Brown and ray suarez reports on the plight of Syrian Refugees whove fled to lebanon. At this tent camp in almarj, in the eastern part of Lebanons Bekaa valley only 25 miles from the Syrian Border refugees are struggling to adapt to a new, impermanent reality. Ifill and we close with a look at whats happening with the boy scouts, as they struggle to decide whether to lift a longstanding ban on openly gay members. Brown thateaalahl d on tonights newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Brown the u. S. Postal service announced today it plans to end saturday mail delivery beginning in aust. Ah under the plan, post offices alreadopen on saturdays will remain so. Packages will also continue to be delivered on saturdays. But home and business mail would end. The move would save an estimatee 2 billion annually. The Postal Service ended the last budget year with a record loss, nearly 16 billion. Todays decision was criticized by several members of congress who may try to overule the agency. And the head of the Letter Carriers Union called the move a disastrous idea that would have a profoundly negative effect. Joining us now is postmaster general patrick donohoe. And welcome to you. You spoke today being in a very scary position financially. How scary . Well, heres where we are right flow. Now. As you mentioned we had a pretty substantial loss last year and those were accounting losses. 11. 1 billion of the 15. 9 is attributed to prepayment for Retiree Health care that we didnt pay. We defaulted. You have to count that in terms of your accounting rules. So what happened last year, when all was said and done, we had a loss of about 2 billion are a little over 2 billion from an operating revenue perspective. The problem that you have Going Forward is each year that weve had these losses brings the cash levels down farther and further. At one point in october we had four days of cash on hand. Thats entirely too small amounts of money for an organization our size or any size. Brown you wanted to do this stop the saturday delivery for a while and Congress Said no. This time you think you can go ahead. Is this Getting Around Congress . The way we interpret the continuing resolution ag as parf appropriation the Postal Service gets we have looked at this in a number of different ways. The money appropriated to us from congress is different than money appropriated to other agencies. We are, in fact, are refunded for Services Provided a year earlier. So as weve looked at this, were like thats not so sure this applies. The key thing is this the Postal Service needs to make serious change. We need to address a number of issues six to five day of letter mail, 2 billion. Reforming our health care. Resolving longterm payments that we know were responsible for and want to make as long as owning our over health care. Thats worth 7 billion a year. We can not only shrink the gap from a standpoint of loss, but we can get back on good, Firm Financial footing and pay our debt down. Now, there are people who will be critical you shouldnt make these changes. But you cannot put your head in the sand and hope problems will go away. Brown i citedlet criticism from the president of the letter cariers. I just want to understand. He is saying this will be harmful specifically to small businesses, rural communities, the elderly, disabled, others who depend oned is delivery. Are you denying there will be that kind of pain or are you just saying, yes, but we have no choice. We have no choice at this point, and we do not know the extent of impact that well see. Weve done many surveys, according to every survey that weve done, thats been done outside the Postal Service. 70 plus of americans consistently say the Postal Service, who takes no money now we get no tax money shouldnt get a tax bailout and should live within their means, meaning if twee need to eliminate delivery on saturday we do. Now, our proposal is to eliminate delivery of mail but to continue to deliver packages, which includes medicine for the elderly and handicapped and the rural areas. And thats what our customers have told us. Last year we made some changes. Post offices. We talked about having to close small, nonprofitable postal offices. We spent a lot of time in the field and herd back from crust mers. They said we dont care if you shrink the opening, just keep the it open. Heres the problem were facing, jeff reerk no matter what anybody thinks on this people pay bills online. In the year 2003, we delivered 51 billion with a b pieces of stamped mail out of the mailbox. This year it will be 21 billion. 30 billion pieces in less than 10 years at 46 cents apiece say differential in that group of 14 billion. Nobody is stepping up saying ill take a pay cut that makes those kinds of differences us. Nobody is saying any other opportunities for us to make these changes. What were trying to do is take a rational business approach on this, common sense, trim where we can, keep delivering the Growth Products like packages, but when weve lost that much mail, you cannot continue to deliver six days a week with that kind of loss. Brown let me just ask you briefly, if you would, because given the kind of changes you are talk pentagon, people paying online, for example. Where is this headed . Does the American Public have to get used to a lesser service and perhaps at some point the end of the Postal Service . No, not at all. We think the future is very