Mired in the worst economic crisis in its history, the U.S. Postal Service is facing abandonment by the Trump administration.
A decades-long financial slump has worsened because of the pandemic plunge of first-class and marketing mail, according to The Washingon Post. The USPS needs a major infusion of cash, but President Donald Trump is blocking emerency funding for the agency of some 600,000 employees.
The president believes that higher rates for internet shipping companies Amazon, FedEx and UPS would right the service’s budget, a position disputed by numerous experts.
Trump threatened to veto the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or Cares Act, if the legislation contained any money directed to bail out the postal agency, a senior Trump administration official and a congressional official quoted by the Post.
"We told them very clearly that the president was not going to sign the bill if [money for the Postal Service] was in it," the Trump administration official told the Post. "I don't know if we used the v-bomb, but the president was not going to sign it, and we told them that."
Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said in late March that the USPS will not survive the summer without a major infusion.
"The postal service is in need of urgent help as a direct result of the coronavirus crisis," they said. "Based on a number of briefings and warnings this week about a critical fall-off in mail across the country, it has become clear that the postal service will not survive the summer without immediate help from Congress and the White House.
"Every community in America relies on the Postal Service to deliver vital goods and services, including life-saving medications. The postal service needs America's help, and we must answer this call.
"According to the Postal Service, it is facing a potentially drastic direct effect in the near term on mail volumes and could be forced to cease operations as early as June."
Congress originally agreed to a $13 billion direct grant for the agency, but that was blocked by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin during relief act negotiations.
Only a $10 billion loan made it into law, over Mnuchin’s objections.
Without that loan, which awaits approval by the Treasury Department, the Postal Service would be “financially illiquid” by Sept. 30, according to estimates provided to lawmakers quoted by the Post.
Conservatives have long talked about privatizing the mail delivery in the United States.
The Postal Service now projects it will lose $2 billion each month through the coronavirus recession while postal workers maintain the nationwide service of delivering essential mail and parcels, such as prescriptions, food and household necessities.
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