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House to Use Post Office Cuts to Fund Highway Bill

Move could ensure continued funding for highway projects.


House Republicans are pushing to prop up the highway trust fund with savings from rolling back Saturday postal delivery, GOP leaders said last Friday.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) cast the idea as “the best way to ensure continued funding of highway projects in a fiscally responsible manner” in a memo to the rank-and-file.

With a transportation bill likely needed before the August recess, Boehner and his team added that they thought wringing savings out of the cash-strapped Postal Service was also the best chance for a bipartisan agreement. President Obama has also proposed limiting Saturday mail delivery in his latest budget.

“Given the limited window for action, we believe it is important that an offset be simple and have the support of the administration and congressional Republicans,” Boehner, Cantor and McCarthy wrote in the memo, which was obtained by The Hill.

The top Republicans and GOP aides also said that the transportation gambit could help smooth the path for the sort of broader postal-reform measure that has eluded Congress for years.

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Source: The Hill

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