Senators request one-year moratorium on Postal Service closings and consolidations, urges colleagues to use time to finally enact comprehensive postal service reform
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill has requested the postponement of all Postal Service mail processing facility closings and consolidations through the end of the 2016 fiscal year. In a letter to the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate’s Financial Services Appropriations Subcommittee—which has jurisdiction over certain aspects of Postal Service financing—McCaskill and several colleagues outlined a one-year moratorium on postal closings that would enable Congress to enact comprehensive postal reform, allowing the Postal Service to save jobs and continue to run efficiently in rural areas.
“As you are aware, USPS faces many serious challenges,” the Senators wrote in their letter. “A number of reform proposals have been introduced in both the Senate and House to address these challenges in previous years, but the Congress has yet to enact legislation. In the interim, a one-year moratorium will provide Congress the time it needs to enact comprehensive postal reforms that will allow the Postal Service to run more efficiently.”
McCaskill, along with fellow Missouri Senator Roy Blunt and a bipartisan group of Senate colleagues, recently demanded a delay in the planned consolidation of up to 82 U.S. Postal Service mail processing facilities after the Inspector General found the Postal Service failed to fulfil its obligations to adequately study the impact of the consolidations, and failed to inform the public of those impacts. Those consolidations would affect 15,000 Postal Service jobs in 37 different states, including Missouri, as well as the millions of Americans who count on the reliability of the Postal Service.
The letter continues: “Slowing down mail delivery hurts America’s senior citizens on fixed incomes, affects the bottom line for small businesses, and dramatically affects the quality of life of rural Americans. This is simply unacceptable. Without Congressional compromise, the Postal Service will continue to confront drastic changes to its operations, thereby slowing service to millions of Americans who rely on it.”
McCaskill, who was born in Rolla, Mo. and has led the charge to save rural post offices and preserve postal delivery standards, recently discussed the urgent need for comprehensive Postal Service reform, which would help protect delivery service for Missourians in rural communities, saying it is “essential to rural America.”
The letter was also signed by Senators Jon Tester of Montana, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin. A copy of the letter can be found HERE.
The Dummycrats have not realized consolidations are all but over. One thing ~~ 1st class normally took 3 days to get to my children and now takes TWO thanks to consolidations at both ends of the 700 mile trip.
the only way for true freedom in this country is to not pay attention. opt out of the mainstream. don’t watch the news etc etc etc. if you don’t know you wont care or worry about all the bs. also get a harley davidson and ride that is true feedom.
Senator McCaskill should investigate why management is insisting they’re going to 2 shifts yet they process mail 24 hours which means working employees 12 hours per day. Basically it’s a pile of number rhetoric. An external investigation is needed to debunk the foolery.
well said “me”…….. this crap of waiting or postponing things a year is getting old. anybody really think anything will get done next year with it being an election year?….. it will all just get postponed another year after that…… I wish SOMETHING would be decided whether it’s right or wrong so at least we can move forward and adjust accordingly….. this is getting old real fast
this has been going on for 50 years relax the po is doing great. people just starting will retire in 30 years. every emp has a choice. doom and gloom or a happy full career with no worrys. you decide for yourself
They can REQUEST all they want…They already did….result?……..just more of the same election “posturing”…..$$$
Dear me, Amen, good day and God bless you!
You could give Congress 50 years and nothing will get done.
Article never states which party, which is certainly relevant! This article SUCKS!
newsflash idiot senators! it’s a little late for postponing the delaying of the mail! where the **** have you been for the last five years as postal management destroyed service? please remove your head from your posterior and pay attention. then again, the senators are probably just going through the motions of pretending to give a *hit so the union gives them money and the union spends millions on getting out the vote at election time. if you ask me, the democrats don’t deserve any union money. i realize the republicans are a worse case scenario for the unions but when will the unions realize the democrats are just milking them for their money as they have done little or nothing to stop the republican attacks on unions and the related decline in union membership. just seems to me the dems are using the unions for cash and ground game at election time without the unions getting much in return.