March 16, 2012
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Barbara A. Mikulski and Ben Cardin (both D-Md.) today sent a strongly worded letter to Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe expressing their outrage over the “total disregard for a transparent and public process for consideration of the closure and consolidation of the Easton mail processing center to the Hares Corner mail processing center in Wilmington, Delaware.”
Senators Mikulski and Cardin were particularly outraged that the study to evaluate a possible closure of Easton and shift of function to Delaware “has begun with no written notification” to the Senators. In the letter to the Postmaster General, the Senators demanded an open “public process.”
The complete text of the letter is below:
March 15, 2012
The Honorable Patrick R. Donahoe
Postmaster General & CEO
United States Postal Service
475 L’Enfant Plaza Southwest
Washington, D.C. 20260
Dear Postmaster General Donahoe,
We write to express our outrage and extreme frustration with the total disregard for a transparent and public process for consideration of the closure and consolidation of the Easton mail processing center to the Hares Corner mail processing center in Wilmington, Delaware.
While we remain adamantly opposed to any consideration of shifting the mail processing operation from Easton to Wilmington, we now learn that the study to evaluate this shift has begun with no written notification to our Congressional offices or to the Easton postal workers union as required by postal regulation. Making matters worse, USPS plans no public hearings and no opportunity for written comment in this study process. This is totally unacceptable.
We write to demand a public process. Our constituents have a right to be heard. The half a million residents who live on the Eastern Shore and rely on the mail service must have a voice in this process. These residents include farmers, small businesses and a significant rural and elderly population that relies heavily on mail delivery for life saving medications, daily newspapers, and important business documents.
The Easton area mail processing center is the only mail processing center on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and its ongoing operation is critically important to the economy of the shore. Relaxing delivery standards by moving mail processing from Easton to Delaware is simply not a practical or sustainable option.
We request and expect an open and transparent public process and your reconsideration of the study to shift Easton mail processing to Wilmington, DE. We expect your immediate attention to our concerns.
Everyone is so fast to blame only republicans while the 2 senators have done nothing but screw up Marylands economy by taking care of Baltimore city and PG county at Fredericks expense. Oh by the way,the number one democrat him self could end all this with a presidential order Just give back our retirement over payments,but the hell out,and fire that idiot Donahoe!
Your constituents at the Easton facility have been heard
They said they don’t like it.
The Post Office would do OK if they could only get the gov’t off its back !
Congress created this mess back in 2006 and only Congress can fix it!!
USPS in violation of the contract once again you say?; nothing new here; thats happened thousands of times before
Oh me, Oh my, are we upset ?, screw you morons in the Congress, inept, greedy, and think if another one of you is President, if Romney is the only one not in Congress that runs even Liberals have to think to vote for him, he’s moderate and never in Congress.
Too bad Mikulski and Cardin weren’t more forthcoming when the USPS closed the Frederick P&DF in Nov. 2011.
2 of the same senators who had no problem passing the PAEA in 2006 that caused this mess. Instead of “outrage” maybe they could work to pass some legislation that treats USPS fairly, and makes these closures and service cuts unnecessary.
I suspect the Postal Service uses the same dictionary that Brockadineajad uses to get the definition of transparency. It’s probably a good thing that they keep us under a cloud, for if we really knew all that is happening, there would be a revolution that would make 1776 green with envy. Thank you my fellow patriots, teaparty, liberals, democrats, republicans, socialists, protestants, catholic, atheiest, black, white, hispanic, asian, aliens, illegal or legal. We all are of one blood, and we have got to stand together against the lunacy that is coming out of Washington, D.C. To hell with political parties, we are going to have to take care of ourselves.
Come May 15th and after the”Honorable” Donahue will be getting a lot of those letters from other Senators and Reresentatives, but he and issa dont care.
Can the arrogance and suspicious behavior be any more obvious from Donohoe and his lackeys? You know something is definitely not on the up and up when the Service refuses to cooperate by showing its plans and estimates for saving money by closing post offices right in the face of millions of people who are fighting for their local facilities.
This continued violation of labor contracts and shady financial activities will not help management get what they want. Congress is slowly but surely siding up with the craft people and if Donohoe keeps lying, hiding his malfeasance and generally acts in contempt of of the public at large, he may find himself out on his ear.
I do hope those Republicans like Issa don’t get their way, either. So far, most level headed politicians are not responding to that asshole’s attacks on the Service. With elections coming up, if enough people get out and vote, the Democrats can get the House back and away from those GOP morons who are hell bent on destroying the middle class and federal jobs.
Donohoe should be the subject of a congressional investigation, along with his buddies and crooks at Area levels for malfeasance, undeserved bonuses and obfuscation. If we can get some of our retirement obligations lessened and at least some of that money returned to operations, and force the crooks out at the upper levels, the Service has a fighting chance. It’ll be a long fight and everybody must be vigilant and hammer away at their local politicians.
As Ruby in the previous post says, Texas postal workers are in a bind. We must help them since their representatives are one percenter Tea Party jerks, like the Senators in Oklahoma, Inhofe and Coburn. I don’t know what makes those two states produce such crazy politicians, and I hope it isn’t contagious.
Definitely the Postal Service need to held accountable for closures of Posttal facilities over the entire nation! Postmaster General Donahoe and his cronies, plus Issa and his Republican cronies are set on destroying the Postal Service and privitize it for the wealthy and the one percenters! This is a disgrace to many americans who would lose thier jobs in the process and their ability to care for themselves and their families! I thank the senators and congressmen who are continuing to stand up for the american people, since Texas Postal workers defnitely do not have not one senator working or supporting their efforts to stop the Postal Service detrimental proposals! Keep up the good works!
Politics at its best. No concern as to cost. Need to check out Postal employees salary data base and determine how can Postal Service maintain existence with number of employees at the salaries paid with revenue decreasing. Who and how are the postal business expenses going to get paid.?