There are those that say the Trump administration is trying to sabotage the US Postal Service for the purposes of affecting the November election in Trump’s favor. Is this really about the election, and is it really a crisis as some would have you believe? Newell invited Sam Berger onto the show to discuss. Berger is the Vice President for Democracy and Government Reform at the Center for American Progress.
“Sam, there’s obviously a lot of political posturing going on around this,” Newell began. “Nancy Pelosi is calling the House back this Saturday to pass a $25 billion aid package that’s been recommended by the Postal Service Commission. Is this about the election, or is this merely a political issue?”“This is about more than just the election,” Berger said. “The USPS is a backbone of American life. It’s critical to our economy, it’s critical to our health system, and yes, it’s critical to our democracy. People rely on the postal system for all kinds of things, whether it be veterans and seniors receiving their medicine, people paying their bills, receiving benefits… it’s a critical lifeline for people across this country, and the idea that you’d sabotage it in an effort to undermine the election is abhorrent.”“In what way is it being sabotaged?” Newell continued. “Nowhere in that $25 billion package does it say this is about enhancing mail services for the purpose of the election. To the contrary, the only thing it says is that the money can be used for PPE. They’re not going bankrupt between now and the election, are they?”“To be clear on what the bill does, it’s not simply that it provides a cash infusion which the USPS needs for long-term sustainability, it undoes some of the changes we’ve seen the current Postmaster General (a major Trump donor who was just recently installed) has put into place,” Berger answered. “It says you have to reset everything to the way it was working on January 1st of this year. No changes that degrade service, or cause delays. That's really the core of what needs to happen right now, we need to undo these changes to make sure there’s no ability for the Postmaster General to engage in underhanded or secretive efforts to undermine the way the service operates.”
“What specifically are the changes that we know for certain that are causing a delay?” Newell asked. “I hear what union representatives are saying, one of the things these changes are attacking is overtime, which is running about a billion dollars a year. Another is about sorting machines, but the number of parcels they’re handling is going down every year.”“It’s not actually clear from the outside everything that they are doing, they’re being incredibly secretive about it,” Berger said. “Refusing to provide information, hiding some of it, in one case, claiming they weren’t doing that and then later admitting that they were. Some of the big things involved the limits on overtime, and one of the reasons that is so important is that postal workers are on the front line, going door to door and some of them are getting sick. That means other people need to put in additional time, and that’s necessary to meet the standards the Postal Service has set for itself… it’s a lot of technical changes that are having major impacts, and you see people across the country raising concerns about delays, concerns raised by unions, workers themselves, and former officials. I don’t think there’s any question the mail is slowing down, the Postmaster General acknowledged that himself. That’s not open for debate.”
