Top Congressional Democrats warn that an emergency loan deal announced Wednesday by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major donor to President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, could “accelerate the disappearance of the Postal Service “by giving the administration unprecedented access to the internal operations of the popular agency.
“Secretary Mnuchin and the leadership of the United States Postal Service appear to be exploiting this public health pandemic to keep the Postal Service on unreasonable loan terms without even consulting Congress,” said Representative Carolyn Maloney (DN.Y.) , Senator Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), and Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.) in a joint statement Wednesday night.
“The Trump administration’s attempts to politicize, privatize, and gut the USPS amid an unprecedented pandemic and vote by mail is one of the biggest scandals in American politics at the moment.”
—Ari Berman, Mother jones
According to a loan term sheet (pdf) released by lawmakers, the USPS will gain access to $ 10 billion in emergency funds approved by Congress in March, provided the agency meets a series of requirements, which They include providing the Trump administration with “historical and protected business, financial, operational, contractual and planning data that the Treasury may determine are necessary to assess the current and future financial situation of the USPS.”
The agreement also requires the USPS to provide the Treasury Department with access to proprietary information about the private sector Postal Service shipping contracts and prohibits the agency from accessing emergency funds if its “cash balance exceeds $ 8 billion.” .
In a statement, Mnuchin praised the agreement as a step in the direction of “the president’s goal of establishing a sustainable business model under which the USPS can continue to provide the necessary mail service for all Americans, without shifting costs to taxpayers. ” In April, Trump called the USPS a “joke” and demanded that it dramatically increase package prices amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused a sharp decline in mail volume.
Maloney, Peters, Connolly and Carper said on Wednesday that the terms agreed upon by Mnuchin and DeJoy, who took over from the USPS last month, “would inappropriately insert the Treasury into the internal operations of the Postal Service.”
“These terms would severely limit the Postal Service’s access to capital and could accelerate the demise of the Postal Service on which all Americans, especially older adults, small businesses, veterans, and those living in rural communities, depend every day. , especially during the pandemic, “lawmakers said. “We will not stop fighting to protect this critical service on which communities depend and to ensure that all Americans can safely participate in the November elections.”
The new loan deal comes as DeJoy continues to rush through radical operational changes to the USPS that postal workers believe are part of a deliberate effort to sabotage the beloved government institution and put it on the road to privatization, a long-term goal. of the conservative movement. .
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Last week, like Common dreams The USPS leadership reportedly launched a pilot program that could cause significant delays in mail delivery by preventing postal workers from sorting packages during their morning operations. In Portland, Maine, mail carriers allege they are being ordered to delay first-class packages to prioritize Amazon packages.
"Undermining and degrading the Postal Service helps frustrate the customer, setting the stage for privatization," said Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Union of Postal Workers. The interception. "The Trump administration is registered for raising prices, reducing service, and reducing workers' rights and benefits."
Motherboard reported Monday that "post offices across the country are cutting their hours, even during the busiest times of the day, with little notice as yet another abrupt cost-saving measure" implemented by DeJoy, formerly the CEO of New Breed Logistics , a private company with A History of Anti-Union Activity.
"In addition to West Virginia and New Jersey, post offices in Berkeley, California; Petersburg, Alaska, Youngstown, Ohio, and Knoxville, Tennessee have announced similar plans to cut hours." Motherboard reported. "All the changes that Motherboard has reviewed were announced only by posters hanging on the doors of the post office."
In addition to damaging the credibility of the USPS, which ranks as the most popular government agency in the United States, DeJoy's cost-cutting measures also threaten to disrupt the upcoming election as record numbers of Americans resort to voting by mail as the safest way to cast your vote in the midst of the pandemic.
"The Trump administration's attempts to politicize, privatize, and gut the USPS amid an unprecedented pandemic and vote by mail is one of the biggest scandals in American politics at the moment." Mother jones Journalist Ari Berman tweeted on Wednesday.
In an opinion piece for NJ.com This week, Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (DN.J.) warned that "the electoral implications for the destruction of the Postal Service are far-reaching."
"If he is forced to restrict his service," wrote Pascrell, "our ability to hold national elections could be destroyed."
