Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) spoke on the Senate floor today in support of preserving the Postal Service and of a moratorium on postal facility closures.
December 4, 2014 – (U.S. Senate) – With the Postal Service and some members of Congress giving the green light to closing more mail processing facilities, Senator Jon Tester is sending a clear message: stop digging the hole deeper.
Tester today led a group of Senators to the Senate floor to tell Postal Service leadership and Congress that as long as the Postal Service continues to close area mail processing facilities, it is shooting itself in the foot as it strives to improve its finances.
“There are a lot of folks around here who’d love to see the Postal Service go out of business. But the Postal Service – whether in urban America or rural America – delivers the goods Americans need,” Tester said. “All the Postal Service doing with its short-sighted cuts is weakening trust in the Postal Service. Essentially, they are digging their fiscal hole deeper.”
Starting in January, the Postal Service plans to eliminate overnight delivery in most of the country and close 82 mail processing facilities. These facilities route mail around the country so that letters, packages, medicine, equipment – and, yes, holiday gifts – get where they need to go. Closing the facilities would also cost up to 15,000 jobs.
Tester and his colleagues are pushing for a moratorium on processing facility closures while Tester and Congress work on a balanced reform bill. Tester said previous reform efforts do not preserve needed mail delivery standards or the future viability of the Postal Service.
“A proposal we’re working on will give the Postal Service the flexibility to raise new revenue while reducing the costly mandate to pre-fund retirement benefits,” Tester said. “We are trying to reform the Postal Service without putting the burden on rural America. But in the meantime, there’s no reason to make our work harder and hurt regular American families.”
The Postal Service is struggling financially in part due to the 2006 law – enacted before Tester was a member of the Senate – that requires the Postal Service to prepay retirement benefits of postal employees at a rate higher than necessary.
Tester is a member of the Senate’s Governmental Affairs Committee that oversees the Postal Service. He has previously criticized the Postmaster General for taking steps to privatize the agency and opposed the Committee’s postal reform bill because it did not preserve strong enough mail delivery standards in rural America or adequately support postal workers.
Tester’s speech, as prepared for delivery, is available online HERE. Tester was joined on the floor by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.
From NALC:
Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) spoke on the Senate floor today in support of preserving the Postal Service and of a moratorium on postal facility closures.
All you have to do, CONGRESS, is to repeal the 2006 Bill and refund the 50 plus billion you stole from the Postal Service. It’s as simple as that.
As a retired postal clerk it makes me sick to see what is happening to the postal service.Our town has already been striped of our carriers and all but one clerk in our local office. How can any one think it is good for carriers to drive seven miles to pick up their mail and seven miles back to start their routes then seven more miles to get their mail from their routes dispatched and sign out for the day.Really crazy.It is really destroying the service we all expect and have always had. and putting our postal employees under a lot of unnecessary stress.But I am afraid they have already destroyed a great Postal Service. Mary Bolick -Retired postal clerk.
I was a person who use to support the post office, but as of today December 6, 2014 I am too exhausted. I made 3 formal complaints ONLINE and called the post mistress in Cedar Hill Texas on December 5, 2014 and spoke with her for the MOST unproductive 9 minutes of my life from 4pm – 4:09pm. I explained to her how the carrier and or the post office is retaliating by withholding and delaying the delivery of my mail. I should receive a piece of mail each day because I have forwarded my deceased mothers and deceased fathers mail to my home address. They delayed my sales/circulars by 1 day. How do I know because my neighbor receive the circulars and I don’t. I do not live in a multi living unit. On December 1st mail was mailed from 27420 Murrow Blvd Post Office to my address in Cedar Hill TX. It should take Maximum 3 days. As of the 6th day, I still have not received it. I am unfortunately unable to do anything else. Because there is no competition for daily mail delivery and because I need this mail. So they believe this action is acceptable. And to add insult to injury when I called the 1-800 USPS number for assistance the representative stated that they could not help me with my complaint because they were having “technical” difficulties. After I was on hold for 13 minutes from 3:42pm – 3:55pm, I was told to “…hang up and call back and maybe you can get another call center.” So I asked, “Which call center am I calling ” and she stated, “I can’t tell you”, and I said “well how do I know to hang up if I get this call center again, the one that is having “technical difficulties”. She just apologized. I was done. Because of the deaths of my parents I need information via the mail to conduct business on their behalf and the Post Office has NOT been helpful. Good riddance.
Congress needs to stop hurting the USPS and get it done. Stop closing post offices, stop cutting USPS employee hours, stop making Customer Service as “profitable” business and make customer service as number one service.