Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Sanders: Postal Service Plan ‘Deeply Flawed'; Senators Support Saving the Postal Service
Sanders: Postal Service Plan ‘Deeply Flawed'
The U.S. Postal Service announced plans on Thursday to close or consolidate 223 mail processing centers. Up to 35,000 jobs could be eliminated. The decisions are not final. No closings will occur before May 15. Postmaster General Patrick Donahue agreed to that timetable under moratorium proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders to give Congress time to act. "The plan announced today by the U.S. Postal Service is deeply flawed and Congress must change it. I expect comprehensive postal reform legislation to be on the floor of the Senate within the next few weeks," Sanders added.
"At a time when the Postal Service is competing against the instantaneous delivery of information from email and the Internet, slowing down mail delivery service will result in less business and less revenue, and will bring about a death spiral for this institution which is so vitally important for all Americans," Sanders said.
"A critical weakness of the current Postal Service plan is that it ignores the onerous financial burden being placed on the Postal Service by $5.5 billion a year in pre-payments for future retiree health benefits. According to the Postal Service inspector general, those payments are no longer necessary because of the $45 billion which that account already has accumulated," Sanders added. "The Postal Service needs to be reformed not by massive cuts, but by a new entrepreneurial business model which expands the products and services the post office can sell in the 21st century digital age."
Read more about an effort by a group of 27 senators calling for "significant improvements" in a bill to modernize the U.S. Postal Service »
Read the letter to Sanders from the Postal Service inspector general saying a big funding cushion already has been built into the mail service's health benefit funds »
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=5cf53264-d899-4040-9897-cc7a2793058b
The U.S. Postal Service announced plans on Thursday to close or consolidate 223 mail processing centers. Up to 35,000 jobs could be eliminated. The decisions are not final. No closings will occur before May 15. Postmaster General Patrick Donahue agreed to that timetable under moratorium proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders to give Congress time to act. "The plan announced today by the U.S. Postal Service is deeply flawed and Congress must change it. I expect comprehensive postal reform legislation to be on the floor of the Senate within the next few weeks," Sanders added.
"At a time when the Postal Service is competing against the instantaneous delivery of information from email and the Internet, slowing down mail delivery service will result in less business and less revenue, and will bring about a death spiral for this institution which is so vitally important for all Americans," Sanders said.
"A critical weakness of the current Postal Service plan is that it ignores the onerous financial burden being placed on the Postal Service by $5.5 billion a year in pre-payments for future retiree health benefits. According to the Postal Service inspector general, those payments are no longer necessary because of the $45 billion which that account already has accumulated," Sanders added. "The Postal Service needs to be reformed not by massive cuts, but by a new entrepreneurial business model which expands the products and services the post office can sell in the 21st century digital age."
Read more about an effort by a group of 27 senators calling for "significant improvements" in a bill to modernize the U.S. Postal Service »
Read the letter to Sanders from the Postal Service inspector general saying a big funding cushion already has been built into the mail service's health benefit funds »
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=5cf53264-d899-4040-9897-cc7a2793058b
Senators Support Saving the Postal Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 - A group of 27 senators called today for "significant improvements" in a bill to modernize the U.S. Postal Service.
In a letter to a Senate panel that oversees the Postal Service, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and 26 other senators suggested specific measures to preserve first-class and Saturday mail delivery, stop wholesale closings of rural post offices and mail processing centers, and spare many of the 220,000 jobs that the Postal Service wants to cut.
"Everyone understands that the Postal Service is in the midst of a serious financial crisis that must be addressed," the senators wrote. "But we believe that this financial crisis can be solved in a way that does not substantially slow down the delivery of mail and harm rural America."
The 27 senators, a majority of the Democratic caucus, said they looked forward to working with Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Thomas Carper (D-Del.), who chairs a subcommittee that deals with the Postal Service.
Sanders and others said the Postal Service should be prohibited from slowing down first-class mail delivery, which would result if Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe carries out a plan to shutter 252 mail processing centers. The shutdowns would leave the Postal Service with fewer than half of the 508 mail sorting facilities that are in operation today. "If USPS becomes inconvenient and slow, many of its most loyal customers - from home delivery medication companies to newspaper publishers - will turn to private mailing options. Once those customers leave, they are most likely not coming back, and the Postal Service's financial woes will continue to spiral," the letter said.
