It is time for Congress to save the Postal Service, not dismantle it.

At the insistence of the Bush administration, Congress in 2006 passed legislation that required the Postal Service to prefund, over a 10-year period, 75 years of future retiree health benefits.

The Postal Service is a vitally important institution for the American people. It must be saved.

As a result of the digital age and the decline of first-class mail, there is no question that the Postal Service must change and develop a new business model.

There are very powerful and wealthy special interests who want to privatize or dismember virtually every function that government now performs, whether it is Social Security, Medicare, public education or the Postal Service.

At a time when the Post Office is losing substantial revenue from the instantaneous flow of information by email and on the Internet, slowing mail service is a recipe for disaster.