Sessions Opens Hearing with the Commissioners of the Postal Regulatory Commission

WASHINGTON-Subcommittee on Government Operations Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) delivered his opening statement at today's hearing with the Commissioners of the Postal Regulatory Commission. In his opening remarks, Subcommittee Chairman Sessions highlighted the financial crisis the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is facing and how actions to reform the agency have fallen short of expectations. He also emphasized that Congress and the American people have to decide what they want out of USPS to help resolve procedural and financial issues in the agency.

Below are Subcommittee Chairman Sessions's opening remarks as prepared for delivery:

I would like to welcome everyone to today's hearing with the Postal Regulatory Commission, the latest installment of the Subcommittee's ongoing effort to oversee the troubled landscape of the Postal Service.

The PRC is a key stakeholder in the postal universe and has been at the center of core issues - service performance, revised service standards, and of course - postal rates.

Yet, the Commissioners of the PRC have not testified before this Committee since 2018.

So, I thought it was high time to invite them up for a visit.

In what has been a recurring event, the Postal Service finds itself in crisis.

In March, the Postmaster General testified before this Subcommittee that the Postal Service would run out of cash in around 12 months - meaning that it would be impossible to maintain anything close to the level of service that Americans expect.

Since that time, he has suspended employer contributions to the Federal Employee Retirement System and placed restrictions on non-essential spending.

I am not aware of an official estimate on how much additional time these measures have bought the Postal Service, but I am given to understand it might be two or three years.

Regardless, the Postal Service is in bad shape, and suspending payments doesn't make those obligations go away…it just adds them to the giant asteroid of debt composed of unpaid bills and retiree obligations that hurtles towards us even as we speak.

I will once again take this opportunity to commend former Postmaster Louis DeJoy for doing his best to come up with an enduring solution to the Postal Service's problems.

But I do not see how the Delivering for America Plan is going to provide the results we hoped it would.

Similarly, I commend the current Postmaster General, Mr. Steiner, for taking on this thankless task.

During our March hearing, Mr. Steiner told the Subcommittee he needs Congressional action to increase the Postal Service's borrowing authority, and just two days ago he presented the Committee with a number of additional legislative requests.

There is no reason to assume additional borrowed funds infused into an untenable business model be anything more than throwing good money after bad.

To be clear, this is not a shot at Mr. Steiner. He himself said Congress - and the American people - have to decide what they want.

If we want the status quo - at least what might be described as the "good" parts of the status quo (depending on one's perspective) - we are going to have to pay for it, one way or another.

This includes ending the charade that the Postal Service can be all things to all people and sustain itself on the revenues it is able to generate.

This is a fool's errand.

Since its conception, the Postal Service has provided numerous societal benefits, but labors under the inherent flaw of conflicting and vaguely defined requirements and expectations.

These can be summarized as the simultaneous expectation that the Postal Service act in a business-like manner as well as a public service.

It must deliver everywhere, not all the time, but darn close to it - regardless of how remote or resource intensive such a delivery might be.

Said another way, the Postal Service must act like a business and unlike a business simultaneously.

"Deciding what we want" is going to require tough decisions - by everybody.

And this includes the Postal Service.

As Commissioner Taub states in his testimony, the Postal Services' costs have continued to rise despite its volume shrinking.

And no matter what occurs moving forward, it is imperative that the Postal Service do more to shrink its costs and increase productivity.

I am hopeful the Commissioner's intense focus on the numbers will help us understand the reality of the problems facing the Postal Service and craft appropriate solutions.