patrick donahoe has been with the postal service for 35 years. he began his career there as a clerk. he was formally named postmaster general less than one year ago, and he has his work cut out for him. in early september, he warned lawmakers, the postal service was operating at that time with just one week's worth of cash. the weekly cost for the postal service add up to about $1 billion. and now, congress is involved. the 21st-century postal service act of 2011 has passed the senate committee on homeland security and government affairs. it awaits action in the senate, seemingly like a lot of things. this bill would preserve six-day mail delivery for the next two years, and it would also allow the postal service to renegotiate existing union contracts, offer buyouts to its employees and recalibrate the prefunding requirements for its retiree health benefits. so, how can the postal service be saved? will the legislation do the trick, or is it going to be a short-term fix that merely buys a little time? that's why we're here today. let's find out.

postmaster general patrick donahoe has said the post office could run out of money by next fall. why is the postal service in such serious financial shape? >> well, the 200-year-old postal service is going bankrupt because of the internet age, in part. it has too many mailmen, not enough mail to carry, too many post offices and really not enough customers. the most obvious thing is the internet. people these days are paying their bills online. and because of this, the volume of first-class mail has dropped about 20% in the past five years. and with that drop comes a drop in postal service revenues. so, last year, the postal service lost about $5 billion, but it would have lost about $10 billion if congress had not extended the deadline for bills it actually owed the u.s. treasury, and that comes on top of the losses from 2010 as well, $8.5 billion. and donahoe has basically said that revenues are going to continue to drop now, since people are using the internet, rather than licking the backs of stamps and affixing them on envelopes. >> well, senator susan collins of maine, ranki