Fixing the Retirement Liability Calculation

Congress has begun to move on the Postal Service's retiree obligation issues.   The House Committee on Oversight and Oversight and Government Reform will mark-up H.R. 5746, The United States Postal Service’s CSRS Obligation Modification Act of 2010 on Wednesday, July 21 at 1:30 p.m.

Given the limited number of legislative days involved, any action on retiree issues has to move at a pace far faster than what is common in Congress.  While passage in the house in an expedited fashion would appear possible, passage in the Senate in a timely fashion is less certain.   Senator Carper has indicated that he is preparing his own comprehensive reform bill which may go beyond the retiree benefit fix and would have to be reconciled with the House language.  In addition, objection by any one Senator can hold up passage.

To understand how fast this is moving, at least in terms of legislative speed  here are some relevant dates.

• January 20th, 2010 -- The USPS-IG report, The Postal Service’s Share of CSRS Pension Responsibility released.
• March 2, 2010 -- Request from the Postal Service made to Postal Regulatory Commission for actuarial report.
• June 30, 2010 -- Civil Service Retirement System Cost and Benefit Allocation Principles (Segal Report) is released by Postal Regulatory Commission
• July 16, 2010 -- Congressman Stephen Lynch on Friday introduced H.R. 5746, The United States Postal Service’s CSRS Obligation Modification Act of 2010.  The legislation follows the USPS-IG methodology.
• July 21, 2010 --  House Committee on Oversight and Oversight and Government Reform marks up H.R. 5746, The United States Postal Service’s CSRS Obligation Modification Act of 2010.  After mark-up, the agreed upon language is sent to the Committee on Rules to set the parameters of debate on the House floor.