this amendment would strip from the postal workers the right to collectively bargain. This is an enormous change in labor law. Postal workers have had the right to engage in collective bargaining for more than 30 years. We did make changes…

I too support the amendment and urge its adoption. The PRESIDING OFFICER. If there is no further debate, the question is on the adoption of the amendment. The amendment (No. 2029), as modified, was agreed to.

It has been almost a century since the 1918 Spanish influenza virus infected one-fifth of the world's population.

this is a commonsense amendment. It would limit the number of post offices in the Capitol Complex to one on each side--one in the House and one in the Senate. It does not affect the processing of mail out of the Capitol, and I believe we…

this is an important victory for the U.S. Postal Service and the American economy. The Postal Service is the linchpin of a $1.1 trillion mailing and mail-related industry that employs nearly 8.7 million Americans in fields as diverse as…

I support this amendment. There is an inexcusable backlog at OPM in processing the application for retirement benefits. It has caused real hardships for some retired Federal employees and postal employees. This bill will obviously increase…

The H1N1 strain, more commonly known as the Swine Flu, claimed more than 18,000 lives during the 2009 outbreak.

I do want to apologize that I will, however, have to leave early due to a markup in the Appropriations Committee that begins at 10:30.

I strongly support this amendment. I wish to commend the Senator from Oklahoma for offering an amendment that would prohibit the kind of lavish spending on Federal conferences we have seen recently at GSA. So this is an excellent…

the score for the substitute is incredibly misleading. As the Postal Service has told us, this bill would save the Postal Service $19 billion, and that would return it to profitability. The problem is the unique status of the Postal…

I am only going to speak very briefly. I wish to shine a spotlight on a provision of Senator McCain's substitute that has not yet been discussed that actually raises constitutional issues. All of us believe the labor force of the Postal…

There is also a Supreme Court case, Lynch v. The United States, which makes clear that the due process clause prohibits the Federal Government from annulling its contracts and the United States is as much bound by its contracts as are…

I too support the amendment offered by Senator Tester and Senator Levin. It simply makes clear that the Postal Regulatory Commission may review an appeal of a post office closure if it violates either the overnight delivery service…

there are at least three problems with the amendment offered by the Senator from Kentucky. The first is a practical problem. How is the Postal Service going to deal with a situation where at one house there is a monopoly on the use of the…

let me just reinforce that this is not giving collective bargaining rights to postmasters or to postal supervisors. I support Senator Akaka's amendment. All it is trying to do is strengthen a provision that is in current law that asks for…

this amendment would strike the Federal workers' compensation title in the bill and replace it with very minor provisions that provide no significant cost savings. The amendment would strike the reforms that bring parity between workers'…

this amendment would also take $8.9 billion that is supposed to go to pay for retiree health benefits of postal workers and instead redirect those funds to maintain 6-days-a- week delivery of the mail. I hope we always have 6-days-a-week…

first, I congratulate my colleague from Maine for an excellent amendment. As she indicated, the Postal Service made a major miscalculation, a mathematical error, in the study it did on the Hampden processing center in our State. So that…

while I think the changes the Senator has made in his amendment do improve it considerably, I am still very concerned about the idea of imposing a mandatory retirement system, and let me tell you why. First, to me, it smacks of age…

this amendment by the Senator from Oklahoma is right in line with the bill. We do encourage the Postal Service to look at colocations--for example, in a local pharmacy or a grocery store. In many small communities, that may well be a…

let me repeat for my colleagues one more time: There are no taxpayer dollars authorized by this bill or appropriated by this bill. The score is caused by the unique status the postal service accounts have within the unified budget. The…

I thank the chairman. Mr. President, we are going to resume debate today on the postal reform legislation our committee, on which the Presiding Officer serves, has worked very hard to produce and to do so in a bipartisan way. As Chairman…

I have the greatest respect for the Senator from Hawaii. I know he cares deeply about this issue. But it is simply time for us to reform the Federal workers' compensation program for postal workers and for other Federal workers. For this…

it pains me greatly to disagree with my friend and colleague from Tennessee, with whom I have a great friendship and great respect, but what he is essentially offering comes pretty close to a complete substitute for the provisions in our…

I rise today to speak in favor of Senate Joint Resolution 36, which would reject the National Labor Relations Board's, NLRB, rule on representation procedures, the so-called ``ambush election'' rule. I am pleased to be an original…