Lame Duck Fiscal Cliff & Postal Service hits its borrowing limit
Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C. For now the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is humming along in the 1st Quarter of its fiscal year traditionally its best one thanks to holiday mailing and in the irony of ironies a
huge boost in campaign mailers. But the agency hit its Congressionally determined $15 billion borrowing limit on Sept. 28th can only borrow $15 billion at a time from the Treasury and has
already defaulted on two $5.5 billion retiree benefits payments due in August and September.
Congress went into recess without passing a Postal Service Reform Bill and now the cash situation at the U.S.P.S.
is looking mighty grim.
Service will continue and employees will still get paid USPS spokesman David Partenheimer says. However our liquidity situation remains a serious issue and that is why we need passage of comprehensive legislation as part of our 5-year business
plan to return to long term financial stability Partenheimer said in a recent email.
The Lame Duck Legislative Session scheduled to begin the week after November 6ths election will be chock full of Sequestration and Fiscal Cliff work but the private mailing industry which relies on USPS has been trying to keep a
message of urgency going through the pre-Election Recess with the hope Congress will act soon.
With its borrowing limit reached the Postal Service is now walking a tight rope with no net said
Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service coordinator Art Sackler said in a statement.
There are 8 million private sector jobs that depend on the mail and there would be catastrophic economic consequences if the Postal Service shuts down. The longer Congress waits to enact postal reform the more difficult and more expensive the solutions become Sackler said.
Over the summer that industry coalition which includes the likes of ebay Conde Nast and the Parcel Shippers Association 
called for the House to vote on a postal reform bill (the Senate has already passed its own version).
But the House Bill proposed by Republican Reps.
Darrell Issa and
Dennis Ross would have been a difficult election year vote. It allowed for:
- Cuts in service (tough vote for rural members) and
- Cuts Collective Bargaining Rights (tough for members from union-heavy districts).
So if election year politics has stalled passage of a reform bill its also sending much needed campaign and election-year cash USPS way.
