I am reminded--there are no silver bullets when it comes to helping meet the fiscal challenges of the Postal Service.

I come out of this hearing encouraged rather than discouraged.

Let us not fix what is not broken.

Next year? End of the current fiscal year?

All right. Thank you. Talk to us a little bit about productivity gains and some gains that you have realized by virtue of negotiations with the labor unions which represent your employees.

I want to thank Senator Carper for taking the lead by introducing S. 3831.

We must be careful of using Band-aid fixes as we search for lifelong changes that will enhance our postal assets.

my bill addresses a flaw in postal labor law by requiring arbitrators to take the Postal Service's financial condition into account when rendering decisions during labor disputes.

I mentioned earlier the need for us as a country to move away from a culture of spendthrift in the Federal Government to a culture of thrift.

I believe that if these projections do bear out, the Postal Service will be out of cash and out of borrowing authority.

But I would agree that diversification is essential if the Postal Service is going to survive into the future.