Maine farmers have blamed the recent changes to the U.S. Postal Service after they received thousands of dead baby chicks due to shipping delays. The state’s postal workers blamed the delay on a bill passed by sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, that “weakened the Postal Service” – and is facing a tough re-election campaign this fall.
At least 4,800 chicks sent to Maine farmers via the USPS have died in recent weeks, the Portland Press Herald reported.
“It’s one more of the consequences of this disorganization, this kind of chaos they have created at the post office and no one thought through when they thought of delaying the post,” rep said. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, The Newspaper. “This is a system that has always worked before and it worked very well until these changes started to occur.”
Operational changes made by recently installed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a top donor to President Trump and the Republican Party, have been blamed for a delay in the post that has resulted in the delivery of medication, government assistance and other vital services. DeJoy said the cash-strapped bureau implemented the changes as austerity measures.
“Shortly after or equal to that [DeJoy] came on board … the business line was that it was a cost-saving measure, “said Kimberly Karol, president of the Iowa Postal Workers Union, Salon. But the reality is that it affects service standards and, whether intentionally or not, this changes the time frames our customers receive in email. “
Postmen say the agency would not be in a financial hole if not for the Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA), a bill co-sponsored by Collins back in 2005. The bill required the agency to retire 75 years before retirement. has in advance, something that does not require from another federal entity.
Collins said on the floor of the Senate in 2006 that it “was not a perfect bill”, but “I am convinced that it will put the US Postal Service on a sound financial footing for years to come.”
Instead, the bureau’s financial problems are largely the result of the mandate in the law, which passed in 2006 with bipartisan support during a lame-duck session before Democrats took over the Senate.
“That kind of put us in a hole on paper and made it look like we were losing money,” Mark Seitz, president of the National Association of Carriers, local 92, told the Maine Beacon.
The USPS has raised more than $ 160 billion in debt, about $ 119 billion of which has resulted from the mandate to pay pension benefits.
“That bill had a few good things in it, but it had a spoiler with this mandate for pre-financing,” John Curtis, a retired mail carrier, told the Beacon. Collins, he continued, “helped set the scene for the current attacks on the postal service. … They weaken the postal service to the point that people like our president can point it out and say, ‘Here’s a crisis.'”
President Donald Trump’s Task Force on the U.S. Postal Service, led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, called for the policy to be maintained in 2018 so that financial burdens would not “shift to taxpayers,” who ‘ t call on conservatives to privatize the agency.
“Collins has never spoken out in public in favor of privatization. She is very careful about that,” Curtis told the Beacon. “But when you look at their actions, they all trend in that direction.”
The postal service reform has been a major focus for Collins for nearly two decades. The Maine senator introduced a bill to create a postal reform commission in 2002 that later recommended “that the private sector be more involved in the delivery of the nation’s mail.”
After taking over the chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, which oversees the USPS, Collins held several hearings on the commission’s recommendations, which also included a proposal to create a “reserve account.” to pay for future health benefits for pensions. The hearings culminated with the introduction of the PAEA, which was co-sponsored by sen. Tom Carper, D-Del.
Along with obliging the USPS to provide retirement benefits, the bill also prevented the agency from raising rates above inflation figures, effectively prohibiting the agency from covering the growing gap in its operating expenses. This was an impetus for private competitors such as FedEx and UPS, who were able to keep their rates low while contracting the ‘last mile’ of supplies to the USPS, especially in remote areas where supplies are not profitable.
While the USPS has not posted a profit since the bill was passed, FedEx saw its revenue double between 2006 and 2018 and UPS increased its revenue by tens of billions.
Collins’ work on postal reform also appears to be a financial benefit to her. Collins has received more than $ 200,000 from PACs representing the private competitors and contractors of USPS, and tens of thousands more from the executives and employees of those companies. FedEx has been one of Collins’ biggest supporters and even has held a birthday fundraiser for her a few years after the passage of PAEA in 2010. Collins’ annual financial reports also show that her husband owned a stake in UPS and FedEx in periods between 2012 and 2014.
Collins, who is one of the most vulnerable Republicans re-elected this year, issued a loud statement in response to current concerns about the apparent effects of the postal delay on drug and government aid deliveries – and possibly post-election votes .
“If people can not depend on the Postal Service for fast delivery of mail or parcels, it will only further damage the Financial Service of the Postal Service,” Collins said.
She also sent a letter to DeJoy, expressing her concern about the delay and urging the agency to “take steps to remove the factors causing delays in essential supplies.”
Collins’ campaign did not respond to Salon’s questions.
Collins introduced in July a bill that would provide $ 25 billion for the Postal Service, with a condition that the agency requires a long-term financial plan to be given to lawmakers. House Democrats approved $ 25 billion with no strings attached in a coronavirus supply bill in May, but House Republicans have so far been on the ballot to provide additional USF funding in their compensation proposal.
Trump, who is badly pursued in questioning and false conspiracy theories spinning over postal ballots, has promised to block funding for the USPS, saying he believes that without it “you can not have universal post-in-vote , “although his top supporters have been trying to backtrack on these comments in recent days.
Karol told Salon that it was “an immediate need of the agency to get the funding of COVID relief”, but the long-term goal is to “stop some of these very destructive policies” by demanding that Congress meet the requirements of the PAEA is working again.
“For many, many years … we have tried to get Congress to address that,” Karol said, adding that she hopes the public need for USPS service changes will force lawmakers to correct “the problems that arise.” made legislation. “
“Ultimately,” she said, “that law is responsible for how we are where we are now.”
