Postal Service of the  United States -Mobile
FREE NEWS LINKS

photo of U.S. Capitol Building  
      HOME 
  SEARCH

Updates & changes ongoing ....

---- Although this site is https-secure, we cannot guarantee that it or any provided links are safe; be sure your antivirus and other security systems are up to date.

Also see: Amazon;

  
Jump to:   2017;  2018;   2019;   2020; 

Undated: The United States Postal Service (USPS; also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service) is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the United States, including its insular areas and associated states. It is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution.

The U.S. Mail traces its roots to 1775 during the Second Continental Congress, when Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general. The Post Office Department was created in 1792 from Franklin's operation. It was elevated to a cabinet-level department in 1872, and was transformed by the Postal Reorganization Act in 1970 into the USPS as an independent agency.[4]

The USPS as of 2017 has 644,124 active employees and operated 211,264 vehicles in 2014. The USPS is the operator of the largest civilian vehicle fleet in the world.[2] The USPS is legally obligated to serve all Americans, regardless of geography, at uniform price and quality. The USPS has exclusive access to letter boxes marked "U.S. Mail" and personal letterboxes in the United States, but now has to compete against private package delivery services, such as United Parcel Service and FedEx.[5]

Since the early 1980s, many of the direct tax subsidies to the Post Office, with the exception of subsidies for costs associated with the disabled and overseas voters, have been reduced or eliminated in favor of indirect subsidies, in addition to the advantages associated with a government-enforced monopoly on the delivery of first-class mail.[6] Since the 2006 all-time peak mail volume,[7] after which Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act[8] which mandated that $5.5 billion per year be paid to fully prefund employee retirement health benefits,[9] revenue dropped sharply due to recession-influenced[10] declining mail volume,[11] prompting the postal service to look to other sources of revenue while cutting costs to reduce its budget deficit.[12]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service


-- 2017 --        

Back to top


December 29: On Friday morning, President Donald Trump decided to take on the U.S. Postal Service.

"Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer?" he wrote on Twitter. "Should be charging MUCH MORE!"
http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/29/news/economy/trump-amazon-postal-service/index.html

December 30: Dumb and Dumber: Donald Trump on Amazon and the Postal Service
http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/dumb-and-dumber-donald-trump-on-amazon-and-the-postal-service

-- 2018 --

Back to top


Undated: Donald Trump’s proposed 2018 federal budget targets postal union benefits
https://www.nonprofitmailers.org/donald-trumps-proposed-2018-federal-budget-targets-postal-union-benefits/

March 28: It is not news that the United States Postal Service has struggled in the digital era. One president after another has tried to come up with a solution to the agency’s plight. But despite these efforts, mail volume is down more than 25 percent over the past decade, while costs continue to be tough to prune.
https://www.rstreet.org/2018/03/28/trumps-postal-reform-plan-less-service-and-higher-prices/

March 30: How Amazon Is Helping the US Postal Service, Despite What Trump Thinks
http://www.ttnews.com/articles/how-amazon-helping-us-postal-service-despite-what-trump-thinks

April 3: President Donald Trump blasted Amazon again, but his latest tweet inaccurately described the U.S. Postal Service as taxpayer-funded.

In a tweet sent Tuesday morning, Trump argued that the Post Office was giving the online retail giant a sweetheart deal — a claim he has made before that is also wrong — before adding that these supposed costs are “bourne [sic] by the American Taxpayer.”
http://time.com/5226036/donald-trump-amazon-postal-service/

Back to top


April 3: As Trump attacks Amazon-Postal Service ties, he fails to fill postal governing board
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/04/03/npr-trump-amazong-post-office

April 12: Trump orders an evaluation of the Postal Service following his criticism of Amazon
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/12/trump-issues-executive-order-to-reform-usps.html

April 13: The Postal Service on Friday said it welcomed the task force and that changes to the legal requirements under which it operates are needed: “As we have repeatedly stressed, these business model problems are serious, but solvable, and the President’s executive order … provides an opportunity to further consider these important public policy issues.”

