The U.S. Postal Service Needs Your Love

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From Scottsdale Congregational UCC:

The U.S. Postal Service is now being managed by its new director in a way that slows down mail service. This is happening in addition to sustained USPS underfunding, and amid additional stress caused by the CORONA-19 pandemic.

The Issue

Slowed mail service is a problem because people rely on the Postal Service (USPS) for timely delivery of:

  • essential prescription drugs! In our Scottsdale district, the USPS delivers meds at a rate of 50,000 pieces a day. Nationwide, the Veterans' Administration (VA) fills about 80 percent of its prescriptions through their Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy (CMOP), which primarily uses the U.S. Postal Service to fill almost 120 million prescriptions a year. What used to take 3-5 days is now taking weeks in some cases.

  • social Security checks and other income like unemployment benefits.

  • packages and essential documents mailed by small businesses, especially in rural areas, where it isn't profitable for private companies to deliver.

  • PPE materials. The USPS has been essential to getting them where they're needed.

  • mail-in ballots. There will be a record number (due to COVID-19). A ballot received or returned too late is a vote not counted.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

APPLY PRESSURE!

Write to, or contact by phone, any of the officials below.

Your Congressional Representatives (Senate and House). This link will give you information to call, or write via email or letter or postcard: https://www.commoncause.org/find-your-representative/addr/

The USPS Board of Governors -- These people should be bombarded! These Presidential appointees officially appointed Louis DeJoy as Postmaster General. It is their job to oversee the U.S. Postal Service in a nonpartisan way. ASK THEM TO CANCEL THE RECENT POLICIES THAT HAVE CAUSED MAIL DELIVERY AND PROCESSING SLOWDOWNS.

See emails for each, below.

Louis DeJoy, Postmaster General: louis.dejoy@usps.gov

Robert Duncan, Chairman: mduncan@inezdepositbank.com

John Barger: barger.jm@gmail.com

Ron Bloom: ron.bloom@brookfield.com

Ramon Martinez IV: roman@rmiv.com

Donald L. Moak: lee.moak@moakgroup.com

William Zollars: DirectorAccessMailbox@cigna.com

Or you can write to them at this address:

(Name), Member (or Chairman),

USPS Board of Governors

Postal Service Headquarters

475 L’Enfant Plaza SW

Washington, DC 20260

They could be charged with a felony under this law:

“Whoever knowingly and willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail, or any carrier or conveyance carrying the mail, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.” Federal Criminal Law (18 USC 1701)

WHAT SHOULD WE SAY?

First, relax!

Choose only what works for you, and keep it simple.

Always be polite, but firm.

It doesn't hurt to start with a positive comment.

Make your "ask" at the beginning, and the end.

Your message does not have to be long, but it should be clear.

Be sure to say whether you are a constituent.

Choose from these ideas:

Note that the slow-down is a problem for one or more of the reasons listed in the sections above, and IF POSSIBLE, why it's a problem for you or a member of your family.

Point out the history of the post office as a historically trusted institution, and that the cost-cutting measures that are creating the slow-down are not in the best interests of serving the American people, especially AT THIS TIME (i.e. an upcoming election, and the pandemic).

Cost-Cutting Measures made: Postmaster Genera Louis DeJoy has ordered managers to prohibit overtime work, remove mail boxes, remove mail sorting machines, and prohibit carriers from returning to pick up additional mail. He has instituted a hiring freeze, begun reducing post office operating hours across several states, and proposed raising the price of mailing ballots from 22 cents to 55 cents. While he has said he will make no more changes for at least 90 days, the ones he's made need to be reversed and a guarantee made before Congress!

Ask for emergency funding of the postal service. The post office, historically, was designed as a public service, not a business formed to make a profit. The U.S. House, at least, is being called back to pass legislation to prohibit/reverse changes causing the slow-down and provide emergency funding for the post office.

The USPS does not use tax dollars but is self-funded from revenue it brings in (postage). The financial and systemic problems it now faces are a result of a number of political decisions made over the years, as well as changes in how people communicate. See next page.

HERE'S AN OPINION PIECE from the Washington Monthly, which provides historical information about the establishment of the Post Office, and some reasons for its current financial troubles.

HERE'S A FACT-CHECKING ARTICLE about the common charge that the post office is losing money because it must pre-pay its pensions. There's good info on what some of the issues are. (To begin with, it must pre-pay health benefits, not pensions.)

THANK YOU FOR TAKING ACTION ON THIS IMPORTANT ISSUE!