At a congressional hearing yesterday to consider the challenges facing the U.S. Postal Service, one of the hot topics was how the organization makes payments into its pension funds. Patrick R. Donahoe, who will become the postmaster general on Monday, told the hearing he would like to see the U.S. Postal Service be more profitable, nimble, able to compete for customers and “has a well defined and valued role in an increasingly digital world.” The USPS posted a loss of $8.5 billion in 2010, which Donahoe said was “a stunning number.” In order to address the financial challenges it is facing, the USPS will need the help of the Congress. Donahoe pointed to legislation introduced in September by Senator Tom Carper, D-DE, which he said would provide “the flexibility to implement necessary business strategies faster and more effectively.” The Postal Operations Sustainment and Transformation (POST) Act of 2010 would reduce the U.S. Postal Service’s payment into the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and give it the authority to reduce delivery frequency and close post offices. Senator Susan Collins, R-ME, introduced her own bill yesterday addressing this issue. Both bills would address the overpayment issue by recalculating how much the Postal Service pays into CSRS fund. It has been estimated that US Postal Service has overpaid by between $50 billion and $75 billion. Addressing how the calculation is made for the U.S. Postal Service payment into the Civil Service Retirement System appears to be an issue the U.S. Postal Service, Washington and mailers can agree on. Jerry Cersale, SVP, government affairs at the Direct Marketing Association, who spoke on behalf of the Affordable Mail Alliance, spoke favorably about both bills. “Without this overpayment, postage would have been lower, and there would have been much more that businesses could have done with mail to stimulate economic development and job growth,” Cersale said. Collins’ bill would also address the Postal Service’s contracting practices and seek to reduce workforce-related costs by converting employees on long-term workers’ compensation to retirement when the reach retirement age.