THE STARTING 'FIX' FOR USPS IN TIME FOR OCTOBER EARLY MAILING

[ancianita]

THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. THIS CAN BE DONE IN ONE MONTH. ONE MONTH.

1. BY SEPT 15: RETURN old and install replacement high speed sorter equipment across states.

2. BY SEPT 20: CERTIFY (ONLY by local postmasters sign off) the functionality of all 600+ high speed mail sorters across states.

3. BY SEPT 20: CERTIFY the finished reinstallment of all mail collection boxes from the streets.

4. BY SEPT 20: CONGRESS CANCELS THE CONTRACT DE JOY set up with his personally connected private mail carrier, overriding the barely existing Postal Service Board's approvals.

5. BY JAN 30 2021:
A. CONGRESS SHALL RE-COMPOSE ALL NEW MEMBERS FOR THE POSTAL SERVICE BOARD
B. CONGRESS WILL REQUIRE QUARTERLY REPORTS THE POSTMASTER GENERAL ON BUDGETING AND PERSONNEL NEEDS.



Historically, Congress has not enacted specific policies concerning the extent of the USPS’s use of contractors to deliver mail. It has left the matter to be decided by the Postal Service and its letter carrier unions through collective bargaining and the grievance process. Congress may continue this practice, reasoning that the USPS has legitimate grounds to pursue cost-savings via the use of contractors.

Contractors have been used to collect, transport, sort, and deliver mail; and machines built by private firms do much of the mail sorting work once performed by USPS employees.

Letter carriage would not appear to be an inherently governmental function under current procurement policy, so the USPS should be free to outsource this work as it deems proper.

But given the essential frontline nature of USPS in recent decades, that is the current issue.

Congress may choose to intervene, viewing the issue as involving an unintended conflict arising out of two national policies—USPS operational efficiency and the rights of unionized, federal employees. The two are not mutually exclusive, were Postal Service Board members not predominantly composed from the business world.

From this perspective, it could be argued that the USPS is supposed to be a self-supporting agency; but that does not necessitate that the USPS should be permitted to outsource however much postal work it chooses. The postal service may forever be a service and not a business, despite the conflict of issues board members might impose on the federal employees.

It might be further argued that there is a positive societal benefit in the federal government hiring individuals (often minorities and veterans) and compensating them well.

Thus, Congress might either ban the practice of using contractors to deliver mail (or perform other mail-movement activities); or it could limit the amount of mail delivery work performed by contractors — perhaps by capping the percentage of routes served by non-USPS employees.

Were Congress either to ban or limit the use of contractors, it might wish to consider helping the USPS recoup any lost savings by providing it with additional authorities to increase its revenues or decrease its operating costs. It could change the current undue burdening standard for pension solvency, which has amounted to defunding USPS.

The essential frontline nature of USPS in recent decades, and its proper funding and functioning is America's future concern.

Congress will HAVE to name post offices less, and take on the regular and indispensable oversight of the U.S. Postal Service more. More. Pandemics and climate crises will necessitate that Congress run the U.S. Postal Service, NOT the president and NOT any corporate business board.

[Hoyt]

1. Worst case, there are still over 3,800 sorters in place. They can handle roughly 1.1 Billion letters

a day (just 8 hours, not running at night at processing centers). That assumes all the removed sorters were decommissioned, which is not the fact.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/16/politics/usps-documents-sorting-machine-removal-order/index.html


The mailboxes are not much of an issue. The post office has removed 240,000 since 1985, that's an average of 6,850 a year.


Finally, Just vote, contribute, vote early, use drop boxes where available, etc.

"Don't fall prey to alarmists on both sides of this debate."

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1016&pid=266283

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=13929072

[ancianita]

2. Whew. Good to know.

I hope Speaker Pelosi and the House Oversight Committee consider all these steps and demand De Joy's replacement, recommending that the House itself replace him.

[Qutzupalotl]

3. The problem is where the reductions occurred.

The USPS may have adequate overall capacity for current operations, but it remains to be seen whether they can handle pandemic-level voting. More importantly, there have been major reductions in blue areas, but not red. This looks deliberate: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/usps-states-delayed-mail-in-ballots/2020/08/14/64bf3c3c-dcc7-11ea-8051-d5f887d73381_story.html