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<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cThe U.S. Postal Service is a lifeline for millions of Americans and small businesses across the country,\u201d\u00a0said Attorney General Bonta.\u00a0<\/b>\u201cReliable, timely deliveries make a difference when it comes to keeping a customer or exercising our right to vote. Shame on Postmaster General DeJoy for playing politics with our postal service, a nearly 250-year-old American institution. We respectfully urge the U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission to reject this foolhardy proposal. You can\u2019t fix something just by moving the goalposts. Our communities and the more than 600,000 postal workers nationwide deserve better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the proposed 10-year plan, USPS is, among other things, seeking to change its service standards for first-class mail from 1-3 days to 1-5 days, claiming the existing service standards are incompatible with declines in mail volume. As part of the proposal, USPS asserts that the existing standards make it difficult to provide reliable and consistent service because of high costs and inefficiencies in its transportation network, citing, for instance, low utilization of long-haul truck capacity. However, extending the delivery timeline and then citing the new standard as evidence of improved reliability only serves to create the illusion of a solution without addressing any systemic issues inhibiting USPS\u2019 performance. Thus, USPS\u2019 plan to change the performance standard does not actually address its failings to timely deliver the mail and may well result in overall slower delivery and even worse customer satisfaction. Ultimately, the proposed plan fundamentally deviates from USPS\u2019 core mission as a public service and ignores the potential consequences on the delivery of all types of mail across the country, including\u00a0with regards to regular government services, paychecks for working families, and election mail. Rural communities and critical state business conducted through the mail would especially suffer from an inefficient postal service.<\/p>\n
In the comment letter, the attorneys general assert\u00a0that the proposal:<\/p>\n
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- Would have significant adverse effects on postal service across the country;<\/li>\n
- Threatens to harm the states and their residents, including through\u00a0direct impacts on\u00a0government services, election mail, and rural and low-income communities; and<\/li>\n
- Cannot be justified based on USPS’ rationale for the changes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Today\u2019s comment letter is separate from the California Department of Justice\u2019s ongoing litigation against Postmaster General DeJoy in\u00a0Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, et al. v. Louis DeJoy, et al<\/em>. As a result of that case,\u00a0USPS was preliminarily blocked<\/a>\u00a0from implementing a series of sudden policy changes ahead of last year\u2019s presidential election that threatened to slow the delivery of election mail during an election that saw a record number of ballots cast by mail.<\/p>\n
In filing the comment letter, Attorney General Bonta joins the\u00a0attorneys\u00a0general of Pennsylvania, New York, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, as well as City of New York and the City and County of San Francisco.<\/p>\n