Blog Post
On Point from Boston’s WBUR spoke with Lynn Norton, a substitute rural letter carrier in Platsburg, Nebraska.
“The Postal Service, for many people, is a trusted constant that they can rely on. This pandemic has pushed the Post Office into even more of a crisis than it was before. People are going to get worried. There’s going to be stress. How will I get my medications? What’s the cost?”
05/16/2020
Louisville Courier Journal
Randy Bradley, Opinion contributor
I’m a postal employee and union leader who has worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 21 years. Today, I take pride in serving on the front lines of this unprecedented national crisis. Despite risks to our own health, more than 500,000 dedicated postal employees like me are continuing to show up to work to process and deliver the increasing demand for mailed goods.
04/15/2020
By Risa Mickenberg
The Postal Service is the largest employer in some states. It delivers 48% of the world’s mail, including social security checks, stimulus checks, voting ballots, medication, and hospital supplies.
04/24/2020
Politico
President Donald Trump said Friday that he would not approve any bailout for the U.S. Postal Service unless it dramatically increases its prices.
The Postal Service, which Trump called “a joke,” has warned of its serious financial distress for years. But with the U.S. economy staggered by the coronavirus, USPS reported a 30 percent decrease in volume. The service has requested as much as $75 billion in cash, loans and grants to stay afloat.
04/24/2020
Washington Post
The president said the postal agency should quadruple its package delivery prices, otherwise he would block congressionally approved funding
04/23/2020
Washington Post
President Trump has railed for years against what he sees as mismanagement of the agency, which he argues has been exploited by sites such as Amazon
04/20/2020
The Kansas City Star
If Jack Bainbridge couldn’t get his prescriptions through the mail, the 70-year-old Army veteran would have to make a 90-mile round trip to the VA Medical Center in Kansas City.
04/17/2020
The American Conservative
Equal parts Rooseveltian and Rockwellian, the USPS and its universal mandate are pieces of our national inheritance.
04/13/2020
People's World
Faced with a crash in mail volume and revenue due to closures to battle the coronavirus pandemic—right when the country needs the Postal Service the most to help get vital food, medicine, and other life-saving goods to everyone—Postmaster General Megan Brennan asked Congress for a combination of $75 billion in cash and credit to keep going through the financial disaster.
Her April 9 video briefing request, to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which handles postal legislation, drew immediate support from the nation’s two big postal unions, the Letter Carriers (NALC) and the Postal Workers (APWU).
04/16/2020
Vox
Since the coronavirus pandemic hit, the volume of mail delivered by the US Postal Service has drastically declined. Businesses have cut back on sending advertisements and bulk mail — the agency’s main source of revenue — leaving it on track to possibly run out of money by September.
To save its services, the agency is asking Congress for $89 billion. Democrats want to meet the USPS’s needs and ensure funding in the next coronavirus relief bill. Republicans, however, are seizing this as an opportunity to privatize the agency, an agenda they’ve been pushing for years. President Donald Trump is also on board, refusing to sign a new bill that includes funding for the postal service.
The president’s disapproval of the agency is well-documented. In the past, he’s pushed for service cuts in the fiscal budget and indicated that he wanted the USPS to raise rates for packages. However, these actions would have dire consequences for Americans, especially those below the poverty line who live in remote areas and rely heavily on the USPS for their mail.
The absence of the USPS would particularly affect indigenous people living in tribal lands, as there are already few resources dedicated to keeping them connected with the world, said Twyla Baker, of the Mandan-Hidatsa tribe in North Dakota.
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