Sen. Schumer: Struggling US Postal Service needs billions in aid

Schumer held a news conference Wednesday, calling on lawmakers to put $25 billion into the United States Postal Service.

News 12 Staff

Aug 12, 2020, 9:36 PM

Updated 1,375 days ago

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says Long Island jobs could be on the line if the U.S. doesn't pump billions of dollars into its Postal Service.
Schumer held a news conference Wednesday, calling on lawmakers to put $25 billion into the United States Postal Service.
Schumer says USPS has been increasingly struggling due to several reasons, including because more people are doing business electronically during the pandemic.
He also says it is extremely important that it operates efficiently as Election Day nears and people send in mail-in ballots.
"If the mail is delivered late - if the absentee ballots and the mail ballots are delivered late - it could mess up our elections," says Schumer. "The last thing we need is for people to think our elections weren't on the level and weren't fair."
President Donald Trump has continuously voiced his concerns over the process of mail-in voting, despite voter fraud proving to be exceedingly rare. The Brennan Center for Justice in 2017 ranked the risk of ballot fraud at 0.00004% to 0.0009%, based on studies of past elections.
"It's a disaster, it's a rigged election waiting to happen," Trump said.
Rep. Lee Zeldin also joined the call for aid, writing a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, saying, "As you negotiate further legislation to address the COVID-19 pandemic, we urge you to include desperately needed and urgent economic relief for the United States Postal Service ... The USPS has been self-sufficient and has not received any taxpayers dollars since the early 1980s."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
 


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