Postal service says it is going broke

WASHINGTON, May 18 (UPI) -- U.S. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said Congress must act or the postal service would go into default.

"This year, I don't have the cash and I can't make the payment," Donahoe said in an interview, referring to a $5.4 billion the service is obligated to pay toward a retiree health benefit plan.

"And if I did make the payment, I wouldn't have cash to (pay anything else," The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Donahoe told the Senate subcommittee on postal affairs that the U.S. Postal Service would fall into default Sept. 30 unless Congress intervened.

Donahoe said the USPS was on track to lose $8.3 billion during the current fiscal year which ends Sept. 30.

The Postal Regulatory Commission, however, has estimated the USPS has overpaid its Civil Service Retirement System Fund by between $50 billion and $75 billion over the past 30 years.

A bill introduced this week by Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., would permit the postal service to use the over-payments to meet this year's $5.4 billion obligation.

The bill would also allow the postal service to cancel Saturday delivery, which would save $3 billion per year.

"We are rapidly reaching the point . . . at which the Postal Service no longer has the authority under current law to do what it needs to do to get by," Carper said in a statement.