Package Coalition

John M.

Mchugh, Former Congressman and Chairperson of The Package Coalition, addresses what's going on with the US Postal Service.

Of sunshine in temperatures and get a little c1 3 speaker 1: a recent harris poll found that u.s. consumers rated the united states postal service as america's most essential business.

Despite this, there have been recent efforts made to prevent the postal service from getting the emergency funds it needs.

Joining us to discuss this is former congressman and chairperson of the package coalition, john mchugh.

John, thank you so much for joining us today.

Very interesting subject, so let's jump right into it.

What is the current situation happening with the usps?

And what needs to happen to improve conditions?

John mchugh: well, i think everybody understands there hasn't been a major postal reform bill since 2006, 14 years ago.

That's a long time for a successful business to be operating in exactly the same way for so many years.

So, you really do have to have congress and the postal board of governors begin to become more serious about passing a new business model in a reformed package.

But there's a nearer term challenge it's really leading to a crisis, that the postal service is facing and it's due almost exclusively to the covid-19 crisis.

If you look at the postal service's revenue stream since that crisis began in early march, there's a real problem.

The largest source of postal service revenues has historically been their so called monopoly mail, their first class mail and that has plummeted by nearly 60%.

A huge chunk, a huge loss to revenues.

Now packages, fortunately, have made up for some of that, but not all of it.

So what does that mean?

Well, it means sometime in the not too distant future, perhaps as early as the end of this year or the beginning of next year, the postal service is going to run out of cash.

And when that happens because they don't receive regular taxpayer support for their basic operations, they're going to have to do what any private business would do, when you can't pay your suppliers.

When you can't put fuel in the truck, when you can't pay for your employees, you've got to stop delivering.

And that would be a tragedy at any time but today in covid-19 america, when more and more people are relying upon affordable packages through the postal service for medicine, for food, for essential household goods, that'd be a crisis of frightening proportions.

So what we have to do is get serious in congress and find a way forward to help the postal service through this challenging time.

Speaker 1: so john, what impact would limiting usps operations have on small businesses and consumers, particularly in rural communities?

John mchugh: well, it'd be devastating.

It's hard to remember but it was only a few months ago and the american economy was performing pretty well.

And a big, big part of that was because in places you'd never see this kind of activity in the past, rural communities, remote locations, people are able to open up their own business.

Largely private businesses, but business.

But in order to have that happen, they have to have an ability to get their products reliably to their customers and have to be able to get whatever supplies they need to do whatever it is they're doing.

If the postal service were no longer available, all of that changes.

And by the way, there's only one organization in america that goes through more than 160 million delivery points, six days a week, and that's the united states postal service.

For a lot of americans, there are no options.

And for many, many other americans, the options are, you have to pay more, what's called a rural surcharge through the private express carriers.

So for the sake of the economy, for the sake of those vital businesses, both large and small, that rely upon an affordable package delivery system in the postal service, we've got to find a way to fix this.

Speaker 1: now, how does the united states postal service play a role in seniors and veterans access to healthcare?

John mchugh: well, one of the most important services the usps provides is delivery of prescription medicines.

That's true for americans who find it more affordable, more convenient but many, many insurance companies require their beneficiaries, whether they're old or young or in between, to get their maintenance prescriptions through the mail.

There's no plan b, other than to pay for out-of-pocket at a much higher rate.

So whether you're receiving your medicines through the va mail system or through some other pharmaceutical supply company, those packages are key to health.

Many healthcare items and things that people need like catheters and other such implements for maintenance of a quality of life, might not be available affordably in the future.

So again, it'd have a pretty devastating effect and it really is in some cases, a question of life and deatincredh c1 3 large and small, that rely upon an affordable package delivery system in the postal service, we've got to find a way to fix this.

Speaker 1: now, how does the united states postal service play a role in seniors and veterans access to healthcare?

John mchugh: well, one of the most important services the usps provides is delivery of prescription medicines.

That's true for americans who find it more affordable, more convenient but many, many insurance companies require their beneficiaries, whether they're old or young or in between, to get their maintenance prescriptions through the mail.

There's no plan b, other than to pay for out-of-pocket at a much higher rate.

So whether you're receiving your medicines through the va mail system or through some other pharmaceutical supply company, those packages are key to health.

Many healthcare items and things that people need like catheters and other such implements for maintenance of a quality of life, might not be available affordably in the future.

So again, it'd have a pretty devastating effect and it really is in some cases,