Plan to Reduce Mail Deliveries Drawing National Attention

The plan to reduce postal service deliveries from six to five days for rural routes is drawing national attention. A recent Ed Show (Ed Schultz) on MSNBC brought up the subject and charged that it was part of a systematic attempt by the Congressional Republicans to destroy the middle class. A news release by the Postal Service printed in last week’s Sheridan Express cited what they said was strong public support for such a move. However, as Schultz pointed out, peoples’ attitudes would change once they found out that their Netflix movies would not arrive on Saturdays like normal thanks to the postal cutbacks.

The Washington Post, Association Press, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal all incorrectly reported that the recent financial crisis by the Postal Service was the result of more and more people relying on emails and free forms of communication instead of the Postal Service. However, the present crisis started after the Republican Congress in 2006, following the elections, passed a bill requiring them to prefund their retiree benefits for the next 75 years within a 10 year time frame. This bill was signed by President George W. Bush. As Schultz pointed out, without that requirement, the Postal Service would have been $1.5 billion in the profit.

$11.1 billion of that money to prefund retiree packages was due this year; however, the Postal Service has defaulted on that obligation. The present move of reducing mail deliveries to five days will only save the Postal Service $2 billion, far short of the amount needed to meet their obligations. Therefore, Schultz said that he feared that the next step would be two or three day deliveries. The US Senate, with bipartisan support, passed a bill that would have modified these requirements; however, Schultz charged that Congressman Darrell Issa, who chairs the US House committee responsible for that bill, was refusing to bring it to a hearing in the House. Schultz charged that the UPS, a competitor to the Postal Service, was one of Issa’s big donors and that Federal Express contributed extensively to Republican congressmen in order to hold up any efforts to lift these obligations.

Congressman Sam Graves wrote a resolution in support of keeping six day mail deliveries supported by a bipartisan coalition of Congressmen a few years ago.

Schultz said that it was a matter of keeping middle class jobs and pointed out that the Postal Service hired more veterans than any other company. The Postal Service does not receive taxpayer dollars and relies on sales for all of its income. The establishment of the Postal Service as well as roads and bridges to support mail delivery is specifically called for in the Constitution.

There were two guests on the program. One, Congressman Gerald Connolly (D-VA), said that the Postal Service did not have either the Constitutional or statutory authority to reduce mail deliveries to five days. He said that the Postal Service had not presented any analysis to justify such a move and that lost revenue and lost business from such a move could be as much as $5 billion, further accelerating losses by the Postal Service. The figure came from confidential 2012 USPS-commissioned market research obtained by Connolly’s office, which also cited a possible 7.7% in mail volume reduction.

The other guest, Audrey Hume of the Missouri Rural Letter Carriers Association, said that many rural communities rely on Saturday deliveries especially for prescription drugs. She charged that Washington had ignored the needs of workers with their plan and said that many businesses also rely on Saturday deliveries.
Connolly expanded on his remarks in a letter to the Postal Service dated February 6th co-authored by Congressman Sam Graves requesting legal justification for such a move. He said that since the USPS had repeatedly requested statutory authority from Congress to transition to a five day week, that was a clear acknowledgement that absent Congressional action, they lacked statutory authority to do so. For nearly three decades, Congress has repeatedly passed legislation prohibiting the Postal Service from transitioning to a five day week.

Specifically, Connolly and Graves cited Article I in the US Congress covering powers conferred on Congress as well as the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012, Public Law 112-74. As quoted in the letter, the latter law states, “6-day delivery and rural delivery of mail shall continue at not less than the 1983 level.” The letter also requested legal justification from the US Attorney General’s office as well as the Chairman of the US Postal Regulatory Commission as to their respective opinions regarding such a decision.

Postal Service Plans to Cut Sheridan Post Office Hours

The US Postal Service is planning to reduce the Sheridan Post Office's hours from 8 to 6. In a letter from the Post Office to postal customers received Monday, Kim Silance, CSDC Coordinator, detailed the process:

Dear Customer,
The Postal Service has established a review process for certain Post Offices known as the POST Plan. The Sheridan Post Office was among the offices evaluated under the Post Plan criteria. The Postal Service is now soliciting community input through the enclosed survey to help determine the best course of action for providing postal services to your community.

After receiving the results of his survey, the Postal Service will examine the responses and, unless the community has a strong preference (more than 60%) for conducting a discontinuance study for the Sheridan Post Office and establishing one of the additional sources of services below, the Postal Service intends to maintain the Sheridan Post Office with six hours of window service each weekday. Current Saturday window hours and access to delivery receptacles will not change as a result of the Post Plan realignment of weekday service hours.

In addition to the survey, the Postal Service will hold a meeting at the Sheridan Post Office at 126 West Jefferson, Sheridan, MO 64486 on October 15th at 2 to answer questions and provide additional information about the Post Plan. At the meeting, local management will share the results of the survey, answer questions, and solicit input regarding the time of day the Post Office will be open. Although survey results will be known and shared, the Postal Service will not make a final decision regarding this office until after the public meeting. This will enable the Postal Service to obtain all community input and opinions from both the surveys and the meeting before making a final decision.

The Postal Service is also seeking locally established businesses or organizations to serve as contractor-operated postal retail units in communities like yours. If you are interested in operating a postal retail unit, please visit the website at http://about.usps.com/news/electronic-press-kits/expandedaccess/welcome.htm for additional information. Generally, these contractor-operated postal retail units will operate in combination with a community's Post Office. However, selection of the third option in the attached survey indicates a preference of your Post Office to be studies for discontinuance with the establishment of a contractor-operated unit as a replacement for the Post Office.

Please return the enclosed survey in the postage-paid envelope provided by 10/1/2012. We kindly request the inclusion of your mailing address so that we can ensure that one survey response is submitted per address. Please note that your response may be entered into a publicly-accessible record.

There are four options in the attached survey. They are as follows:
--Keep the office open, but with realigned weekday window service hours based on what they say is actual office workload. In the case of the Sheridan Post Office, hours will be changed from the present 7.75 hours to 6 hours each weekday; Saturdays would not be affected. Access to delivery receptacles would not be affected.

--Conduct a discontinuance study for the office and provide roadside mail delivery. Retail and delivery service would be provided through a rural carrier. Mail delivery points will be established or maintained and customers can purchase most postal services through the carrier or other alternate access points.

--Conduct a discontinuance study for the office and find a suitable alternative location operated by a contractor, usually at a local business. When businesses are found that meet the criteria, these establishments are contracted through the US Postal Service and offer stamps and flat rate products with service hours generally more expansive than what they say the local Post Office may be able to offer.

--Conduct a discontinuance study for the office and relocate PO Box service to a nearby Post Office.

Postal customers are also asked to indicate their preference for weekday window service hours. Box-up time (the time when mail is delivered to mail receptacles) will likely be affected.

The Postal Service Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 changed the way that retirees were paid. Instead of paying as you go, Congress required them to prefund these accounts, meaning that the Postal Service is losing billions of dollars annually. The Postal Service planned to close post offices in Allendale, Denver, Worth, Gentry, and Parnell last year and earlier this year following lengthy reviews; however, Senator Claire McCaskill and others intervened and persuaded them to change their minds. Now, the Postal Service is seeking to reduce the hours at many rural post offices.