bright, as long as you take the steps to get the financein order. Our plan our plan has us getting back in the black and paying the debt down. Now, will there be changes . Absolutely. Some of the changes we discussed already. We have already made plenty of changes. Since the year 2000, this organization, the Postal Service has reducedly the head count head count, payroll, not jobs or job descriptions, payroll by 305,000 employees, 193,000 since 2008. We have our people do a great job. Theyre very productive. We have done anything and everything in our power to try to catch up to the loss that weve got in volume. People say, suggest we raise prices dramatically. That chase more volume away. We are trying to take a very businesslike approach. We think its a winwin. Everybody has a little skin in the game here and in the end you have a strong Postal Service thats delivering packages, direct mail, and commercial first class mail into the future. Brown postmaster general patrick donohoe, thank you very much. Thank you, jeffrey. Ifill still to come on the newshour filling in the president s team; killing an Opposition Leader in tunisia; fleeing the violence in syria and delaying a decision on gay scouts. But first, with the other news of the day. Heres hari sreenivasan. Sreenivasan a new round of fighting broke out today in damascus, syria the heaviest in weeks. Rebel fighters made a thrust toward the central part of the capital, and smoke rose over the city as Government Forces fought back with artillery. Theyre trying to hold the core of the city, the main stronghold for president bashar alassad. In northern mali, French Ground troops battled islamist rebels overnight, outside the city of gao. It was new evidence that whet the french have retaken key cities, the insurgents have not enyebe rt outed from the countryside. Meanwhile, french and malian soldiers found caches of industrialstrength explosives and makeshift bomb labs. The rebels had hidden them outside gao. U. S. Investigators said today they are not ready to rule that lithium ion batteries used in boeings 787 dreamliners are inherently unsafe for aviation. Instead, the National Transportation safety board said manufacturers need to build in better safeguards. At the same time, the board said investigators are still weeks away from determining what caused a battery fire on a Japan Airlines dreamliner in boston. In the meantime, all 50 of the planes in service, remain grounded. Budget battle cries echoed up and down pennsylvania avenue in washington today. President obama called yesterday for a small package of tax hikes and spending cuts to avert the sequester, much larger cuts now set for march first. But House Speaker john boehner said today the president has to accept major spending reductions just as republicans had to agree to raise the National Debt ceiling. We got the debt limit out of the way so that we werent jeopardizing the full faith and credit of the United States government. At some point, washington has to deal with its spending problem. Ive watched them kick this can down the road for 22 years that ive been here. Ive had enough of it. Time to act. Sreenivasan at the white house, spokesman jay carney its the republicans who are being irresponsible, by rejecting the president s appeal out of hand. He put forward a proposal for avoiding that outcome while Congress Continues working on longer term deficit reduction. Thats the sensible thing to do. Why make why punish the American People because you havent been able to achieve your ideological objectives through other means . Sreenivasan in another development, the Associated Press reported the u. S. Military is cutting back from two aircraft carriers to one, in the persian gulf. The report cited u. S. Officials who said its a direct response to the looming, acrosstheboard cuts. U. S. And british regulators have fined the royal bank of scotland more than 610 million for manipulating a key interest rate. The u. S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said today that r. B. S. Made hundreds of attempts to manipulate the rate known as libor. Its a Global Benchmark for rates on everything from home mortgages to credit card payments. Two other banks barclays and u. B. S. Have already been fined for their roles in the scandal. Wall street mostly stayed whereu it was today. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained seven points to close at 13,986. The nasdaq fell three points to close at 3,168. Those are some of the days major stories. Now, back to gwen. Ifill president obama made his latest cabinet selection today, but the senior ranks of his administration are still depleted as his second term begins. Sally has spent the majority of her career outside of washington where, i might, add the majority of our interior is located. laughter she is an expert on the energy and climate issues that are going to shape our future. Ifill sally jewell, c. E. O. Of the Outdoor Recreation company, r. E. I. , is president and so saying, president obamas pick for interior secretary, succeeding former colorado senator ken salazar. Unlike other cabinet members, jewell comes to the job entirely without washington experience. With a background in business and as an oil industry engineer, and said she is humbled by the opportunity. I have a great job at r. E. I. Today, but theres no role that compares, than the call to serve my country as secretary of the department of