Price Caps at the Old Stamping Ground

The new law shifts responsibility for military pensions earned by postal workers to the Treasury Department, as is the practice for federal agencies. The law also redirects money set aside for postal retirement costs to a new trust fund that will finance retiree health benefits. Potter estimated that about $90 billion will be placed in the trust fund.

Although McHugh pushed the longest and hardest for postal overhaul, others in Congress played key roles in pulling together a compromise acceptable to the White House. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.) and Reps. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) and Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) brokered the final bill, which passed in the hours before Congress adjourned for the year.

On the House floor, McHugh told colleagues, "If there is any truth in the old adage that anything worth having is worth waiting for, this is a very, very good night."

Boost for Health Accounts

Federal employees and retirees will be able to take advantage of a tax law signed by the president yesterday and increase the amount of money they contribute to health savings accounts, the Office of Personnel Management announced.

Employees who had a 2006 flexible spending account also will have an opportunity to enroll in a high-deductible health plan with a savings account for 2007, the OPM said. They may roll over any used money in their FSA to their new health spending account.

Belated enrollments in a high-deductible plan and the transfer of FSA funds must be completed by midnight Dec. 31, the OPM said. In 2007, the maximum health savings contribution is $2,850 for an individual and $5,650 for a family, the OPM said. Previously, health savings contributions were limited to the amount of a person's deductible.

Stephen Barr's e-mail address is barrs@washpost.com.