McHugh, Davis Want USPS Pension Relief in Stimulus Bill

Reps. Danny Davis and John McHugh want the forthcoming economic stimulus bill to include relieving the U.S. Postal Service of its crushing obligation to pay the pensions of former postal employees.

In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Tuesday, the two Representatives requested that their bill H.R. 7313—which outlines easier terms for the USPS to pay down its pension obligations “be included in the economic stimulus package currently being developed. This bill would assist the U.S. Postal Service to address serious financial constraints and would service to protect existing Postal Service jobs.”

The USPS’S pension obligations are now pegged at between $5.4 billion and $5.8 billion per year from 2007 to 2016.

Last month, a group of 46 mailers labor unions and postal groups petitioned Congress for relief, (Postal Dispatch, Nov. 26).