We appreciate the fact that is there and it is going to continue. We need that.

The ideal outcome, in my view, would be more not less access to postal retail outlets.

The real challenge is to grow revenues, especially in a down economy, which I think is actually starting to get better.

We urge you to reject this proposal as well.

The bill that I have introduced and described earlier removes the legislative restrictions that prevent the Postal Service from exercising its authority to reduce delivery frequency.

Excuse me. You said by the end of the year.

One of the things we are trying to endeavor to do in the Federal Government is to collect several hundreds of billions of dollars of taxes that are owed but are not being collected.

We want to particularly thank this Subcommittee for all it has done on behalf of the Postal Service.

We approve of your legislation and that of Senator Collins to use the customer overpayment for postal pensions to fund retiree health benefits.

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.

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

The POST Act would ensure that, on this issue, the Postal Service, working with its regulator and its customers, will make the critical decisions on Saturday delivery without political interference.

as we say in Delaware, carpe diem. Seize the day.

Good. Again, thanks for working with us and for all the good that you do.

I am pleased to call our hearing to order and to be here with Senator Collins and, I suspect, a couple of our other colleagues as the morning goes on.

the theme that pervades, permeates their proposal is actually a sharing of sacrifice that is being asked.

Doing away with Saturday delivery would save little money while risking the loss of much more revenue over time.

to the extent that we can better identify services that logically could be provided at post offices in order to add to the bottom line at the Postal Service, that would be our preference.

the bill that I have introduced would give the Postal Service more freedom to close post offices, including post offices that are operating at a deficit.

In adversity lies opportunity.

I would like to thank Senator Carper and Senator Collins for your years of diligent work on postal issues.

It is my hope that with this hearing we will soon get down to the hard work of actually addressing those challenges and clearing the way to enable the Postal Service to emerge from the toughest time that it has faced since it was created…

Both the Obama administration and a bipartisan majority of the House of Representatives that has cosponsored House Resolution 173 oppose eliminating Saturday delivery.

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.

Let us not fix what is not broken.