The letter writers also said the Senate bill should prevent the closure of many rural post offices that are the "heart and soul" of their communities, many of them serving areas that lack Internet and cell phone service.
They want stronger language in the bill to maintain six-day mail delivery. The Postal Service should have to hold off for at least four years before it could take steps to end Saturday deliveries, and then only under very limited circumstances.
The senators also said the Postal Service should be allowed to recover more than $10 billion in overpayments in a pension fund and no longer be forced to put $5.5 billion a year into a retiree health care account that is already flush with funds.
Under a key proposal, the senators called for a Blue-Ribbon Entrepreneurial Commission to develop a new business model for the Postal Service. The committee bill would let the Postal Service offer some new services like issuing state hunting and fishing licenses, for example. The Senate bill should go farther, Sanders and the others said, by implementing innovative ideas for new services recommended by the commission of entrepreneurs, innovators, postmasters, postal workers and others.
In addition to Sanders, the letter was signed by Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) Mark Begich (D-Alaska) Mike Bennet (D-Colo.) Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) Ben Cardin (D-Md.) Robert Casey Jr., (D-Pa.) Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) Al Franken (D-Minn.) Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y) Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) Tim Johnson (D-N.D.) Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) Mary Landrieu (D-La.) Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) John Tester (D-Mont.) Mark Udall (D-Colo.) Tom Udall (N.M.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
To read the letter, click here.
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=5cfb95e0-af73-4824-a8ed-47a970c25b39
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 - A group of 27 senators called today for "significant improvements" in a bill to modernize the U.S. Postal Service.
In a letter to a Senate panel that oversees the Postal Service, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and 26 other senators suggested specific measures to preserve first-class and Saturday mail delivery, stop wholesale closings of rural post offices and mail processing centers, and spare many of the 220,000 jobs that the Postal Service wants to cut.
"Everyone understands that the Postal Service is in the midst of a serious financial crisis that must be addressed," the senators wrote. "But we believe that this financial crisis can be solved in a way that does not substantially slow down the delivery of mail and harm rural America."
The 27 senators, a majority of the Democratic caucus, said they looked forward to working with Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Thomas Carper (D-Del.), who chairs a subcommittee that deals with the Postal Service.
Sanders and others said the Postal Service should be prohibited from slowing down first-class mail delivery, which would result if Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe carries out a plan to shutter 252 mail processing centers. The shutdowns would leave the Postal Service with fewer than half of the 508 mail sorting facilities that are in operation today. "If USPS becomes inconvenient and slow, many of its most loyal customers - from home delivery medication companies to newspaper publishers - will turn to private mailing options. Once those customers leave, they are most likely not coming back, and the Postal Service's financial woes will continue to spiral," the letter said.
The letter writers also said the Senate bill should prevent the closure of many rural post offices that are the "heart and soul" of their communities, many of them serving areas that lack Internet and cell phone service.
They want stronger language in the bill to maintain six-day mail delivery. The Postal Service should have to hold off for at least four years before it could take steps to end Saturday deliveries, and then only under very limited circumstances.
The senators also said the Postal Service should be allowed to recover more than $10 billion in overpayments in a pension fund and no longer be forced to put $5.5 billion a year into a retiree health care account that is already flush with funds.
Under a key proposal, the senators called for a Blue-Ribbon Entrepreneurial Commission to develop a new business model for the Postal Service. The committee bill would let the Postal Service offer some new services like issuing state hunting and fishing licenses, for example. The Senate bill should go farther, Sanders and the others said, by implementing innovative ideas for new services recommended by the commission of entrepreneurs, innovators, postmasters, postal workers and others.
In addition to Sanders, the letter was signed by Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) Mark Begich (D-Alaska) Mike Bennet (D-Colo.) Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) Ben Cardin (D-Md.) Robert Casey Jr., (D-Pa.) Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) Al Franken (D-Minn.) Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y) Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) Tim Johnson (D-N.D.) Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) Mary Landrieu (D-La.) Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) John Tester (D-Mont.) Mark Udall (D-Colo.) Tom Udall (N.M.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
To read the letter, click here.
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=5cfb95e0-af73-4824-a8ed-47a970c25b39
20 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Interesting set of co-sponsors.... Which should trigger some more of the progressive ones to get on board one would think? 
Where is Kerry or Shumer or Durbin? Every Dem in the Senate should be co-sponsors if you have the likes of Baucus and Landrieu and Tester on the list.... 
