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Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 09:56 AM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

This past June Louis DeJoy started as the new Postmaster General. He quickly instituted cost-saving reforms and changes to the Nation’s postal system. These included streamlining transportation policies, removing some mail-processing equipment, and reducing overtime. As DeJoy said in a memo outlining the changes, the transportation changes alone could help save the USPS about $200 million.

While the USPS doesn’t take any federal taxpayer dollars, it has about $160.9 billion in debt owed from prepaying retiree benefits and operating deficits. And just last year, they lost $8.8 billion. But these issues aren’t new. In a multiyear audit by the Government Accountability Office (GAO)  it was found that “USPS’s current business model is not financially sustainable” due to shrinking mail volumes, higher employee compensation and benefits, and increasing levels of unfunded liabilities.

USPS TruckTo add to this, the post office hasn’t been immune to the “shutdowns” instituted around the country due to COVID-19. Included in the $2 trillion CARES Act passed in March, was a $10 billion bailout for the Postal Service. Yet, lawmakers and even postal workers claimed this wasn’t enough. Rather than institute real reform, Congressman Connelly (D-VA) suggested that the USPS should get $25 billion to forgive its debts. DeJoy was right to institute some sort of cost-saving measures rather than rely on a short-term government bailout. And institutional changes always come with some sort of hiccup. Yet in a reassuring letter written to USPS workers, DeJoy stated:

… that temporary delivery slowdowns were “unintended consequences” of his efficiency moves but that the “discipline” he was bringing to the agency “will increase our performance for the election and upcoming peak season and maintain the high level of public trust we have earned for dedication and commitment to our customers throughout our history.”

Yet, headlines are pinning Trump’s reforms taken towards the United States Post Office (USPS) against our right to vote. These talking points started to make news after the Postal Service sent a letter to 46 states and D.C. undermining DeJoy’s previously mentioned statement and “warning that it cannot guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be counted.” With the Coronavirus still looming, the number of mail-in ballots is expected to be at an all-time high.

 With this in mind, House Democrats were quick to claim these cost-saving measures simply can’t be taken. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to her caucus saying the President has a “campaign to sabotage the election” by “manipulating the Postal Service to disenfranchise voters” by preventing or discouraging mail-in voting. And this Saturday, August 22nd, the House is expected to vote on the Delivering for America ActH.R. 8015. If enacted, the legislation will prohibit the implementation of changes at the Postal Service until next year and bail out the Postal Service at $25 billion.

But now DeJoy is rolling back the changes he instituted. He said in a statement released Tuesday, August 18th:

To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded. I want to assure all Americans of the following:

  • Retail hours at Post Offices will not change.  
  • Mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes will remain where they are.
  • No mail processing facilities will be closed. 
  • And we reassert that overtime has, and will continue to be, approved as needed.

In addition, effective Oct. 1, we will engage standby resources in all areas of our operations, including transportation, to satisfy any unforeseen demand.”

As Pelosi said, “They felt the heat. And that’s what we were trying to do, is to make it too hot for them to handle.” In the meantime, DeJoy will testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Friday, August 21st. As Committee Chairman Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) said of the hearing:

“I wanted to give the [postmaster general] an opportunity to tell his side of the story before he appeared before a hostile House committee…the Postal Service has had significant financial problems for years, and it is important for everyone to fully understand its current fiscal challenges.”

Time will only tell if DeJoy’s reforms are reinstituted and the mainstream media fully realize the implications of a billion-dollar bailout.

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