•VOTE ALERT•

Vote NO on H.R. 2382

The R Street Institute urges all members to vote “no” on HR. 2382, the USPS Fairness Act. If passed, this bill will eliminate the requirement that the Postal Service prefund the USPS retiree health benefits fund (RHBF).

The Postal Service currently owes its workers more than $70 billion in unfunded health benefits. According to the Government Accountability Office, the RHBF is in “poor” health and is poised to run out of money in 10 years. The USPS Fairness Act does nothing to put the Postal Service on a more fiscally sound trajectory. Instead, it waves the problem away and transfers more burden on the taxpayer. H.R. 2382 only makes it more likely that U.S. taxpayers will be forced to bail out the agency down the road.

The House of Representatives would better serve the public if it spent its valuable time on legislation that addressed the causes of the USPS’s troubles: falling revenues due to a 30% drop in mail volume and rising annual operating costs due to high labor costs and all sorts of antiquated mandates.

We hope all members will reject H.R. 2382’s fiscally reckless approach and instead focus on meaningful reforms that address the root cause of the Postal Service’s financial problems.

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Caroline Kitchens
Director of Government Affairs
R Street Institute

 

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