Postmaster general: Anthrax attacks costly

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Mail volume and revenue are down at the U.S. Postal Service in the wake of at least three anthrax-laced letters that passed through the mail delivery system, the postmaster general said Tuesday.

"These attacks on our employees, the nation and the mail are unprecedented," John Potter told a subcommittee of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.

"They have hurt us financially. The economic slowdown in 2001 already had an impact. Then the tragedy of the attack on September 11 again stunned the economy. The results have been reflected in reduced revenue and mail volumes," he said.

Potter told lawmakers the Postal Service would need "several billion" dollars to help recover from the anthrax crisis, including funds to introduce more stringent cleaning procedures and equipment to kill the anthrax bacteria.

He said there are no plans to raise postal rates because of the effects of the terrorist attacks and the anthrax letters, but he said he would not rule out that option.

The postal Board of Governors filed a previously planned rate hike request on September 24, asking to raise the cost of a first-class letter from 34 cents to 37 cents. Potter defended the Postal Service from criticism it had been slow to react to the anthrax contamination.

Two postal workers in Washington have died of inhalation anthrax. Others in Washington and New Jersey, affiliated with facilities that processed the tainted mail, are sick with the inhaled or the cutaneous form of the disease.

"We were operating in good faith, trying to make the right decisions, based on the facts at hand and the advice we were receiving from the experts," Potter said.

He said postal authorities did not immediately close the Brentwood postal facility in Washington -- which handled a contaminated letter sent to the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle -- because experts did not believe anthrax spores could permeate the paper of a sealed envelope.

"It wasn't until later on that we found out that the size of the spores, the anthrax spores, were one micron in size, and that they had the ability to penetrate paper," he said.

Potter also said two more mail offices in Washington were contaminated with anthrax as well as a mail plant in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Cleanup at those sites began immediately and officials described the contamination as minor.