madam president, as senator tester has made clear, the beauty of the postal service is that it provides universal service six days a week to every corner of america no matter how small or how remote. it supports millions of jobs in virtually every other sector of our economy. it provides decent-paying union jobs to some 500,000 americans, and, in fact, -- and i say this as the chairman of the senate veterans committee -- it is the largest single employer of veterans. whether you are a low-income elderly woman living at the end of a dirt road in pennsylvania or vermont, or you're a wealthy c.e.o. on wall street, you will get your mail six days a week, and the american people, by the way, pay for this service at a cost far, far less than anywhere else in the industrialized world. but if congress doesn't stop the postmaster general from making these devastating cuts, it will drive more americans away from the postal service and will lead to what we call a death spiral. the quality of service deteriorates, fewer people use the postal service, less revenue comes in, less revenue comes in, the process