Schatz Calls For Full Funding For Postal Service To Ensure Operations Continue In Hawai‘i And Across The Country

HONOLULU – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) and more than a dozen of his colleagues today called on Senate leaders to provide full funding for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) in the next COVID-19 relief package. Without such funding, the lawmakers warned, the USPS “may have to reduce or limit its services…as early as June.”

“We write to urge you to provide appropriate funding to the United States Postal Service (USPS) in the next coronavirus package that Congress takes up,” Senator Schatz and the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). “The USPS plays a vital role in our country, and the outbreak of COVID-19 has only increased our reliance on the services it provides. Millions of American families depend on the USPS to receive their medicine, pay their bills, receive their Social Security benefits and remain in contact with loves ones.”

Specifically, the lawmakers urged Senate leaders to increase funding, reimburse the USPS for lost revenue, and forgive USPS debt.

The full text of the letter is below and available here.

 

Dear Leader McConnell and Leader Schumer,

We write to urge you to provide appropriate funding to the United States Postal Service (USPS) in the next coronavirus package that Congress takes up. The USPS plays a vital role in our country, and the outbreak of COVID-19 has only increased our reliance on the services it provides. Millions of American families depend on the USPS to receive their medicine, pay their bills, receive their social security benefits and remain in contact with loves ones. Our democracy relies on the USPS to help conduct an accurate census, disburse payments or tax returns, and provide an accessible way for citizens to vote. Even more, the USPS provides universal service at the lowest costs to consumers in the industrialized world.

And yet, we fear that the USPS may not be available to the next generation of Americans. Without additional resources, there is a possibility that USPS may have to reduce or limit its services or worse as early as June. The absence of the USPS would put significant strain on our economy. The USPS helps facilitate $1.7 trillion in sales each year, supporting 7.3 million private sector workers, in addition to nearly 650,000 USPS employees. For some rural communities, which include roughly 40 million households, the absence of the USPS would be devastating; because of their remote locations, no private sector shipper would serve them. And, the absence of the USPS would jeopardize the health and safety of the one million Americans who receive their lifesaving medications through the USPS, many of whom are elderly and immunocompromised—without the USPS they may have to put themselves at greater risk of contracting potentially fatal diseases like the coronavirus.

During the third coronavirus package negotiations, House Democrats proposed investing $20 billion to reimburse the USPS for lost revenue and forgiving the USPS of its debt. We strongly urge you to include these important investments in the next coronavirus package. The future of the USPS, along with its nearly 650,000 employees and millions of consumers, are counting on it.

Sincerely,

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