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Leading Congressional Democrats warn that emergency loan deal announcement By Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and new Post Minister Louis DeJoy – a major donor to President Donald Trump and the GOP – could “speed up the demise of the postal service” by giving the administration unprecedented access to internal operations on Wednesday from the popular agency.
“Secretary Mnuchin and the leadership of the US Postal Service appear to be exploiting this public health pandemic to force the Postal Service on unreasonable loan terms without even consulting Congress,” said Representative Carolyn Maloney (DN.Y.), on Senator Gary Peters. (D-Mich.), Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) And Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.) In a joint statement Wednesday evening.
According to a loan terms sheet (pdf) released by lawmakers, the USPS will have access to $ 10 billion in emergency funding approved by Congress in March, provided the agency meets a number of requirements, including providing the Trump administration “historical and protected affairs, operational, contractual, and planning data that the Treasury may deem necessary to assess the current and future financial condition of the USPS.”
The deal also requires the USPS to give the Treasury Department access to proprietary information about postal services. private sector shipping contracts and prohibits the agency from accessing emergency funds if its “cash balance exceeds $ 8 billion.”
In a declaration, Mnuchin hailed the agreement as a step in the direction of “the president’s goal of establishing a sustainable business model in which USPS can continue to provide the necessary postal service to all Americans, without shifting costs to taxpayers “. In April, Trump called the USPS was a “joke” and demanded that it dramatically increase parcel prices amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which has caused mail volume to drop sharply.
Maloney, Peters, Connolly and Carper said on Wednesday that terms agreed upon by Mnuchin and DeJoy – who took over as head of the USPS last month – “would inappropriately insert the Treasury into the internal operations of the Postal Service.”
“These conditions would severely limit the postal service’s access to capital and could hasten the demise of the postal service that all Americans, especially the elderly, small businesses, veterans and those who live in rural communities, rely on. every day, especially during the pandemic, ”lawmakers said. “We will not stop fighting to protect this essential service on which communities depend and to ensure that every American can safely participate in the November election.”
The new loan deal comes as DeJoy continues to rush with sweeping operational changes at the USPS that postal workers believe are part of a deliberate effort to sabotage the beloved government institution and put it on the path to privatization – a long-standing goal of the conservative movement.
Last week like Common dreams reported, USPS management has launched a pilot program that could cause significant delays in mail delivery by prohibiting postmen from sorting packages during their morning operations. In Portland, Maine, letter carriers allege they are responsible for delaying first class packages in order to prioritize Amazon packages.
“Undermining and degrading the postal service helps frustrate the customer, which paves the way for its privatization,” Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, Recount Interception. “The Trump administration has officially raised prices, cut services, and cut workers’ rights and benefits. “
Motherboard reported Monday that “post offices across the country are cutting their hours – including during the busiest hours of the day – with little notice as another brutal cost-saving measure” implemented by DeJoy, formerly CEO of New Breed Logistics, a private company with a history of anti-union activity.
“In addition to West Virginia and New Jersey, the post offices of Berkeley, California; St. Petersburg, Alaska, Youngstown, Ohio, and Knoxville, Tennessee announced similar plans to reduce hours ”, Motherboard reported. “All of the changes Motherboard reviewed were only announced by signs hanging on the doors of post offices.”
In addition to damaging the credibility of the USPS – which ranks as the most popular government agency in the United States – DeJoy’s cost reduction measures also threaten to disrupt upcoming elections as record numbers of Americans turn to postal voting as the safest way to vote amid the pandemic.
“The Trump administration’s attempts to politicize, privatize and gut the USPS amid a pandemic and unprecedented mail-in vote is one of the biggest scandals in American politics right now,” Mother Jones journalist Ari Berman tweeted Wednesday.
In a editorial for NJ.com this week, Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (DN.J.) warned that “the electoral implications for the destruction of the postal service are critical.”
“If he is forced to reduce his services,” Pascrell wrote, “our ability to hold a national election could be wiped out.”
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