USPS delivers vital services to Mainers as its future hangs in the balance

As most business operations in Maine ground to a halt last month intending to stave off the worst projections of novel coronavirus spread, the U.S. Postal Service was among the few agencies that continued operating according to schedule. But the stalwart government delivery service is now facing financial instability that could pose a major issue for Maine’s elderly and rural populations.

On April 9, Postmaster General Megan Brennan told members of the U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee that the agency could run out of money before the end of September, the close of the fiscal year.

“The Postal Service will not survive without any money from a stimulus bill. It will not,” said Mark Seitz, president of the Portland-based National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 92, which represents 585 postal workers in Maine

The USPS employs about 3,300 workers in Maine and over 600,000 nationwide.

Seitz said the USPS has lost nearly 50 percent of its business in letter delivery in northern New England while parcel delivery is up 20 percent.

“The volume drop should theoretically save time, but it takes more time to deliver 20 extra parcels than it does a couple hundred letters or magazines,” he explained.

Not only that, but postal workers are operating on the frontlines of the pandemic. Nationally, 1790 USPS workers nationwide have tested positive for COVID-19 and 21 have died, the union leaders said. In Maine so far there has been one positive case.

Threats to services

If the agency doesn’t get the funds it needs to keep operating, it could result in a huge cut to this workforce and delayed deliveries, according to Seitz. That could spell trouble for Mainers, particularly the elderly and those living in rural communities, a demographic of more than 500,000 in 2018 according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics.

The USPS plays a vital role in delivering prescription drugs through the mail, one of many services the agency offers that would be jeopardized by cutbacks, according to Seitz. Those who can no longer get prescriptions through the mail could be forced to leave their houses and commute to stores.

The agency also delivers to a wider range of localities than corporate delivery services like FedEx and UPS. Seitz said that the USPS handles about 40 percent of FedEx’s packages and 25 percent of UPS’s.

“You live in some of these rural towns, there’s only one place, maybe two places. What happens if they’re closed or the owner of that business gets sick? You have no place to go. And the connection for a lot of people is the postal service,” he said.

With a national debate roaring over expanding voting by mail, cutbacks to the USPS could also pose logistical and public health challenges for the general election in November.

Fixing a manufactured crisis

The agency’s financial woes began long before the pandemic. In 2006, Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, requiring the USPS to refund its retirees’ health benefits 75 years in advance at the cost of $5 billion per year.

Experts with the Institute for Policy Studies say this is a burden that “applies to no other federal agency or private corporation,” making it much less competitive with its corporate counterparts. IPS argues that Congress essentially “manufactured” the USPS’ solvency crisis.

Now, with the additional challenges presented by a global pandemic, the USPS is in near-dire straights.

Some political leaders in Maine have urged the federal government to keep the agency afloat. During a virtual round table she held with local mail carrier union leaders on April 21, Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon called on the federal government to include funding requested by the U.S. Postal Service to preserve mail service throughout the country in further coronavirus relief.

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree cosponsored a bill, the Protect Our Post Offices Act, which would grant the agency $25 billion in emergency funds.

As part of the $2 trillion economic stimulus package passed in late March, the Treasury was authorized to provide $10 billion to the USPS. But the loans are highly conditional and included stipulations like raising rates for contracted Amazon deliveries. President Trump has insisted on the higher rates for years as he has engaged in a personal and political feud with Amazon owner Jeff Bezos.

The Washington Post reported on April 11 that President Donald Trump threatened to veto the relief bill if it included funds to bail out the USPS.

Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin has not signed off on the loans, either, but Sietz says even that money isn’t enough to keep the USPS going.

“The loan is useless to us,” he said. “It doesn’t do anything. Borrow $10 billion dollars to do what? To keep us solvent for another two months? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Referring to previous requests for financial support for the USPS to be included in relief bills, Seitz said, “They need the $25 billion stimulus package, at least. If not more than that. It shouldn’t come with any strings.”

Photo: Linda Owens, Creative Commons via flickr