August 18, 2020

Duckworth Speaks with Illinois Postal Union Leaders on Impact of Trump Administration’s Sabotage of the United States Postal Service

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today spoke with President of the Illinois State Association for the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) John Cooksey and Central Regional Coordinator of the American Postal Workers Sharyn Stone about how the Trump Administration’s recent changes to the United States Postal Service (USPS) have already impacted postal workers and consumers across the state. In separate calls, Duckworth also discussed with both Cooksey and Stone her efforts to support postal workers and what funding is needed from the federal level.

“Our Veterans, myself included, rely on the Postal Service and the thousands of hardworking postal workers to deliver prescriptions from the VA, and countless more Americans rely on the USPS to deliver their paychecks and other critical items,” Duckworth said. “Recent changes and attacks on the USPS are unacceptable, and merely ‘suspending’ them isn’t enough. The USPS must have its processing capabilities and capacity restored immediately. I’ll keep doing everything I can to help ensure the USPS and our postal workers have the resources and funding they need to continue to function properly.”

Duckworth has been a strong supporter of the USPS and supported relief efforts throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Duckworth voted to pass the Coronavirus Aid, Response and Economic Security (CARES) Act which provided USPS with a $10 billion emergency relief loan. Recently, Duckworth has also called on U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to provide answers regarding reports of recent changes to long-standing practices at USPS that would result in increased delivery times and costs for election mail. DeJoy announced today some future planned cost-cutting measures like service reductions, removal of mail sorting machines and public mailboxes and overtime cuts would be suspended until after November, but organizational changes already made have not been restored. Duckworth also called on the USPS to correct operational changes that are needlessly delaying Veterans’ access to life-saving prescriptions.