Obama budget outlines Postal Service reform

President Obama’s new budget proposal includes an outline for postal service reform that could cost $5 billion while allowing the end of Saturday mail.

“The Administration recognizes the enormous value of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to the Nation’s commerce and communications, as well as the urgent need for reform to ensure its future viability,” the budget states.

The administration is proposing changing the way the Postal Service pays its health benefits and refunding some previous payments.

It would also give USPS authority to end Saturday delivery and to allow it a one-time postal rate increase.

When scored over 10 years under the statutory pay-go law, the reforms save the government $32 billion, but the “non-scorable impact” is a $37 billion cost. The adminstration said that to get the effect on the baseline deficit the first number must be subtracted from the second.

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), a lead sponsor of a Senate postal reform effort, praised the Obama budget.

"The Administration has put forward a plan that appears to include some of the recommendations that I suggested to President Obama last year and that were included in comprehensive reform legislation Sens. [Joe] Lieberman [(I-Conn.)], [Susan] Collins [(R-Mass.)], Scott Brown [(R-Mass.)] and I introduced this fall," he said in a statement.

---