Joe Lieberman

By next summer, if nothing else is done to help the Postal Service, you effectively have to stop delivering the mail.

There is a clock ticking. You are going to default on $5.5 billion the Postal Service owes to the retiree health benefit fund.

I agree with you. This fall we should get together on legislation, pass it, and give you the tools in plenty of time.

We should be writing more passionate letters to those we love.

The business model which worked for a long, long time for the Postal Service is now broken, and we have to help the Postal Service fix it.

But stopping with these reforms and avoiding further, potentially more difficult changes will simply not be enough.

My bill aims to address these problems and to take Congress out of the day-to-day management of the Postal Service.

Like it or not--and in a number of ways I do not like it very much myself--the Postal Service needs to re-size to reflect the decreasing demand for the products and services it offers.

It is our job to do what needs to be done to save this industry, even if doing so involves making decisions that might be difficult politically.

Given the challenging economy facing our country, we cannot afford to put those jobs and that kind of productivity in jeopardy.

The most recent contract agreement with the Postal Service's largest union, by and large, represents a missed opportunity to negotiate a contract that reflects the financial realities facing the Postal Service.

More than 80 percent of the Postal Service's expenses are workforce-related.

The major solution to the financial crisis should be found in tackling more significant expenses that do not drive customers away.

The fact is that maintaining all of our Nation's rural post offices costs the Postal Service less than 1 percent of its total budget.

The Commission considered testimony provided by Senator Joseph Lieberman, sponsor of S.

I urge the committee to support this bill.

I was honored to introduce this legislation, along with Senator Grassley, to authorize the National Mall Liberty Fund.

I will tell Senator Roberts your answer. I find it thoughtful and sensible.

I hope this is not the end of the dialogue but a continuation of it.

I certainly do not--but in figuring out how we can make the regulatory process work better, work more efficiently.

This will be on final passage. I ask for the yeas and nays. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there a sufficient second? There appears to be a sufficient second. The bill having been read the third time, the question is, shall it pass…

I believe there is agreement on this amendment on both sides. The amendment makes sense, and, therefore, I yield back all time on both sides. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The question is on agreeing to the amendment. The amendment…

I move for reconsideration and to lay that matter on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 514 The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. There is 2 minutes, equally divided, on debate for the Toomey amendment. The…

I support this amendment. I am prepared to yield back any additional time. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there further debate? If not, the question is on agreeing to the amendment. The amendment (No. 509), as modified, was agreed to.

The question before us, as I see it, is not whether to regulate but how to regulate because a Nation without regulation would be a Nation at risk.