Put party politics aside to protect the post office
Editorial
Members of the Courier Sentinel editorial board include publisher Carol O’Leary, general manager Kris O’Leary and Star News editor Brian Wilson.
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is made yet another pawn in the ongoing political gamesmanship between party leadership on both sides of the aisle. These games have undermined people’s faith in the USPS and hurt businesses that rely on the post office to serve customers.
It was disappointing to see Rep. Tom Tiffany put party loyalty over protecting the USPS this week.
Tiffany joined with other members of Wisconsin’s Republican Congressional delegation, to vote against HR 8015. The measure passed the House of Representatives 257 to 150, on largely party-line votes with all Democrats and just 26 Republicans, voting in favor. Voting against, were 149 Republicans and one Libertarian, with 23 Republicans and one Democrat not voting.
The bill prohibits the USPS from reducing service below levels in effect at the start of the year, and requires it to treat official election envelopes as first-class mail in this fall’s balloting. In addition, the bill provides $25 billion requested by the postal service for coping with the coronavirus outbreak, in the budget year starting Oct. 1.
Until the pandemic has run its course, the bill would prohibit the USPS from:
• Delaying deliveries or increasing the volume of undelivered mail.
• Closing or consolidating any post office, or reducing the business hours.
• Denying overtime pay to USPS employees.
• Watering down measurements of whether service standards are achieved.
• Lowering nationwide or regional service standards.
Tiffany was correct in voting in favor of an amendment to the bill, that would make it a federal crime for a postal worker to tamper with election mail and would also prioritize the delivery of prescription drugs, equipping mail personnel with protective gear and processing election ballots. That amendment failed on party lines.
Many of the bill’s measures are intended to prevent Postmaster General Louis DeJoy from slashing service, gutting capacity and cutting wages as shortcuts to profitability. Cutting services and removing infrastructure is a short-term money saving solution, that does nothing to address the long-term financial issues facing the USPS.
In the private sector, it would be the same mentality as shutting down the company’s main manufacturing plant, in order to make this quarter’s profit goals, without thinking about the need to actually have a place to manufacture products.
By mandate, the USPS must operate on its own revenues. At the same time, it is being set up to fail because of a unique set of rules about how the USPS must account for pensions and retirement. These rules are far in excess of any accounting standard in the private sector or government. Any reform measures must include the repeal of these rules.
Despite passing the House, the bill in its current form, has little chance of being acted on in the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate, with party leadership there preferring to have it rolled into a larger stimulus package.
In a statement about his vote, Tiffany said, “The bill is a transparent, election-year effort by Democrats, to ram through a misguided taxpayer bailout of the postal service, by promoting ‘disappearing mailbox’ conspiracy theories. The USPS is in need of modernization and reform, but it currently has adequate cash on hand and has assured the public that it will remain fully operational, well beyond the November election. This is not a serious piece of legislation, it is just another, desperate and dishonest partisan attempt by Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi and others, to frighten voters in the lead up to the election.”
This is all the more reason to contact Rep. Tiffany, and Sens. Ron Johnson and Tammy Baldwin, and tell them to stop playing political games with fundamental services such as the USPS. Rep. Tom Tiffany 715-298-9344 • tiffany.house.gov Rep. Ron Kind 715-831-9214 • kind.house.gov Sen. Tammy Baldwin 71-832-8424 • .baldwin.senate.gov Sen. Ron Johnson 920-230-750 • ronjohnson.senate.gov