interior. Ifill jewell is only the fourth public announced nominee to fill seven secondterm to fill 11 secondterm cabinet vacancies. The major departures so far treasury secretary timothy geithner, defense secretary leon panetta and secretary of state hillary clinton. Only clintons replacement john kerry has won Senate Confirmation and taken up his new post. The National Security moves one step closer to completion with tomorrows hearing for c. I. A. Nominee john brennan. The president s environmental and energy team will be completely reformed. In addition to salazars exit at interior, lisa jackson is leaving as Environmental Protection agency chief as is Energy Secretary steven chu with no replacements announced yet. And mr. Obamas Economic Team will also have new faces, as he moves to replace labor secretary hilda solis, trade representative ron kirk and rebecca blank, the interim commerce secretary who replaced gary locke when he became ambassador to china. Critical issues await them, from action on Climate Change, to the Keystone Xl Oil pipeline, to negotiations on new trade agreements with a dozen nations, and the european union. The president set the tone for the selections to come, with his description of jewell today. She knows the link between conservation and good jobs. She knows that theres no contradiction between being good stewards of the land and our economic progress, that in fact, those two things need to go handinhand. Ifill the Immediate Response to jewells nomination was positive from business and environmental groups alike. We get more now on the president s secondterm cabinet and the issues they will face from coral davenport, energy and environment correspondent for national journal. Greg ip, u. S. Economics editor for the economist and julie rovner, Health Policy correspondent for National Public radio. You each cover different parts of this administration, different parts of the government, starting with you and with the selection today of sally jewell, carl, what are the big issues which await the new nominee or new secretary . So the secretary of interior is a really important position in terms of the administrations energy plan Going Forward. The interior department is in charge of the nations public lands, and also offshore. So whatever happens Going Forward on Energy Development on public land, on oil and gas developments, on offshore Oil Development oconservation, and something that this administration has started was the First Administration to do renewable Energy Development on public lands. The interior secretary is going to oversee all of that, and its going to be a big piece of the vile agenda but also the economic agenda in terms of how Energy Development is going to be a part of the economy Going Forward. Ifill lets talk about the economic agenda. What await there. It will be pretty much all budget, all fiscal all year. President s choose treasury secretaries and the Economic Team to suit the circumstances of the time. Timothy geithner was the pick four years ago in part because he was so well suited to deal with the financial crisis. Now obama goes with a guy whose background is heavily steeped in negotiating with the hill. He has the confidence of the president. He knows his way in and out of these issues. He shares the president s philosophical preferences protect the social safety net, deal with the deficit, but not sacrificing the safety nest net. The big challenge for mr. Obama and mr. Lu is getting something done will require coming to agreement with congress, and there the philosophical divide is so wide, that makes getting something done very challenging. Ifill part of the divide is health care. This is the time when the rubber hits the road in terms of implementation. This is a cabinet member who is not leaving. I think one of the reasons she has job stability and we see with some of the the appointments getting confirmed. There has not been a head of the one of the subcabinet appointments in him h. S. , the head of the center for medicare and Medicaid Services since 2006, in the middle of bushs bs second term because it is so difficult to get that through the senate. It would be hard to imagine trying to replace kathleen sebieluous, which is probably a good thing, because she has so much to do this year, getting the Affordable Care act up and running, most of it in times for january 1, 2014, plus all of these budget debates that are going on that will inevitably have to do with medicare and medicaid. Shes going to have a very busy year. Let me ask another key question, does the cabinet matter . We talk about the closeness the president has with kathleen sebieluous. And there were three hugs between ken salazar and the president as he announced. Does it matter that you have this closeness . Is anything getting done in the departments or does it all get done at the white house. The decisions are made at the white house and they get told to the departments but there is still an enormous amount the cabinet members do. Remember, theyre running huge, huge, bureaucracies if you will, for better or worse. Just h. H. S. , the f. D. A. Is under h. H. S. , these are agencies in charge of billions and billions and billions of dollars so i think these cabinet members do have a lot of responsibility, even if the most important political decisions are being made at the white house. Ifill and the most important Political Economic decisions being made