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.

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.

There is a way to do this that makes sense, and we can learn lessons from that industry.

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

I hope we go well before that.

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

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.

I think maybe the same thing could happen here if we would give it a shot.

The Postal Service is a great national asset. It has an irreplaceable national network.

I support that and I will support legislation to do that.

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

I think the Postal Regulatory Commission said, no, it is more like $2 billion a year.

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

I share your view that though the situation is dire, it is not hopeless. It is actually full of hope, and it is full of necessity.

I am not sure if there is a way to structure through negotiations, not mandated by the Congress but through negotiations between the Postal Service and organized labor to find a way to continue 6-day-a-week delivery and at the same time…

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

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

I have spoken to Senator Collins today in a sidebar conversation just before she left.

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 can see opposition, some in the Senate and certainly a significant amount in the House, on the theory that somehow that is a bailout.

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.

We have a lot of hard work to do together because the status quo is not going to work.

I thank the Chair. Mr. President, I come to the floor to express my support for the measure before us, as my colleague from Missouri who has just spoken, and as everyone else I have heard express their support for this proposal. No one…

I rise to speak on the proposed debt crisis agreement. The first thing I would like to do is express my appreciation--I think I would actually say empathy to the President, the Vice President, and the bipartisan leadership of both Houses…

I urge the committee to support this bill.