Brown praises moratorium on postal closings
Brown
By Karl Henkel
YOUNGSTOWN
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Avon, on Wednesday commended the U.S. Postal Service’s self-imposed moratorium on postal-center closings and voiced support for the Postal Service Protection Act.
Brown called it a “win” for Ohio, which could have lost thousands of jobs beginning in early 2012 if the postal service had gone through with the closing of 10 processing and distribution centers and 120 post offices.
That list included Youngstown’s processing and distribution center, home to 500 employees, originally slated to close in March.
“This will give us an opportunity by making some major cost savings and to help the post office provide the public services,” he said Wednesday.
The Postal Service Protection Act, introduced by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., would allow the postal service to recover $80 billion in overpayments to its retiree health-care benefit program.
USPS, since the 2006 Postal Accountability Enhancement Act, starts with a deficit of $5.5 billion, because the government has mandated that it fund retiree health-care benefits 75 years in advance, in addition to $7 billion in expenditures for current benefits.
“I have no idea why anybody voted for it,” Brown said. Vote records were not kept in the House or Senate, according to records.
The bill also would allow new ways for the postal service to generate revenue.
“There’s no reason [USPS] can’t do entrepreneurial things,” Brown said, noting ideas such as selling coffee at post offices and allowing the postal service to ship beer and wine.
The legislation also would protect six-day mail delivery.