The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is a vital public agency. It is responsible for delivering medicine and other essentials as well as facilitating mail-in voting – critical functions during the ongoing public health crisis and with a national election in less than 10 weeks. Yet the federal government is undermining this service by removing infrastructure and curtailing employee overtime.
On Friday and Monday, the Postmaster General appeared in front of the U.S. House of Representatives to answer questions about the recent changes to the USPS. The House also convened an emergency session last Saturday and passed the Delivering for America Act (H.R. 8015) with bipartisan support. The bill would:
- Provide $25 billion to the USPS for direct emergency relief.
- Require that election mail be handled as “first-class mail.”
- Halt the removal of high-speed mail-sorting machines and neighborhood collection boxes and reverse previously implemented changes that would delay mail delivery.
Now the Senate must act. But they went home until after Labor Day.
With a crisis looming for the USPS, record unemployment, an impending housing and eviction catastrophe, and our most vulnerable populations getting hit hardest by the pandemic, it is inexcusable that our senators are not responding appropriately. The “skinny” relief bill released last week, entitled Delivering Immediate Relief to America’s Families, Schools and Small Businesses Act, is woefully insufficient. The Senate must follow the House and pass both the Delivering for America Act and the HEROES Act to provide necessary relief for ailing Americans and the vital services we depend on.