US Postal Service Reorganization On Hold

This has been a week of U.S. Postal Service news. First, it was announced that some collection boxes (see photo above) had already been removed in some Montana towns and that more were scheduled to be taken out. Then, there were cost-cutting changes announced by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy that, among other actions, reduced mail sorting equipment and affected the way the mail was processed. Montana U.S. Senators Jon Tester and Steve Daines and U.S. Representative Greg Gianforte all spoke against the changes.

Tuesday, DeJoy said the changes will not happen until after the general election, which throughout the country will be mainly a "mail-in" ballot. DeJoy has been asked to appear before Congress this week. Daines said, "I'm pleased to see the Postal Service fully maintaining its operations and I will continue working to ensure the Postal Service has the resources needed to fulfill its critical mission in Montana and make on-time deliveries." Daines and Tester introduced a bipartisan Senate bill last month to provide $25 billion to the USPS to help during the pandemic and to also get personal protective equipment for postal workers.

Tester has a new bill, the Post Office Security and Transparency (POST) Act, which stops collection box removal and brings back those that were taken away. Tester said, "All Montanans rely on timely mail service, especially veterans and folks living in rural communities. This legislation will force Postmaster DeJoy to reverse his harmful decision to remove mail collection boxes from communities across our state and help us get to the bottom of why the agency launched this scheme in the first place. I am going to keep holding DeJoy accountable to Montana, so folks can continue relying on the USPS for critical mail services like paying bills and voting in upcoming elections."

Congressman Gianforte appeared on KGVO's and KLYQ's Talk Back program Tuesday and echoed the Senators' comments.