Federal Manager's Daily Report

The American Postal Workers Union recently managed to get about half of the Senate to sign a letter to the Appropriations Committee asking it to block the USPS from consolidating 82 of its processing facilities next year, and now it has achieved a similar result in the House.

APWU announced that 160 House members have signed a letter to the House Appropriations Committee asking it to include language in any continuing resolution to prevent the Postal Service from closing or consolidating facilities in order to preserve thousands of jobs and maintain service standards.

Most lawmakers signing the letters are Democrats but a few Republicans have signed on, including Rep. Ed Joyce, R-Ohio., and Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.

The chair and ranking members of the Sen. Homeland Security Committee, Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., refused to sign the letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee. They are sponsoring postal reform legislation which passed their committee on by 9 to 1 earlier in the year but that has languished because of opposition from interests including postal unions concerned about job losses from restructuring.

The sponsors recently asked their colleagues not to “kick the can down the road” and instead act on postal reform this year. However, the last chance for action this year now lies in a post-election session of Congress.