 | USPS Moves to End Next Day Delivery for First Class Mail, Close Up to 82 Mail Processing Plants and Eliminate Up to 15,000 Jobs On August 1, 2014 the US Postal Service placed a notice in the Federal Register announcing that as of January 5, 2015, they would abandon next day delivery of first class mail and that periodicals would also arrive one day later. The opportunity for the public to comment on these service reductions closed long ago on February 13, 2012. These changes would occur even as First Class Mail continues to be the most profitable service category for the US Postal Service according to the August 11 quarterly financial report. |
Fifty Senators declare the wave of closures will hurt "citizens who depend on their Postal Service to be reliable."
California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein were among the fifty senators who called for a one-year moratorium on U.S. Postal Service plans to close mail processing plants and slow down first-class mail delivery. Mail service has already suffered because of the 141 mail processing plants closed since 2012. The August 14, 2014 letter signed by 50 senators to Congress should block a proposal by Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe to close up to 82 additional mail processing plants, slow mail services and eliminate up to 15,000 jobs. The letter urged leaders of a key Senate committee to include a one-year ban on mail delivery cuts as part of must-pass legislation to keep the government running into the new fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
Comprehensive postal reforms are necessary
“This one-year moratorium will give Congress the time it needs to enact the comprehensive postal reforms that are necessary for the Postal Service to function effectively into the future,” the senators wrote in a letter to Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Richard Shelby, the chairwoman and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The letter was drafted and circulated by Sens. Bernie Sanders, Jon Tester and Tammy Baldwin.
Slowing down mail delivery even further will hurt the economy
“At a time when our middle class is disappearing, the loss of 15,000 good-paying Postal Service jobs will harm our local communities and economies,” the senators wrote. “Slowing down mail delivery even further will hurt senior citizens on fixed incomes, small businesses and the entire economy,” the letter added.
Misleading reports about supposed fiscal woes
Despite misleading reports about supposed fiscal woes, the Postal Service in fact has taken in nearly $1 billion more in revenue than it spent since the fall of 2012. The rising revenues are partly due to an increase in package deliveries for online retailers. That growth has more than made up for fewer letters being mailed because of email and online bill paying.
Comprehensive postal reforms are necessary
“This one-year moratorium will give Congress the time it needs to enact the comprehensive postal reforms that are necessary for the Postal Service to function effectively into the future,” the senators wrote in a letter to Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Richard Shelby, the chairwoman and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The letter was drafted and circulated by Sens. Bernie Sanders, Jon Tester and Tammy Baldwin.
Slowing down mail delivery even further will hurt the economy
“At a time when our middle class is disappearing, the loss of 15,000 good-paying Postal Service jobs will harm our local communities and economies,” the senators wrote. “Slowing down mail delivery even further will hurt senior citizens on fixed incomes, small businesses and the entire economy,” the letter added.
Misleading reports about supposed fiscal woes
Despite misleading reports about supposed fiscal woes, the Postal Service in fact has taken in nearly $1 billion more in revenue than it spent since the fall of 2012. The rising revenues are partly due to an increase in package deliveries for online retailers. That growth has more than made up for fewer letters being mailed because of email and online bill paying.
Six Republican Senators signed the letter calling for a Moratorium:
Two Independents:
| Democratic Senators continued:
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A special thanks to everyone who has contacted Senators Boxer and Feinstein over the last two plus years. Our growing movement to defend the Public Post Office is having an effect.
