Chris Murphy: “although we may be living in the age of technology and more than a few of us cannot live without our e-mail, the United…”

“although we may be living in the age of technology and more than a few of us cannot live without our e-mail, the United States Postal Service continues to serve a key role for both personal and business communications. With 9 million jobs and $900 billion in annual commerce dependent on services provided by USPS, consideration of this reform package could not come soon enough. In recent years, the U.S. Postal Service has struggled to perform its core mission of providing affordable mail service 6 days a week to every American. Today, the Postal Service operates under the same set of rules established in 1970; yet the service now delivers nearly 2\1/ 2\ times more mail to almost twice as many homes. Rising costs and financial losses, coupled with rate increases meant to remedy a declining fiscal situation, have left the Postal Service in a position that threatens the long-term viability of mail as an affordable, effective business communications channel. I am pleased H.R. 22 protects universal service while taking steps to alleviate the seemingly constant threat of rate increases by modernizing rate regulation and by freeing up $73 billion in civil service retirement savings that have been held in escrow. Accountability and transparency are of particular interest to me as there continues to be unresolved questions surrounding the unfair and inconsistent application of a postal regulation more than 5 years ago.…”