The new task force will be led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin or his designee, with help from the directors of the Office of Management and Budget and Office of Personnel Management. The group will be required to issue a report outlining proposed reforms within 120 days.

The USPS is a government agency, but it is run as an independent business, meaning that your tax dollars don’t directly fund it. “The Postal Service receives NO tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations,” the USPS website says. Postal rates are overseen by an independent commission.
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2018/04/13/Truth-About-Trump-s-War-Amazon-and-US-Postal-Service

Back to top


April 16: President Trump’s executive order for an analysis of the U.S. Postal Service’s financial situation may finally end his tweets asserting that Amazon.com Inc. is underpaying for mail delivery.

The order, issued late Thursday, doesn’t mention Amazon AMZN, +0.08%  specifically. However, Trump has taken to Twitter to criticize Amazon for using the U.S. Postal Service as its “Delivery boy.”
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-is-profitable-for-the-us-postal-service-says-former-postmaster-general-2018-04-05

April 18: Trump Moves to Gut the Post Office

His war on Amazon expands to include the right-wing’s campaign to abolish America’s oldest—and still successful—public service.
http://prospect.org/article/trump-moves-gut-post-office

May 28: Trump reportedly asked the US Postal Service to charge Amazon double
https://qz.com/1282324/trump-asked-the-us-postal-service-to-double-amazons-rates/

May 24: The nation's opioid epidemic has been attributed to many factors, including the over-prescription of painkillers and the availability of cheap synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

Back to top


In Congress, lawmakers are trying to make it harder to buy fentanyl, in part by forcing the U.S. Postal Service to make it more difficult to send narcotics through the mail. But the measure has been languishing.

A Senate GOP aide who spoke to NPR blames the Postal Service for blocking the measure in Congress by providing misinformation about the bill and suggesting it's unworkable.
https://www.npr.org/2018/05/24/613762721/deadly-delivery-opioids-by-mail

June 22: Trump’s Fix for Postal Service: Privatize It

White House says privatization would free agency to raise prices and deliver mail fewer days a week; postal union objects
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-fix-for-postal-service-privatize-it-1529659801

September 19: Dozens of Senators From Both Parties Push Measure to Block Trump's USPS Privatization Plan
https://www.govexec.com/management/2018/09/dozens-senators-both-parties-push-measure-block-trumps-usps-privatization-plan/151396/


October 9: Unionists, allies rally against Trump Postal Service privatization scheme
https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/unionists-allies-rally-against-trump-postal-service-privatization-scheme/


Back to top


October 17: Trump administration moves to stop subsidizing Chinese mail

The Trump administration is moving to raise postage rates for foreign companies that ship packages to the United States.

Some countries, including China, currently benefit from subsidized postal rates set by the Universal Postal Union, a United Nations agency.

On Wednesday, US officials will initiate a withdrawal process from the UPU, which was established in 1874 and has 192 member countries. The process to withdraw will take at least a year, and the administration intends to negotiate new rates with the group during that time.

Under the current rules, the UPU sets lower rates for developing countries. It makes it possible to mail a package from Beijing to New York for less than it costs to send it from San Francisco to New York, for example.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/17/business/postal-treaty-withdrawal/index.html


October 19: Here’s why Trump threatened to pull out of a 144-year-old postal treaty

This is Trump’s weirdest move in the China trade war.

President Donald Trump is taking another swipe at China — by ripping up an international treaty that’s more than a century old.

Back to top


The Trump administration announced Wednesday that the US will withdraw from the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the organization that coordinates postal policy around the world. At 144 years old, the UPU is one of the oldest intergovernmental agencies. It makes the international postal system run smoothly; it’s the reason why you can get a package from South Africa or a postcard from your aunt on vacation in Bali.

Trump’s decision to pull out of yet another international body is mostly because of China, which the administration says is getting a sweet deal on shipping that’s undercutting American businesses.

