SAN FERNANDO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — In Washington, D.C., In an effort to protect both services offered to residents of the San Fernando Valley, and the rights of the hard-working people who deliver the U.S. Mail, U.S. Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-San Fernando Valley), a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, voted Wednesday against legislation that ends six-day service and devastates the Postal workforce.
H.R. 2748, the Postal Reform Act, authored by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-San Diego), would immediately end Saturday service, begin phasing out front door delivery, force the Postal Service to take on additional debt and harm workers’ rights by altering the workers’ compensation system.
The bill passed through the Oversight Committee along partisan lines and will now move to the House floor.
“The Postal Service has always been our national communications lifeline,” said Cárdenas. “Seniors in the Valley depend on prescriptions drugs delivered to their homes, businesses throughout my District bring their products to our doors at fair shipping costs and every child, living far from loved ones, knows their next birthday present will arrive safely, courtesy of postal carriers with the eagle on their chest.
He added, “Ending six day delivery and damaging the future of our Postal workforce does not protect that promise. This bill weakens the Postal Service and continues the Republican attack on hard-working public servants.”
To move the Postal Service to a more sustainable financial footing, Cárdenas has co-sponsored the Innovate to Deliver Act, written by Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland).
Innovate to Deliver would allow the Postal Service to increase profitability by offering new products and services. It also authorizes a more balanced way of “rightsizing” the Postal workforce and helps address fiscal challenges faced by the Postal Service by altering the currently unsustainable pension scheme that forces 100 percent contribution by the Postal Service. Of all government agencies, only the USPS faces such a requirement.
Text of the Innovate to Deliver Act is available here: (PDF)
http://democrats.oversight.house.gov/CummingsANStoHR2748.pdf .
