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  • The biggest thing is congress finally removing the mandate that USPS prefund health insurance retirement benefits for active employees. There have been many years that USPS would have turned a profit if not for that. Congress doesn't prefund health insurance retirement benefits for its active employees.
  • I found this interesting article written by the inspector general explaining a bit of just how much the PO has already been able to prefund at the moment.

    First, let’s look at current funding levels. The Postal Service has set-aside cash totals of more than $335 billion for its pensions and retiree healthcare, exceeding 83 percent of estimated future payouts. Its pension plans are nearly completely funded and its retiree healthcare liability is 50 percent funded – much better than the rest of the federal government. But getting to this well-funded position has been painful. The Postal Service’s $15 billion debt is a direct result of the mandate that it must pay about $5.6 billion a year for 10 years to prefund the retiree healthcare plan. This requirement has deprived the Postal Service of the opportunity to invest in capital projects and research and development.

    As things stand now, retiree healthcare, pensions, and workers’ compensation are unfunded by about $86.6 billion. But our paper says any discussion of unfunded liabilities should take into consideration assets that could be used to satisfy the liabilities, such as real estate. The Postal Service’s real estate assets have a net book value of $13.2 billion. But fair market value of these properties is estimated as high as $85 billion. Neither is factored into the Postal Service’s ability to meet future liabilities.

    https://www.uspsoig.gov/blog/be-careful-what-you-assume


    If the PO could use even half of that for other purposes instead of having to have it set aside they would be totally out of debt. If congress would pass a bill allowing the PO to use half of the prefunding to get out of debt and putting them on a sound footing. But at this time the PO is otherwise about $160 billion in debt.

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