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I hope everyone will write letters to the Congress and Postmaster General in defense of our postal service. Seems to me the time has come to put to beneficial use the enforced savings fund for future postal workers’ health benefits, which I hear now holds $50 billion. This would make much more sense than burdening the USPS with a loan with destructive strings attached. The address for Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan and the USPS Governing Board is 475 L'Enfant Berkeley ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Senator Ron Johnson, Chair Senator Gary Peters, Ranking Member Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee 340 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC, 20510 

Re: U.S. Postal Service 

Dear Senators Johnson and Peters, 

I write to object in the strongest possible terms to the efforts of the President to terminate the USPS. This effort has been ongoing for years and we taxpayers are sick of it. The Congress is willing to flow billions of our tax dollars to the military-industrial complex every year but some think we should do without our Postal Service, which is important to all of us, but especially important to rural communities. It provides our country’s only universal delivery and communications network and connects 160 million homes and businesses all over the country. The Coronavirus crisis has seriously stressed the Postal Service with sharp reduction in revenue and increased costs. 

The U.S. Postal Service, which employs a high percentage of veterans, has stepped up to help keep our country working during the COVID-19 crisis and to ensure that voters can vote by mail if not in person. It urgently needs Federal government support, but so far has received little. The 2006 Congress's attempt to bankrupt the USPS by requiring $5.5 billion per year to be saved for future employee health benefits has resulted in a fund with $50 billion saved toward that end. The USPS should be given access to this fund to make up for the COVID-19 losses. A loan with destructive strings attached is not a solution. 

Our national Postal Service, like the Park Service, the FDA, the State Department, was created to serve the needs of the U.S. public. It was a misguided Congress that passed the 1971 Postal Reorganization Act that cut off taxpayer support and required the Postal Service to make a profit. And it does so every year, except for the artificial debt incurred by the 2006 requirement to pre-pay $5.5 billion a year for employee benefits 75 years into the future, an unprecedented and irrational demand. 

The U.S. Postal Service is a highly valued public service that is essential to big cities, small cities, and rural communities for its economic, social, and cultural benefits. Our post offices not only provide mailing services and decent jobs, but they serve as informal but essential community meeting places in towns across the country. They provide Americans—businesses and individuals—with convenient, efficient, affordable mailing services in downtowns everywhere in the country. Many of them, like mine, are enhanced by historic murals, bas-reliefs, beautiful design, and handsome materials. Our government once honored its citizen taxpayers by building beautiful public buildings for our use. 

The effort by the President and some in Congress to privatize public services such as our highly valued postal service, enshrined in our Constitution, is absolutely unacceptable. I strongly support the proposal to allow the Postal Service to expand its services and products. A return of the Postal Banking system would serve the needs of the many individuals the big banks no longer serve. The USPS governing board should commit to these constructive plans. 

We want the Congress and the Postmaster General to defend our Postal Service, not oversee its destruction.  

l CC: USPS Board of Governors, c/o Secretary Michael J. Elston Megan J. Brennan, Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer House Speaker Pelosi Senators Feinstein, Harris Representative Barbara Lee