Burlington, VT - August 29, 2015 (The Stuff Gazette) -- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) sent a letter to Postmaster General Megan Brennan urging the Postal Service to reinstate overnight mail delivery standards in light of a recent report finding significant delays in the delivery of mail.
The report from the United States Postal Service’s Inspector General found that since the Postal Service eliminated overnight delivery standards in January, there has been a 48 percent increase in the time it takes to process mail. As a result, letters that should have been delivered in three to five days have been late up to 44 percent of the time during the first five months of this year.
“It is abundantly clear that the Postal Service’s decision to shut down more than 140 mail processing plants a few years ago and to eliminate overnight delivery standards this year has been a disaster that is negatively impacting Americans all over this country,” Sanders wrote in the letter. “I would urge the Postal Service to reinstate overnight delivery standards and speed up the delivery of mail as soon as possible.”
The slowdown in mail delivery has hurt seniors living on fixed incomes, veterans, and people living in rural areas particularly hard. In the letter, Sanders noted that “veterans and seniors have complained that it is now taking 9, and sometimes as much as 11 days, for them to receive life-saving prescriptions through the mail.”
Sanders has been leading the fight against cuts to the Postal Service. Sanders noted in the letter that the most significant reason for the financial problems at the Postal Service is due to the 2006 Bush-era mandate forcing it to pay $5.5 billion a year to prefund future retiree benefits. Excluding this mandate, the Postal Service has made more than $2 billion in profits over the past three years.
Sanders also announced he will reintroduce the Postal Service Protection Act, which fixes the immediate fiscal problem of the Postal Service by ending a disastrous Bush-era mandate to pre-fund 75 years of retiree health benefits over a 10-year period; establishes new ways the Postal Service can generate revenue; prevents the closing of rural post offices; protects 6-day delivery; and protects mail processing facilities.
On April 15, 85 senators voted for an amendment that Sen. Sanders offered to the Budget Resolution calling on the Postal Service to reinstate overnight delivery standards for first-class mail and to impose a moratorium on mail processing plant closures.
Showing posts with label Postal Service. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Postal Service. Show all posts
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Stuff in the news: Postal Service, Patient Access, Energy, Education, Homosexual Blood Donations
U.S. Senator David Perdue (R-GA), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations State Department Subcommittee, has been calling for an independent review of a State Department proposal to construct a brand new training center in Virginia, instead of using an established federal training facility in Georgia that could save taxpayers millions of dollars. Senator Perdue led a joint Georgia Delegation letter requesting additional information from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and introduced a provision that was included in the State Department Authorization bill. Similar language was included in the Senate Appropriations process. Recently, Senator Perdue visited the FLETC facility in Brunswick, Georgia and continues to push for Congressional oversight of this process.
U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI) joined his colleagues in introducing legislation to improve rural mail service and delivery and provide protections for post offices and postal employees in rural communities across the country. The Rural Postal Act of 2015 would place a two-year moratorium on postal mail processing facility closures, restore delivery standards and preserve six-day mail home delivery.
U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), John Thune (R-S.D.), and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) introduced legislation to increase patient access to medical devices by removing government red tape. The Accelerating Innovation in Medicine (AIM) Act, authored by Portman and Heinrich, will streamline access to medical devices by giving patients the option to self-pay rather than going through the time-consuming Medicare coverage process. It will also allow doctors to present patients with more choices when deciding on the best care for them.
U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Al Franken (D-Minn.) introduced legislation, S.1755, to extend the Residential Energy Efficient Property Tax Credit (25D) by five years. The legislation would extend a successful tax credit that helps families pay for residential clean energy equipment, such as solar photovoltaics, solar hot water heaters, geothermal heat pumps, and small wind turbines.
Affirming his belief that every child should have access to a high quality education, U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), a leading voice for school choice in the U.S. Senate, has offeredS.Amdt. 2132 to the Every Child Achieves Act (ECAA) to allow Title I funds to follow low-income children and strengthen educational options for their parents. Currently being debated on the Senate floor, the Every Child Achieves Act (ECAA) would reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the principal law governing the federal role in K-12 education.
United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Representatives Mike Quigley (D-IL) and Barbara Lee (D-CA), and 79 of their congressional colleagues sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in response to the agency's draft guidance document, which, if finalized, would change the blood donation policy for men who have sex with men (MSM) from a lifetime ban to a one-year deferral from the donor's last sexual contact with another man. "While we appreciate the FDA's willingness to address this issue and release draft guidance to alter the current policy," the members wrote, "we continue to have deep concerns about many of the conclusions and statements made in the Draft, and about the lack of plan to move towards a fully risk-based system."
U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI) joined his colleagues in introducing legislation to improve rural mail service and delivery and provide protections for post offices and postal employees in rural communities across the country. The Rural Postal Act of 2015 would place a two-year moratorium on postal mail processing facility closures, restore delivery standards and preserve six-day mail home delivery.
U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), John Thune (R-S.D.), and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) introduced legislation to increase patient access to medical devices by removing government red tape. The Accelerating Innovation in Medicine (AIM) Act, authored by Portman and Heinrich, will streamline access to medical devices by giving patients the option to self-pay rather than going through the time-consuming Medicare coverage process. It will also allow doctors to present patients with more choices when deciding on the best care for them.
U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Al Franken (D-Minn.) introduced legislation, S.1755, to extend the Residential Energy Efficient Property Tax Credit (25D) by five years. The legislation would extend a successful tax credit that helps families pay for residential clean energy equipment, such as solar photovoltaics, solar hot water heaters, geothermal heat pumps, and small wind turbines.
Affirming his belief that every child should have access to a high quality education, U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), a leading voice for school choice in the U.S. Senate, has offeredS.Amdt. 2132 to the Every Child Achieves Act (ECAA) to allow Title I funds to follow low-income children and strengthen educational options for their parents. Currently being debated on the Senate floor, the Every Child Achieves Act (ECAA) would reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the principal law governing the federal role in K-12 education.
United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Representatives Mike Quigley (D-IL) and Barbara Lee (D-CA), and 79 of their congressional colleagues sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in response to the agency's draft guidance document, which, if finalized, would change the blood donation policy for men who have sex with men (MSM) from a lifetime ban to a one-year deferral from the donor's last sexual contact with another man. "While we appreciate the FDA's willingness to address this issue and release draft guidance to alter the current policy," the members wrote, "we continue to have deep concerns about many of the conclusions and statements made in the Draft, and about the lack of plan to move towards a fully risk-based system."
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