Washington, D.C. – Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (R-TX), a member of the House Rules Committee and Republican Leader of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, recently finished speaking on the House floor about H.R. 8015 - Delivering for America Act does not solve the manufactured crisis House Democrats have created for the U.S. Postal Service.
As Prepared for Delivery:
H.R. 8015, the Delivering for America Act is a rushed, unnecessary piece of legislation that will not address the core problems of the United States Postal Service. This bill appropriates a 25 billion dollar bailout using emergency supplemental spending, removing it from the previously agreed bipartisan budget agreement numbers, and prohibits the Postal Service from making several important reforms until next year at the earliest. If this bill is intended to improve the efficiency or effectiveness of the Postal Service, it totally misses the mark.
There is no doubt that the United State Postal Service is in trouble; every member of this chamber, both Republican and Democrat, should be deeply concerned about the precarious position in which the Postal Service finds itself. Despite what some partisan narratives claim, the Postal Service’s current operational pains have been festering since the Great Recession in 2008.
Since 2007, total mail volumes have fallen year on year as American consumers and businesses choose digital communication over letters and mailed advertising. Over the same period, the number of addresses requiring delivery and retiree obligations have continued to grow. In simpler terms, revenues have fallen and costs have risen for over a decade.
COVID-19’s impact on the economy is only exacerbating this situation: the USPS lost 2.2 billion dollars in the second quarter of this year. H.R. 8015 kicks the can down the road and forces the Postal Service to continue to sustain these financial losses. Without proper reforms to modernize the Postal Service, Congress should expect its fiscal health to worsen.
That being said, the Postal Service will not collapse overnight. The Postal Service has informed Congress it has enough cash on hand to remain solvent through August 2021 and Congress already provided an additional lifeline by raising the Postal Service’s loan authority by 10 billion dollars in the CARES Act. Instead of voting on a rushed, partisan bill, the members of this chamber should work to fix the core problem.
Congress has time to work through the proper committees to provide the reforms necessary to revive this essential service. I urge my colleagues to vote against H.R. 8015 and to work together in finding a meaningful, lasting fix for the U.S. Postal Service.
