U.S. Postal Service losses are much higher than generally acknowledged and that underlies the need for reforming postal operations, said Treasury Secretary John Snow, according to Reuters.
Testifying before a joint House-Senate hearing on postal reform, Snow dismissed statements the Postal Service was nearly breaking even as “somewhat misleading” since it ignores liabilities the service has that must still be funded.
“While the Postal Service’s audited financial statements show that it has lost $2.2 billion in the 1972-2003 period, when overlaid with the unfunded liabilities and taxpayer-funded appropriations, the Post Service has suffered real economic losses in excess of $101 billion,” Snow said in prepared remarks.
Because the diversion of mail use by e-mail “has caused a substantial and likely irreplaceable decline in first class mail,” the Postal Service is on an untenable future path, he said before the Senate Governmental Affairs and House Government Reform Committees’ joint public postal reform hearing.
“For a business that has a statutory mandate to be self-financing and to break-even, the Postal Service has accomplished neither,” Snow said, adding it needs to be reformed so its operations are more transparent and it becomes truly self-financing.
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