Contact: Jeannine Guttman
(202) 224-4751
Washington, DC
July 28, 2009

SENATOR COLLINS ISSUES STATEMENT ON NEED FOR POSTAL SERVICE REFORMS

WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Senator Susan Collins, Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, today released a statement following the announcement that the U.S. Postal Service was placed on a “high risk” list because of its poor fiscal health. 

 The decision to put the Postal Service on that listing came from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

“The GAO’s decision to put the Postal Service on its ‘high risk’ list because of its dismal financial performance is sadly not a surprise. It is the unfortunate, yet predictable, outcome of the Postal Service’s failure to make bold reforms to correct serious structural problems and the impact of the worst recession since the Great Depression,” Sen. Collins said.

In 2006, Sen. Collins and Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., authored bipartisan legislation, which became law, to give the Postal Service the tools it needed to make necessary changes.   

“Two-and-a-half years after Congress passed crucial reforms that removed the Postal Service from GAO’s ‘high risk’ list, the Postal Service finds itself again in a financial crisis,” Collins said. “The Service lost $2.8 billion in 2008 and is projected to lose between $6 billion and $8 billion in 2009.

“A financially hobbled Postal Service threatens to undermine our universal mail delivery system, cost our country many jobs, and disrupt the smooth operations of millions of American businesses. The current state of affairs is unacceptable, and the Postal Service needs to work with Congress to undertake meaningful, fiscally responsible reforms to survive this economic storm.”