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22: Not a Bailout Bill
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Departments & Divisions Legislative
and Political ArticlesH.R.
22: Not a Bailout Bill 
Departments & Divisions Legislative
and Political ArticlesH.R.
22: Not a Bailout Bill Legislative & Political Dept. |
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H.R. 22: Not a Bailout Bill
(This article by Legislative & Political Department officers Myke Reid and Steve Albanese was first published in the July/August 2009 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)
H.R. 22, introduced in the U.S. House on Jan. 9 by John McHugh (R-NY) and Danny Davis (D-IL), would provide financial relief to the USPS by allowing it access to the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund to pay for health insurance for retirees.
Statutory mandates require the Postal Service to prefund 80 percent of future retiree health benefit costs by 2016. This costs the Postal Service more than $5.5 billion a year in addition to the $3 billion it pays annually for current retirees. If passed, H.R. 22 would save the Postal Service approximately $3.5 billion per year from its operating budget.
The money in the Retiree Health Benefits Fund is Postal Service money that was the result of overpayments into the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). Rather than refund the overpayments to the USPS, the Bush administration required that the money be placed into an escrow account. That fund currently holds more than $32 billion, but current law prohibits access to those funds until 2016. H.R. 22 would allow the USPS to meet part of the funding requirements by making payments from that fund for eight years.
Remember: This is Postal Service money, not taxpayer money. It is also important to point out that access to those funds will not result in reduced benefits, nor will it jeopardize any retiree’s health benefits. As of the end of May, there were 317 co-sponsors for H.R. 22 and we are working to get a companion bill moving on the Senate side. It is imperative that this legislation be passed before the end of the current USPS fiscal year (Sept 30, 2009).
For more on this important bill, please see (and share with members of your local) the PowerPoint presentation available in H.R. 22 pages of the APWU Web site.
Other Important Bills
H.R. 1686, the Mail Network Protection Act, introduced March 29 by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), addresses our ongoing concern about the amount of work that can be outsourced. Similar to H.R. 4236, a bill introduced by Lynch in 2007, it would require the Postal Service to notify an affected postal union whenever it intends to subcontract work that would exceed $5 million or involve more than 50 “man-years” of work.
Once notified, the union would have an opportunity to bargain over the decision to outsource the work. If a dispute remained, the parties could take the matter to binding arbitration: The final decision on outsourcing would be based on the arbitrator’s ruling.
Our focus at this time is to increase the number of cosponsors for this new legislation. (In the last session of Congress, there were 144 co-sponsors.)
H.R. 658: Postal Consolidations
In January, Rep. Albio Sires (D-NJ) introduced H.R. 658, which would modify the procedures governing the closure or consolidation of postal facilities. The measure would force the Postal Service to justify consolidations before they go into effect; requiring the USPS to hold public hearings, during which management would have to explain potential service impacts to affected communities.
The Postal Service would be compelled to notify by mail the people served by facilities targeted for consolidation to ensure that citizens would have an opportunity to present their views. Notification would also have to be provided in local newspapers.
The bill also requires a public assessment of the need for a consolidation or closure of a postal facility: The USPS cannot justify its actions on savings alone. Under this bill, consolidation moves would be held in abeyance if an appeal of a USPS decision is made to the Postal Regulatory Commission.
H.R. 1256: FERS Sick-Leave Credit
On April 2, the House endorsed FERS Sick-Leave Credit by voting to pass the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (H.R. 1256) by a vote of 298- 112. Included in this legislation is language that allows retiring FERS employees to get credit towards retirement benefits for any unused sick leave they have at the time they retire. Signing this into law would give FERS employees the same opportunity as CSRS employees in converting unused sick leave into creditable time when calculating their annuity.
A measure similar to H.R. 1256 has been placed on the Senate calendar.
H.R. 2161: FMLA Restoration Act
On April 29, Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) introduced H.R. 2161, “to nullify certain regulations promulgated under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, and restore prior regulations.”
The purpose of the bill is to roll back the harmful changes made by President Bush just four days before he left office: FMLA regulations that went into effect on Jan. 16 have created problems in the field, such as employer representatives contacting workers’ doctors without the workers’ consent, and previously accepted FMLA certifications being rejected, with workers with long-accepted “conditions” being challenged and forced to repeatedly visit their doctors.
In essence, the new regulations make the pursuit of the right to use FMLA leave a constant battle — the original intent of this important law has been compromised. The bill offered by Shea-Porter is intended to reverse the most restrictive and burdensome of the changes.
How You Can Help
Union members are urged to contact their legislators about supporting these important bills. Click here to contact your legislators, then follow the instructions for the form letters for H.R. 22, H.R. 1686, H.R. 658, H.R. 1256, and H.R. 2161.
