[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 56 (Wednesday, April 18, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2455-S2456]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             POSTAL REFORM

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I really hope we can work out an agreement 
on the postal reform bill. I spoke to Senator Lieberman, the chairman 
of the committee, late last night, and he is hopeful, as I am, that we 
can move forward on this legislation. It is a shame if we cannot. As we 
speak, there are more than half a million men and women working for the 
Postal Service, and 25 percent of them are returning veterans. We have 
30,000 post offices around the country. We have about 8 million people 
who depend on the post office for their jobs. So to think that we can't 
move forward on this would be really untoward. It is something we 
really need to get done. I am hopeful we can get that done. People can 
offer amendments, and we should do that as quickly as possible and move 
forward on this legislation. If there is no agreement, we will have to 
vote on the substitute amendment tomorrow morning. I repeat, it would 
be too bad if we cannot get it done.
  Enshrined in the Constitution by the Founding Fathers, the U.S. 
Postal Service has delivered this Nation's letters and other mail since 
the day of the quill pen and the inkwell. That is why we have inkwells 
here. That is what these are. I have paper clips in mine now, but 
originally that was the only way people who sat at these desks and did 
their work could write. Most of the time it was for mail.
  Mail has been delivered through the years when stamps cost a nickel. 
Mail has been delivered through the years when mail traveled up and 
down America's waterways by steamship, and it has been delivered 
through two world wars when soldiers sent letters home to their 
sweethearts and families. Through it all, the U.S. Postal Service has 
been there to deliver the mail, rain or shine. But today America's 
postal system is in crisis.
  We kind of use that as a throwaway, ``through rain or shine.'' When I 
was a little boy, we had really bad snowstorms all over the West. In 
Searchlight, NV, we had a little snow a few times a year. But we had 3 
feet of snow on the level. It was very, very bad.
  I can remember a man named Con Hudgens. The mail came to Searchlight. 
There was a railroad that went through Nipton, CA, which was 22 miles 
from Searchlight. As that train sped through Nipton, they had an 
apparatus that would snatch the mail that was on the train. That mail 
was for Searchlight. They sorted it that way. This old man, Con 
Hudgens, walked through snow 22 miles to bring the mail. That is what 
we talk about when we say that mail has been delivered through rain or 
shine. That is the mantra of the post office.
  But today America's postal system is in crisis. Today a personal note 
from a

[[Page S2456]]

friend or payment to the electric company can be delivered online with 
a few quick keystrokes on your computer. This changing technology has 
meant serious new challenges for an organization that has serviced 
citizens of this Nation from its very beginning. It has served this 
Nation whether they live on city streets or rural routes.
  Although the world the post office deals with has changed, the postal 
system's message and mission have not changed; that is, to deliver 
letters, packages, medicines--much of which is vital--online purchases, 
birthday cards, phone bills to hundreds of millions of Americans no 
matter how rural or how urban the places they call home. Neither has 
the current crisis changed the importance of that mission. Nearly half 
of rural households don't have broadband Internet access, making it 
difficult or impossible to pay bills or ship packages online. Rural 
families in Tuscarora, NV, or Baker, NV, in Elko County, NV, rely on 
the Postal Service. That is their way of communicating.

  Small businesses benefit from cost-saving options offered at the post 
office, such as bulk mail. American businesses rely on the U.S. Postal 
Service. As I indicated earlier, 8 million people's jobs are dependent 
on the Postal Service.
  For seniors who cannot leave their homes, mail carriers deliver 
livesaving medications--an important link to the outside world. Elderly 
Americans rely on the U.S. Postal Service.
  I will go home tonight to my home here in Washington, and there will 
be some mail there. A lot of it is what some people refer to as junk 
mail, but for the people who are sending that mail, it is very 
important.
  And talking about seniors, seniors love to get junk mail. It is 
sometimes their only way of communicating or feeling they are part of 
the real world. Elderly Americans, more than any other group of people 
in America, rely on the U.S. Postal Service.
  Unless we act quickly, thousands of post offices--I indicated there 
are more than 30,000 in America--many of them rural, will close. I said 
this earlier today, and I will repeat it. These rural post offices are 
the only way people in those small communities have to communicate with 
the outside world. There may be some medicine they are getting, it may 
be to keep in touch with their family or friends, but it is their way 
of keeping in touch with the world. Hundreds of mail-processing 
facilities will close, and the jobs of hundreds of thousands of 
dedicated postal employees are at risk.
  Timely, dependable mail delivery is not the only thing at stake in 
this debate. Today the Postal Service employs, as I have indicated, 
more than half a million middle-class workers, and the postal system 
gives more than 130,000 men and women who volunteered for this country 
in the armed services a chance to serve again. A quarter of all postal 
employees are veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces. So there is really a 
lot at stake in this debate.
  The Postal Service has been playing an important role in the history 
of this country and the lives of its citizens for more than 200 years, 
but it has also seen a 21-percent drop in mail volume over the last 5 
years and is on the verge of insolvency. Yesterday the Postal Service 
lost about $20 million--1 day.
  Changing times demand a leaner, more modern post office. To make that 
possible, we must pass legislation. The Senate must act. We must change 
the Postal Service business model. They cannot do it on their own. They 
need legislation. They need it to keep pace with technology and to keep 
up with the times.
  The bipartisan bill before this body enacts reforms that are major 
but measured. The people who have worked on this so hard--I have 
already talked about Senator Lieberman. His counterpart, Republican 
Senator Collins, has worked extremely hard. I have worked with her to 
maintain the 6-day delivery. This is something she believes in 
strongly. I really admire her for the fight she has put up to get the 
things that she feels are important in this legislation.
  If we act, it would reduce the number of employees and facilities the 
Postal Service maintains in a responsible way, and that would protect 
employees and millions of Americans relying on the mail. It would 
responsibly restructure the postal system, while preserving overnight 
6-day-a-week delivery. It would help the Postal Service innovate and 
grow by offering new products that will attract new customers and, most 
importantly, would save the Postal Service from insolvency. It will 
help an institution enshrined in the Constitution modernize to meet the 
challenges of a changing world.
  What Senators Lieberman and Collins have come up with is not perfect, 
and we all recognize that. It is not a perfect compromise. It will not 
make every Senator happy. It will not make every American happy. It 
will not save every post office. But it is a very good compromise and 
one that is bipartisan. It will save an institution that has been a 
part of the fabric of this Nation for more than 200 years. So let's 
work together to save the American Postal Service, which, by the way, 
is the best in the world.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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