Releases

For Immediate Release Contact: Jim Morrell
August 5, 2011 (202) 789-4365

Postal Service’s Third Quarter Numbers Show Need for Immediate, Bold Reforms from Congress

Washington, DC – The U.S. mailing industry expressed great concern today with the news that the U.S. Postal Service lost $3.1 billion in the 3nd quarter of Fiscal Year 2011. The Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, a coalition of businesses and industries tied to the mailing industry, urged Congress to take swift action and enact bold reforms of the Postal Service.

“Within the past year, the Postal Service’s financial situation has gone from bad to worse to worst,” said Art Sackler, Coordinator of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service. “If Congress does not enact bold reforms soon, the tailspin the Postal Service is in will pass the point of recovery, and many of the 8 million private sector workers who depend on it will lose their jobs. This would be terrible not only for them and their families, but for our economy.”

In 2009, the mailing industry generated $1.1 trillion in economic activity, representing over 7 percent of our national GDP.

The Postal Service is self-sustaining, relying on user fees, i.e., postage, to support itself; but it is encumbered with an outdated operating structure and debilitating labor contracts, while being saddled with expensive, mandated over-payments into government retiree funds. The Coalition is calling for Congress to enact reforms that include short-term steps to maintain the Postal Service’s solvency, and longer term steps to ensure it can be an effective medium of commerce and communications for the 21st Century.

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