WASHINGTON – Today, Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (OH-11) voted for the Delivering for America Act to protect and strengthen the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and ensure Americans can safely exercise their right to vote amid the COVID-19 pandemic.  The legislation prohibits the Postal Service from implementing any changes to operations or level of service it had in place on January 1, 2020 and provides $25 billion in critical funding to support the USPS.

The vote comes at the same time as newly uncovered internal Postal Service documents warning Postmaster General DeJoy about steep declines and increasing delays nationwide over the last two months, delays that are far worse than originally believed.

“The Post Office provides an essential public service to all Americans, connecting communities across the country,” said Rep. Fudge.  “From letters and medications to census forms and absentee ballots, the Postal Service provides a critical service, delivering more than 400 million pieces of mail daily. 

“The Administration’s recent policy and operational changes have undermined the ability of the nation’s 650,000 postal workers to do their jobs, leading to mail delays in Ohio and across the country.  More alarming, the President admitted last week he has been blocking emergency funding for the Postal Service to prevent Americans from safely voting from home in the upcoming election.  Attacking the post office means attacking families who need their paychecks, veterans and seniors who need their medication, small businesses who need to get their products to consumers, and Americans who wish to safely vote from home during a pandemic.

“I am proud to support passage of this bill, which gives the Postal Service the funding it needs, returns delivery standards to their previous levels, protects a time-honored institution, and ensures no American has to choose between their health and their vote in November.”

The Delivering for America Act would prohibit:

• Any change that would generally affect service on a nationwide or substantially nationwide basis;
• Any revision of existing service standards;
• Closing, consolidating or reducing the hours of any post office or postal facility;
• Any prohibition on paying overtime to Postal Service officers or employees;
• Any change that would prevent the Postal Service from meeting its service standards or cause a decline in measurements of performance relative to those standards; and
• Any change that would have the effect of delaying mail or increasing the volume of undelivered mail.

This legislation will also:

• Include $25 billion requested by the Postal Service and supported unanimously and on a bipartisan basis by the Trump-appointed Postal Board of Governors;
• Require the Postal Service to treat all official election mail as First-Class mail;
• Prohibit the removal, decommissioning or other stoppage of mail sorting machines, other than for routine maintenance;
• Prohibit the removal of mailboxes; and
• Explicitly reverse any changes already implemented to the operations or policies of the Postal Service that delay mail delivery.

For the bill text of the Delivering for America Act, click here.

 

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