When the U.S. Senate approved a bipartisan postal reform bill late in April, there was talk that the U.S. House would move quickly to forge its own plan, mindful of the river of red ink at the Postal Service and the need for change to save money.
But almost six weeks later, postal legislation still hasn't shown up on the House floor, and it is not on the schedule again this week.
And with the House off next week, that means no postal bill until late in June - at the earliest.
"When will the House take action?" asks Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) on his Senate web page, as he joined with other Senators in an opinion piece on the Politico web site Sunday, pleading for action by the House.
Since the Senate acted on a postal reform bill - which was panned by leaders of the Postal Service - Carper has a ticker on his web site that estimates the Postal Service has lost almost another $1 billion because of inaction by Congress.
You may remember Postal Service leaders doing some small, piecemeal moves in recent weeks, like moving to phase out and combine certain mail delivery and sorting facilities, and limiting the hours of some post offices.
But those moves would hardly save the money that the Postal Service is losing each month - now averaging over $1 billion per month.
The main House sponsor of postal reform legislation still touts it as the "only" real option to help the Postal Service turn around its financial future.
But Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) hasn't taken the next step to getting that bill to the House floor.
And so, while the red ink keeps flowing, Congress keeps waiting.
