A week after lawmakers in the U.S. Congress headed out of town for a five week break without acting on a measure to allow for major changes at the U.S. Postal Service, USPS reported that it lost $5.2 billion in the April-June quarter of this year, over $2 billion more than the same period last year.
In the last nine months, the Postal Service has lost $11.6 billion, about double what it lost in the same period a year earlier.
And yet, despite all the red ink, despite all the warnings that something needs to be done, the Congress isn't close to doing anything to give the Postal Service more power to make major internal changes to save money.
"I can only hope that as members of Congress are back in their districts meeting with their constituents over the next month, they will hear these concerns about the future of the Postal Service and be persuaded that they cannot continue to postpone passing comprehensive postal reform legislation," said Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), who helped push a reform measure through the Senate.
The Senate reform bill was approved at the end of April. According to these new figures, the Postal Service lost an average of $1.7 billion in the two months after the Senate vote.
A vote in the House remains in limbo, as no reform plan has majority support in that chamber, the main reason that GOP leaders never brought the issue up for a vote this summer.
With the Congress doing nothing, the Postal Service renewed its call for action by lawmakers, arguing that "large losses are expected to continue until legislative changes are made" by lawmakers.
A Postal Service statement was blunt about its financial situation: "Current projections show very low levels of cash, and no remaining borrowing capacity."
The Postal Service last week defaulted on a $5.5 billion payment to pre-fund retiree health benefits; the same thing will happen at the end of September on a separate payment of $5.6 billion.
The Postal Service must also cough up $1.4 billion for workers compensation in October, which could bring it dangerously close to the end of its cash reserves.
It may be that like last year, the Postal Service will temporarily stop making payments into its retirement system in order to stay afloat.
There were some signs of hope in all of this fiscal mess at the Postal Service, as package delivery and shipping services saw a 9% increase in revenue; the down side was in regular mail, which continues to slide.
Sooner or later, the Congress will have to act.
But at this point in time, Republicans in the House are content to sit back and review their options.
All the while, the red ink continues to mount at the Postal Service, now over $1 billion per month.
