| For Immediate Release | Contact: Sean Rushton or Philippa Jeffery |
| December 5, 2001 | (202) 467-5300 |
Washington, D.C. – The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today lambasted Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd’s (D-W.Va.) decision to give the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) $875 million in bailout money without requiring it to initiate long-overdue reform measures.
In addition, CCAGW blasted USPS for paying out bonuses. Though the Washington Post has reported that executive bonuses for 2001 will be $124.5 million, the actual number is $164.1 million.
“It doesn’t surprise me that there are already conflicting numbers out there. Postal managers are clearly mathematically challenged. Either way, taking bonuses while they are riding a $1.7 billion loss and panhandling for a taxpayer bailout is unconscionable,” stated CAGW Vice President Leslie K. Paige.
“The USPS is seeking billions in government handouts this year without first committing to reform and streamlining,” Paige said. “This agency was hemorrhaging cash this year even before September 11 and the anthrax mailings.”
“In fact, many of the postal service’s recent expenditures merit scrutiny by Congress in light of the troubling testimony postal management gave before the U.S. Senate on November 8,” Paige also said. “Aside from the $1.6 billion lost to waste, fraud, and mismanagement already documented by the USPS Office of Inspector General, it is difficult to reconcile the postal service’s bailout requests with its new slick, multi-million television advertising campaign. Also troubling is that postal management has yet to offer a single substantive proposal to streamline its operations, reduce unnecessary costs, institute a hard hiring freeze, or eliminate money-losing ventures.”
“These folks simply do not get it. This is not the first time they have chosen to reward themselves with hundreds of millions of dollars in executive bonuses while operating in the red,” Paige added. “Between 1996 and 2000, the USPS gave out more than $1.4 billion in bonuses, including $284 million last year, when it lost money.”
“There will never be reform at USPS until someone ties government dollars to new management,” Paige concluded. “The current crew has presided over a financial debacle while avoiding hard choices and rejecting any serious change.”
CCAGW is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation’s largest taxpayer advocacy group with over one million members and supporters nationwide. It is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.