{
  "id": "R43349",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "R43349",
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  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department",
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      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 450973,
      "date": "2015-01-07",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-06T19:43:14.990262",
      "title": "U.S. Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits and Pension Funding Issues",
      "summary": "Congress designed the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to be a self-supporting government agency. Since 1971, the agency has not relied upon annual appropriations to cover its operating costs. Rather, USPS has funded its operations mostly through the sales of postage and postal products and services.\nSince FY2007, however, the agency has run more than $40 billion in deficits and has reached its statutory borrowing limit ($15 billion). The agency does receive an annual appropriation of approximately $90 million per year, which amounts to about 0.1% of USPS\u2019s $65 billion operating budget.\nUSPS\u2019s troubled financial condition has raised concerns about the viability of the agency. Many postal reform bills were introduced in the 113th and 112th Congresses. These bills proposed altering many aspects of postal operations, from raising mailing rates to reducing delivery days and closing USPS post offices and mail sorting facilities.\nPostal reform bills also have proposed altering funding policies for USPS\u2019s retiree healthcare and pensions. Alterations to these policies could significantly affect USPS\u2019s financial condition. In FY2013, prefunding USPS\u2019s retiree health benefits cost the agency $5.6 billion and funding its pensions cost $5.7 billion. These costs constituted 15.7% of the agency\u2019s operating expenses.\nUSPS employees are covered by the same retirement plans as most other civilian federal employees: the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Federal Employees\u2019 Retirement System (FERS). In addition, USPS retirees (and employees) participate in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). Since FY2007, USPS has been required by law to prefund its current employees\u2019 future retirement health benefits at a cost of more than $5 billion per year. USPS has lacked sufficient cash to make all of these payments.\nA number of bills were introduced in the 113th Congress to improve USPS\u2019s financial condition by altering current pension and retiree health benefits funding policies. Bills carrying provisions to alter the funding of USPS retiree health benefits included H.R. 630, H.R. 2690, H.R. 2748, and S. 1486. USPS pension funding legislation included H.R. 630, H.R. 961, H.R. 2690, H.R. 2748, S. 316, and S. 1486.\nThe aforementioned USPS retiree health benefits bills would have reduced the Postal Service\u2019s annual operating expenses by abolishing or reworking the current statutory prefunding schedule; moving some USPS retirees on to Medicare; or lowering the target for prefunding from the current 100% funding requirement to 80% of the estimated total liability.\nUSPS pension-related bills aimed to aid the Postal Service\u2019s financial condition by either changing the costs allocation between the Postal Service and the federal government in the funding of USPS\u2019s CSRS benefits or recalculating USPS\u2019s FERS costs. In both instances, the legislation would have refunded sums from the federal government to USPS.",
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      "topics": [
        {
          "source": "IBCList",
          "id": 554,
          "name": "Federal Workforce: Human Resource Management"
        }
      ]
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    {
      "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department",
      "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc818089/",
      "id": "R43349_2014Jan02",
      "date": "2014-01-02",
      "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26",
      "title": "U.S. Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits and Pension Funding Issues",
      "summary": null,
      "type": "CRS Report",
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  "topics": [
    "American Law",
    "Appropriations",
    "Domestic Social Policy",
    "Economic Policy",
    "Health Policy",
    "Intelligence and National Security"
  ]
}