NARFE Expresses Views on Postal Service Reforms in Advance of Hearing

Alexandria, VA – The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE) yesterday sent a letter to the members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in advance of its hearing, “Laying out the Reality of the United States Postal Service,” on January 21st at 9:30am. Approximately 25 percent of NARFE’s membership is made up of retired Postal Service employees, and congressional efforts to reform the Postal Service have been on NARFE’s legislative agenda for several years. 

“The reality of the United States Postal Service is that it has been operating under the extraordinary, unnecessary and burdensome congressional mandate to fully prefund all of its future retirees’ health care obligations within the unreasonably short time frame of 10 years (fiscal years 2007-2016),” Thissen said in the letter.

“Congress has an easy fix for the USPS’ perceived financial crisis: Eliminate the prefunding requirement,” Thissen continued.

NARFE opposes postal reform legislation, the Improving Postal Operations, Services and Transparency (iPost) Act, S. 2051, introduced by Sen. Tom Carper, D-DE, ranking member of the committee. Specifically, NARFE objects to provisions in S. 2051 that arbitrarily decrease compensation for injured federal and postal workers, and force postal retirees to enroll in Medicare as a condition of continuing their federal health insurance coverage.

“Postal retirees earned their health benefits throughout long careers of service. They should not be required to pay for additional health insurance coverage as a condition of continuing to receive those benefits,” Thissen stated.

“The management and employees of the United States Postal Service are doing a remarkable job providing a vital service to the American public, and they are doing it without taxpayer funds, and operating at a profit. Yet their efforts are hindered by the unreasonable congressional mandate to prefund future retiree health benefits obligations decades into the future,” Thissen concluded.

The full letter from NARFE President Thissen can be read here.

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The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE), one of America’s oldest and largest associations, was founded in 1921 with the mission of protecting the earned rights and benefits of America’s active and retired federal workers. The largest federal employee/retiree organization, NARFE represents the interests of nearly five million current and future federal annuitants, spouses and survivors.