Congressional Democrats are determined to try to save Saturday mail delivery.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) yesterday introduced legislation to save the Postal Service’s sixth delivery day and repeal a law they claim is responsible for 80 percent of the mail system’s funding woes.
That 2006 law makes the post office pre-fund 75 years of future healthcare benefits for retirees over the course of 10 years. Dems say the pre-funding mandate is responsible for $4 out of every $5 in Postal Service debts.
“Most of the financial issues facing the United States Postal Service are due to short-sighted actions by Congress. Congress must unshackle USPS so we can deal with these problems and allow the Postal Service to better compete,” DeFazio said.
“While we all understand that the Postal Service is experiencing financial problems today and that changes need to be made as the Postal Service adjusts to a digital world, these issues can be dealt with in a way which strengthens the Postal Service rather than initiating a series of cuts that could eventually lead to a death spiral,” Sanders said.
The Senate bill is cosponsored by Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).
“Providing fewer services and less quality will cause more customers to seek other options,” Sanders said. “Rural Americans, businesses, senior citizens and veterans will be hurt the most by ending Saturday mail.”
The bill would also allow more Postal Service fundraising by lifting legal bans on services such as notarizing documents, issuing hunting and fishing licenses, and allowing shipments of wine and beer. It would also create a commission “composed of successful business innovators and representatives from small business and labor to make recommendations on other ways the Postal Service could generate new revenue and thrive in the 21st century,” according to Sanders’ office.
Yesterday, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe testified at a Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing about the USPS’s proposal to eliminate Saturday mail delivery.
He urged lawmakers “to eliminate any impediments to our new delivery schedule.”
“This approach to our delivery schedule ensures continued growth in our package business, and helps enable e-commerce throughout the U.S. economy. It also reflects the changing realities of America’s mailing habits,” Donahoe said.
“The financial problems of the postal service are getting bigger every year. If we had reformed the business model several years ago, we’d be in much better shape today. But if we delay reform another year or more, we may never get back to a sustainable model, and we will put tremendous pressure on our continued liquidity,” he added.
Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) said the new schedule would be “detrimental to Arkansas’s rural communities who depend on the USPS for medications, checks, and other important services.”
“I believe the USPS’s plan is in violation of existing laws and our current funding bills,” Pryor said.
If Congress allows Saturday delivery to end, and most Americans don’t care, then it will be that much easier to go to 4 day delivery, then 3 day, then just weekly.
Honestly, if 6 days a week delivery is so darn important, then why is there no Monday delivery next week on President’s day?
Do any of the nonsense arguments about medications, checks, “other important services” hold any water if on Monday no one gets mail, it just rolls over to Tuesday?
I have to work on Monday; although in this economy I’m damn glad to have a job.
No, most of the Post Office’s problems are directly attributable to a bad business plan and over-reliance on union personnel. Having to pre-pay pensions, while expensive, is merely a symptom of the underlying problems.
Get rid of the union and see labor costs plummet.
Get rid of unnecessary facilities and see infrastructure costs plummet.
For example, where I live there is a state highway with two post offices about 3 miles apart. One services a town of maybe 5,000. The other services a “town” of maybe 700 (hard to say exactly how many since the “town” in unincorporated). The one in the smaller “town” is only open about 5 hours a day. It has a postmaster, at least 2 counter people, and half a dozen mailmen. Close the little one, fire half or more of the staff, and move all operations to the other office. Bingo, you’ve just saved at least half a million dollars in salary and facility costs. Repeat as necessary.
Agreed. Next to the DMV, the post office has some of the most unmotivated and lazy people I’ve ever seen. My postal carrier expects a Christmas gratuity as well.
By the way Rangar, you wouldn’t happen to be from Rorikstead?
Stop thinking about it as a postal service. We have email, UPS, Fedex and many other far more efficient mail delivery businesses for that.
Start thinking about it as a welfare program for (non poor) blacks combined with a massive subsidy program for direct mail businesses that donate billions to the criminals in congress.
Then you’ll understand the real dynamics of the “debate” over whether the welfare program should be axed or not.
And remember, the old raison d’etre for the Snail Mail department was that rural areas would be slighted without the dinosaur. That hasn’t been true for at least a decade. If computers didn’t make that obsolete, smart phones certainly have.
Ax it.
should have added the criminal unions to the mix.
a trifecta!!
For an example of how upside-down things are at the USPS, they charge you for a Post Office box, but will deliver to your home . . . for free! Shouldn’t it be the other way around?