U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio says Tuesday’s announcement of a 5-month moratorium on closing postal facilities gives Congress more time to enact reform legislation. Brown told reporters during a conference call, he’s supporting the Postal Service Protection Act to help the USPS return to fiscal solvency. He says it would fix a pension system that currently costs the Postal Service $5 billion a year:
“This bill would fix immediate fiscal problems in the Postal Service by recalculating and restoring retirement annuity obligations and by eliminating the requirement that the Postal Service pre-fund 75 years--what it does now--in retiree benefits.”
Brown says the bill would place restrictions on closing rural and urban facilities. It would allow the USPS to generate revenue by offering non-postal services, for example the purchase of hunting and fishing licenses and notary services. It also preserves Saturday delivery.
In Ohio, 120 post offices and ten mail processing facilities have been slated for closure.