When Postmaster General Louis DeJoy called a news conference on Tuesday to outline the United States Postal Services new 10-year plan, “Delivering for America,” he said it would return the organization to financial sustainability and achieve service excellence while maintaining universal six-day mail delivery and expanding seven-day package delivery. However, the plan also calls for longer delivery times for some first-class mail, shorter hours for some post offices, and more expensive postal rates.
DeJoy, a Trump appointee, said he “was not in a position right now” to say how much the price of a first-class stamp would rise, but that the service is counting on $44 billion in new pricing authority.
The comprehensive plan includes investments in technology, training, post offices, and a new vehicle fleet, as well as modernizing the processing network; creating new revenue-generating offerings in e-commerce, and pricing changes as authorized by the Postal Regulatory Commission. It includes expanding Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express, First-Class Package Service, and Parcel Select to offer same-day, next-day and two- to three-day delivery, six to seven days a week.
The new service standard calls for 70 percent of First-Class mail to be delivered in one to three days with current First-Class mail with a three-day expected delivery limit subject to a three-, four-, or five-day service standard, depending on the distance between original processing facility and the destination processing facility.
Forty-three percent of First-Class mail volume currently transported through the air will shift to what the postal service describes as more-dependable surface transportation.
For the offshore states and territories, the proposal adds a day to mail currently subject to a three- or four-day delivery standard, with five days as the outer limit.
The plan’s strategic initiatives are designed to reverse a projected $160 billion in losses over the next 10 years by achieving break-even operating performance.
The American Postal Workers Union welcomed some aspects of the plan but expressed dissatisfaction with its changes in delivery. “At a time that the public is demanding faster delivery of mail and packages, proposals that would slow the mail and reduce retail services — such as changing service standards, plant consolidations, and reducing operating hours at post offices — will only have a negative effect on postal workers and the public,” the union wrote.
Reparations For Blacks
The United States House of Representatives has started discussing the issue of how the country might make reparations to the descendants of slaves. Last month, a House committee considered a bill that would establish a panel of experts to review the U.S. government’s support of slavery from 1619 to 1865 and the laws that discriminated against formerly enslaved people and their descendants.
On Tuesday, the city council in Evanston, Illinois, voted to go beyond talk and, using tax money from the sale of recreational marijuana, pledged to distribute $10 million over the next 10 years to eligible black households, making it the first U.S. city to make reparations available. Each qualifying household would receive $25,000 for home repairs, down payments on property, and interest or late penalties on property in the city.
To qualify for money, residents must either have lived in or been a direct descendant of a black person who lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969, or that person’s direct descendant, who suffered discrimination in housing because of city ordinances, policies, or practices. Residents who experienced discrimination due to the city’s policies or practices after 1969 also can qualify.
Alderman Cicely Fleming, the lone vote against the plan in the 8-1 decision, said she supports reparations, but that what the city council was discussing is not reparations, but a housing plan. She said the people should dictate the terms of how their grievances are repaired, and described the program as paternalistic, assuming that black people can’t manage their own money.
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