General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSenate Passes Postal Reform
The Senate on Wednesday voted 62-37 for a bill that Sen. Bernie Sanders helped craft to modernize the U.S. Postal Service, save tens of thousands of jobs and spare rural post offices and scores of mail sorting plants threatened with closure. A processing center at White River Junction, Vt., would remain open and 15 rural Vermont post offices are likely to win reprieves under the Senate-passed measure that now goes to the House.
"This comprehensive postal reform legislation will preserve vitally important rural post offices and mail processing plants," Sanders said. "It also would give the Postal Service the flexibility that it needs to raise additional revenue in the years to come by offering innovative new products and services in the digital age.
"There is no question that the Postal Service needs to become more entrepreneurial to meet the changing needs of the digital revolution, but the answer is not to make mail delivery slower. The answer is not to radically downsize the Postal Service. The answer is not to eliminate over 200,000 jobs in the midst of a terrible recession. The answer is not to devastate rural communities by closing their post offices,' Sanders added.
The bill includes provisions to keep overnight delivery standards for regional areas for at least three years. It would also prevent the Postal Service from eliminating Saturday mail delivery for two years and make it much more difficult for Saturday mail delivery to end after the two-year ban. It creates a commission Sanders suggested to come up with ways for the Postal Service to become more entrepreneurial as it adjusts to mail volume changes caused by e-mail and the Internet. Financial pressure on the Postal Service would be relieved by reducing obligations to pay for future and current retiree health benefits by some $5.5 billion a year.
The bill also includes a Sanders-backed provision that would prevent rural post offices from being closed in areas that don't have access to broadband Internet; if seniors and other citizens would not receive substantially similar access to prescription drugs and other timely mail services; and if businesses would suffer significant financial losses as a result of the closure. The amendment also would impose a one-year moratorium of the closure of many rural post offices.
Another amendment added to the bill would allow the Postal Regulatory Commission to prevent the Postal Service from closing mail processing facilities and post offices if the Postal Service fails to follow strong new service standards detailed in the bill.
At stake were more than 200,000 jobs that were in jeopardy as part of a cost-cutting plan designed by the Postal Service. It called for closing up to 252 mail-processing centers and 3,700 post offices.
The Senate bill would keep open more than 100 mail processing plants that were on the Postal Service chopping block. It also would prevent the closing of many of the more than 3,600 mostly rural post offices from being closed and would require additional reviews before a facility could be shuttered.
At the request of Sanders and other senators, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe last December agreed to delay any closings until May 15 to give Congress time to pass legislation. A provision in the Senate bill would extend the moratorium until after the House acts and President Barack Obama signs the postal reform bill.
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=154C2909-1AC3-4AF1-9A1D-2604A4F92938
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=2&vote=00082
Mass
(27,315 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)My PO was/is a prime candidate for closure.
Thank you Bernie.
Hope this passes in the House- that repups representing rural districts get behind it.
karynnj
(59,475 posts)This sounds like it will be good news for many - including those whose jobs were saved and those facing the loss of a post office. I wonder why Menendez voted against it.
emilyg
(22,742 posts)I trust.
karynnj
(59,475 posts)bluedigger
(17,077 posts)karynnj
(59,475 posts)many Congressmen from districts that could lose post offices - especially in rural areas will have a hard time voting against it. The question is whether the leadership there will try to stop it.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)the bill was sponsored by Lieberman, Brown, Carper and Collins.
joeybee12
(56,177 posts)Who want their SS checks on time!!!
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)K&R For one of the only sane voices left in the Senate.
SammyWinstonJack
(44,129 posts)The Wielding Truth
(11,411 posts)Iliyah
(25,111 posts)will destroy it.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)I am thinking of the use of same-day delivery for courts, etc.
Also, sometimes I like to use the Post Office because I can get a signature of the recipient when the mail is actually delivered. That provides a record of delivery with the date, etc. That can be very important.
If you send an e-mail, there is no way to know whether the recipient actually had access to an e-mail when you sent it.
A service that provided same-day delivery and some sort of registered mail or signature required on delivery would be expensive, but in cities, there would probably be enough people who would be willing to pay for it.
sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)the pension liability requirements at the root of the problem?
DCBob
(24,689 posts)Seems that should be the focus of any solution.
kentuck
(110,950 posts):kick:
klook
(12,134 posts)Sanders is a national hero, and this is one of his most important efforts.
I've been very concerned about the future of the P.O., and this is great to see.
BTennyson
(28 posts)of 11 billion will be returned to the USPS.
The PMG and his 56 VPs and special advisors will get a pay cut to the same level as cabinet heads. They will also have to pay part of their health benefits.
The 11 billion returned will be used mostly as a sweetner for those near retirement age.
Not perfect........but it's a start.
This would have never happened if the Dems had a spine and voted agains ADUBYAOL's Postal Reform in 2006.
Now it goes to the House and Issa is already tweeting that it's a dead deal. Gonna keep it in his committee.
Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)flamingdem
(39,304 posts)fantastic work considering
Jake2413
(226 posts)Finally someone with some sense!!!! Now to the House, we need to contact our Congressmen to get this passed.