Some 2,800 United States Postal Services workers have tested positive for the coronavirus, forcing the federal agency to hire replacements and worsening an internal financial crisis that could stamp out the government service.
House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, said that 4,000 USPS employees have been directly impacted by the virus. On top of the 2,800 confirmed cases, 1,200 workers have unconfirmed cases, Thompson said during a virtual hearing with packaging experts Wednesday afternoon.
Just shy of 70 employees have died amid the pandemic. The number of confirmed cases has shot up 10-fold compared to 259 cases reported in early April. Mail carriers work in close proximity with the public, delivering items to people’s doorsteps daily. The USPS has 630,000 workers.
“Those numbers are very troubling, and I say seriously, they are actually part of our first responders system that we have here in this country,” said Thompson. “When you talk about vote-by-mail, for instance, now guess who’s going to carry the absentee ballot? Who’s going to carry it back to its rightful place? So it’s absolutely important that we have a postal service in place.”
The economic recession brought on by the pandemic has led to a “huge decline” in letter mail, leading to a decrease in revenue despite the continuing amount of work and need to hire replacements for sick and quarantined employees, according to Jim Sauber, chief of staff for the National Association of Letter Carriers. The Postal Service unleashed a hiring spree this spring to fill temporary positions while it deals with out-of-work employees, but that comes at a cost.
“The Postal Service could run out of cash reserves in just months,” said Sauber, who spoke for 280,000 active and retired letter carriers nationwide. “We have never needed taxpayer appropriations over the past 40 years, but the postal service desperately needs taxpayer support to survive this crisis.”
The USPS’s money troubles are not new — it has faced deficits for the last 13 years. Postmaster General Megan Brennan said in May the pandemic will increase the agency’s operating losses by $22 billion over the next year and a half. The issue is whether to reform the agency, bail it out with government money, or sell it to the private sector. Thompson warned the USPS “could go broke a year from now.”
The CARES Act, which was passed by the House, includes a $10 billion loan for the agency, though President Trump has said he would not approve such a loan unless the USPS raises prices to match that of larger shipping businesses. The larger bill is not expected to ever pass the Senate.
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat from Missouri, said in the hearing that he opposes privatizing the USPS because it is critical to rural communities that rely on it to receive medication and other items.
“There are those who believe the Postal Service should be operated by the lowest bidder,” said Cleaver. “I guarantee you — I guarantee you if the USPS is privatized, rural U.S. will be traumatized.”