“What [Trump] seems to be trying to do is raise the price of shipping costs for small packages for a lot of things from China to the United States, and he wants to have those decisions be made entirely under American law,”

The White House’s solution is to adopt its own rates for letters and goods coming into the US, and then get out of the UPU. But the formal withdrawal process from the organization takes a year, and the White House left open the possibility that the US would remain if it could negotiate a better deal.

Experts tell me this is probably the most likely scenario, as the US’s proposed departure from the UPU is kind of weird and its consequences are a bit unpredictable. Here’s what you need to know.
https://www.vox.com/2018/10/19/17996378/trump-china-universal-postal-union-treaty


Back to top


October 25: Package Investigation Puts Spotlight On Postal Service Screening
https://www.npr.org/2018/10/25/660676406/ongoing-investigation-into-suspicious-packages-highlights-how-usps-screens-mail

October 26: Trump Signs Law to Curb Postal Service's Unintentional Role in Opioid Crisis
https://www.govexec.com/management/2018/10/trump-signs-law-curb-postal-services-unintentional-role-opioid-crisis/152351/

October 31: Withdrawal from the Universal Postal Union: A Guide for the Perplexed

On October 17, 2018, President Trump announced that the United States will withdraw from the Universal Postal Union (UPU), an intergovernmental organization that sets the rules and rates for international mail delivery. The decision to withdraw has been widely seen as another salvo in the Trump administration’s campaign against what it deems as unfair trade practices benefitting China. This post explains what the UPU is, why the Trump administration is withdrawing from it, the legality of withdrawal, how this decision is related to the trade war with China, and what could happen next.
https://www.lawfareblog.com/withdrawal-universal-postal-union-guide-perplexed


Back to top


November 16:
Postal unions making big ad buy to stop postal privatization before Trump releases plan

It’s not certain what Trump will propose, but unions gear up for privatization fight.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/11/16/postal-unions-making-big-ad-buy-stop-postal-privatization-before-trump-releases-plan/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.14a37d1c8e7c


December 4: Treasury proposes postal changes after Trump attacks on Amazon

President Donald Trump's task force scrutinizing U.S. Postal Service operations is proposing an overhaul of the financially distressed agency, including changes to how it prices packages shipped by retailers like Amazon, a frequent target of the president's attacks.

In a report released on Tuesday, the Treasury-led task force says the Postal Service should price packages "with profitability in mind" and impose higher rates on general e-commerce goods and other non-essential items sent through the mail.

Back to top


The report's recommendations are broad and sweeping. They call for stronger oversight by the Postal Service Board of Governors — which sat empty for much of Trump's presidency. They also encourage the agency to consider other revenue streams, such as renting out unused real estate to businesses, charging outside shippers for access to people's mail boxes and issuing hunting and fishing licenses.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/04/us-postal-service-amazon-trump-1044592


December 12: Looking for ways to boost revenue for the U.S. Postal Service's money-losing operations, the Trump administration is suggesting selling access to mailboxes. 

"The legal mailbox monopoly remains highly valuable," said a government report issued last week. "As a means of generating more income, the mailbox monopoly could be monetized."

While the report didn't detail how much the USPS could earn from franchising mailboxes, it suggests the USPS could charge third-party delivery services such as UPS or FedEx to gain access to consumer mailboxes. It's currently illegal for other delivery services to drop packages or letters in a mailbox -- a restriction that even applies to neighbors stuffing flyers for a local event. 
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/trumps-plan-to-revive-postal-service-sell-access-to-your-mailbox/ar-BBQODjE


-- 2019 --  

Back to top


January 28: The U.S. Postal Service raised the price of stamps and other services prior to this weekend.

The price of a first-class stamp is now 55 cents. The nickel increase is the largest percentage hike since 1991 when postage increased from 25 to 29 cents.

The reason for the hike?

The Postal Service lost nearly $4 Billion in 2018 following less volume and higher pension and health care costs.
https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2019/01/28/u-s-post-office-hikes-prices-of-stamps-other-services/


-- 2020 --

Back to top
 




 Webpage visitor counts provided by




 

copyr 2018 trump-news-history.com, Minneapolis, MN