Pitney Bowes Spent $200K Lobbying In 2Q

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mail and document-management company Pitney Bowes Inc. spent $200,000 in the second quarter to lobby for legislation that would give financial relief to the U.S. Postal Service, according to a recent disclosure form.

The U.S. Postal Service, on which Pitney Bowes relies for a large portion of its business, has been buffeted by the recession and the popularity of e-mail and electronic bill payment. It lost $2.4 billion from April through June, bringing the year's losses so far to $4.7 billion.

Postmaster General John Potter has said a major burden is a requirement that the post office make advance payments of between $5.4 billion and $5.8 billion annually to a retiree health-benefit fund. Without those payments, which are not required of other government agencies, the post office would have been in the black last year and would be looking at a loss of $1.9 billion this year, rather than the projected $7.3 billion.

Proposed legislation would ease the requirement temporarily.

Pitney Bowes said in a statement Friday that legislation would spell relief for the Postal Service by allowing it to pay its health contributions for retirees "in the manner that all other public or quasi-public agencies pay these contributions."

Pitney Bowes reported that 35 percent of its revenue last year, or about $2.2 billion, was from U.S. mailing.

The Stamford, Conn., company lobbied the Postal Regulatory Commission in the April-June period, according to a disclosure filed with the House clerk's office July 14.