Supporters of the United States Postal Service protested around the nation yesterday. They hope to rally support for a federal law that would free up pension money to put back into post office coffers.
Yesterday in Scottsbluff, supporters of House Resolution 1351 rallied in front of Representative Adrian Smith's office.
Post office employees say recent reports of the postal service's failing business model are false. They place blame on a 2006 congressional mandate, forcing the USPS to pre-fund 75 years of future retiree health benefits. But pre-funding retiree benefits for future employees has cost them $21 billion during the past four years. That accounted for 100 percent of the agency's red ink.
In response to yesterday's protests, today Representative Smith argues that only long term structural reforms can put the postal service on the right path.
Local letter carriers hope they can convince Smith that the problem is politics, not the budget.
"He's usually a pretty good guy for this part of the country and we would like to see him buy into the bill. It won't cost the government one penny. It's revenue neutral. We would just pay year by year for the retirees instead of 75 years in advance. The people of the United States will not have to pay taxes to support this thing what-so-ever," clarifies Jim Reisig, local letter carrier.
The bi-partisan bill has 211 co-sponsors, seven away from getting a majority vote in the House.
So far, no Nebraskan representatives have signed on in support of the bill.
