hoosier congressmen to help it shore up its finances.
The Postal Service also made a public pitch Tuesday for Congress to pass legislation it says will “return the organization to financial stability.”
The self-funded agency has called on select legislators across the country, including Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., and Reps. Dan Burton, R-5th, and Peter Visclosky, D-1st, to support two bills that, among other things, would let the Postal Service suspend Saturday mail delivery.
Coats and Visclosky are members of appropriations committees, and Burton is a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Bills filed this year would eliminate mandates that require the Postal Service to make $5.5 billion in annual prepayments for retiree health benefits and allow the agency to tap $6.9 billion in reserves in the civil service and federal employee retirement systems.
The Postal Service forecasts that monthly cash flow will be less than $1 billion for all but three months in fiscal 2012, while the biweekly payroll will be $1.8 billion. If the legislation isn’t enacted, the Postal Service “is facing the real prospect that it will not be able to meet payroll next year, thus disrupting mail delivery,” agency leaders said in a news release and in letters to congressmen.
The officials said the Postal Service would have recorded a cumulative profit of $1 billion over the past four fiscal years had it not been required to prepay $21 billion into a benefits fund for future retirees.
Postmaster Patrick Donahoe and Board of Governors Chairman Louis Giuliano said the Postal Service has cut $12 billion in costs and eliminated 110,000 jobs in the past four fiscal years.
But the agency’s inspector general identified more than $400,000 in unauthorized or undocumented expenses for business meals and employee gifts in fiscal 2010, the Washington Post reported online Tuesday. The Postal Service also spent $14,778 on sporting event tickets given as employee recognition awards, the Post reported.
Meanwhile, the Postal Service has yet to complete a study, announced April 29, on whether to combine Fort Wayne and South Bend mail-processing operations at the South Bend facility. The Fort Wayne center employs more than 200 people.
“The study is still under way,” said Mary Dando, a Postal Service spokeswoman in Indianapolis. “When the study is complete, there will be a public meeting to get input from customers.”
