last but not least we have gene del polito. he is president of the association for postal commerce. he's been there for the past 31 years. and he is highly regarded within the postal community as an effective advocate on behalf of those who use mail for business communication and commerce. he has received post-com's j. edward day ward, the association's highest honor granted in recognition of distinguished service to the nation's postal community. so, as you can see, we've got a power house up here of people. i don't know that they'll all agree on everything, but that's going to be the fun part. so i'd like to start by having each of them make some introductory remarks, and then we'll open it up. so go ahead, robert. >> thank you, elaine. good morning, everyone. i thought i'd just for the few minutes for each of us to set the table, shall we say, hit three issues. one to give you a thumbnail of what the postal regulatory commission is vis-a-vis the postal service and then more importantly give you a sense of what's going on with the postal service today. particularly financially. th

last but not least we have gene del polito. he is president of the association for postal commerce. he's been there for the past 31 years. and he is highly regarded within the postal community as an effective advocate on behalf of those who use mail for business communication and commerce. he has received post-com's j. edward day award, the association's highest honor granted in recognition of distinguished service to the nation's postal community. so, as you can see, we've got a power house up here of people. i don't know that they'll all agree on everything, but that's going to be the fun part. so i'd like to start by having each of them make some introductory remarks, and then we'll open it up. so go ahead, robert. robert t.: thank you, elaine. good morning, everyone. i thought i'd just for the few minutes for each of us to set the table, shall we say, hit three issues. one to give you a thumbnail of what the postal regulatory commission is vis-a-vis the postal service and then more importantly give you a sense of what's going on with the postal service today. particularly financ

last but not least we have gene del polito. he is president of the association for postal commerce. he's been there for the past 31 years. and he is highly regarded within the postal community as an effective advocate on behalf of those who use mail for business communication and commerce. he has received post-com's j. edward day ward, the association's highest honor granted in recognition of distinguished service to the nation's postal community. so as you can see, we've got a power house up here of people. i don't know that they'll all agree on everything, but that's going to be the fun part. so i'd like to start by having each of them make some introductory remarks, and then we'll open it up. so go ahead robert. >> thank you elaine. good morning, everyone. i thought i'd just for the few minutes for each of us to set the table shall we say hit three issues. one to give you a thumbnail of what the postal regulatory commission is vis-a-vis the postal service and then more importantly give you a sense of what's going on with the postal service today. particularly financially. there's

we have gene del polito from the association of postal congress. the has been their last 35 years. affected advocate on behalf of those in business communications and commerce. he received j. edward day award that association anti sonogram to in recognition for distinguished service. and people i don't know if they will agree on anything. an introductory remarks. go ahead, robert. >> good morning. a few minutes for each of us to set the table three issues to give you some postal regulatory commission, a postal service and more importantly a sense of what is going on with the postal service today particularly financially, there is bad news and good news and i will try to hit on both of that and lastly what i think is an important issue going forward which to me is the issue of universal service. why else do we have a government institution in the postal sphere if it wasn't to provide universal service for the american public at home or at work. postal service itself today is nearly $67 billion operation, half-million employees, 100% part of the government 100% part of the executive