The House of Representatives late last week voted to increase the government’s contribution to the U.S. Postal Service for Fiscal 2002 by $47.8 million after its Appropriations Committee expressed deep concern over its financial condition.
Next year, the USPS will receive $143.7 million to cover its costs of processing free and reduced rate mail for fiscal 2002. The money is also earmarked to make up for reductions ordered by Congress in previous years.
Before the House voted 334-90 to approve the bill (H.R. 2590) and send it to the Senate for action its Appropriations Committee said it was “extremely concerned over the current financial status of the USPS. Current estimates predict a deficit of between $2 billion and $3 billion during fiscal year 2001 and $3.5 billion in fiscal year 2002.”
The Committee also blasted the Bush administration for not taking a more active interest in the USPS’s financial condition.
It said that while it understands the projected deficits reflect “a number of unanticipated factors such as rising energy costs, labor costs and reduced mail volume,” the panel said, “deficits of this magnitude are unacceptable.”
While the panel said it understood that the USPS is considering a number of options to cut those projected deficits, it also questioned its plans later this year to seek another rate hike atop the two that went into effect earlier in the year.
While ordering the USPS to provide it with copies of all reviews of its cost-cutting and revenue raising plans, the committee said that it believed that “maintaining universal [mail] service at is in jeopardy within the current financial and operational structure of the USPS.”
The panel also said it strongly supports the ongoing efforts by the House Committee on Government Reform to achieve comprehensive postal service reforms.
There was no immediate comment on the committee’s report from either postal officials or the White House.
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