Senate bill serves as flimsy lifesaver for Postal Service

On the surface, the U.S. Senate’s bipartisan approval last week of legislation that would halt the immediate closing of up to 252 mail-processing centers — including one in downtown Youngstown — looks like a lifesaver to preserve hundreds of thousands of jobs and an American institution.

On closer inspection, however, that lifesaver lacks enough air to keep the postal service responsibly afloat. It fails to guarantee American taxpayers’ efficient use of their hard-earned dollars, and it falls flat in ensuring maximum efficiency in postal-service operations.

The bill ought to be stamped “Return to Sender.” Fortunately for Americans who rely on daily mail service, there is still time — albeit precious little time — to pump up the legislation to protect the operation of many of the distribution centers, possibly including those in Youngstown and New Castle.

The Postal Service is still on track to begin mothballing 252 centers less than two weeks from now on May 15. That means it is crucial for senators to re-evaluate their legislation with U.S. representatives in a joint conference committee on the bill this week.

Some in Congress argue that maintenance of the current system demands protection — at least for a few more years.

As U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., argues, “The Postal Service is an iconic American institution that still delivers 500 million pieces of mail a day and sustains 8 million jobs.”

To some extent, his plea has fallen on deaf ears.

In February, USPS management outlined a five-year plan to cut $20 billion in costs and restore long-term viability. The plan mandated an immediate end to Saturday delivery, a sharp reduction of mail-processing facilities and a restructuring of the employee health-insurance program.

None of those goals is sufficiently addressed in the Senate version of the postal- rescue bill.

The Senate plan requires Saturday delivery for at least two more years and puts a one-year moratorium on the closure of rural post offices. It also shifts $11 billion in Postal Service “overpayments” from the federal civil-service pension fund, collectively adding about $6 billion to the national debt over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The conferees’ meeting could start by facing reality: Saturday delivery must end immediately, thereby saving the postal service about $3 billion a year or one-half of the estimated deficit addition.

Less harsh plan

From there, they could move on to addressing a less harsh plan to close facilities and maintain current standards of service. They could examine, for example, just how efficient it really is to transport a letter mailed in Youngstown to Cleveland for processing, only to truck it back to Youngstown a day later, thereby delaying delivery and adding to the service’s skyrocketing transportation costs.

Because mail service is so critical to so many, even in this age of electronic communications and online bill paying, we strongly urge House and Senate conferees to waste no more time to meeting, talking and crafting a consensus compromise to the Senate legislation that preserves the best of the postal service without socking it to the American taxpayer.