Letter to Louis DeJoy, Postmaster General - Vermont Delegation Demands Postmaster General Deliver and Install Critical Mail Processing Machine to White River Junction Facility

Letter

Dear Postmaster DeJoy,

We write to ask for the immediate delivery of critical equipment needed at the White River
Junction Processing and Distribution Center in White River Junction, Vermont.

The cancellation machines at the White River Junction facility have been due to be replaced for
several years now. Furthermore, you recently removed an AFCS (legacy system) cancellation
machine from the facility, leaving the White River Junction center with just one operational
cancellation machine. We just heard from workers at the facility that this machine broke down,
forcing them to process the mail by hand. That is outrageous and requires the immediate delivery
of the new cancellation machine, which the facility is ready to receive and which is critical to
their efficient handling of the mail.

While we have been promised for months that a new AFCS 200 cancellation machine will be
installed, we have just learned that this will not occur until January of 2021 at the earliest. This
timing is both unacceptable and another example of this administration's attempt to sabotage the
Postal Service and the 2020 election. Waiting until 2021 to get this new machine to Vermont will
present undue harm to the hundreds of thousands of Vermonters who have been given the ability
to vote by mail by November 3rd as well as Vermont's seniors, veterans, and people with
disabilities who rely on the Postal Service for the delivery of their prescriptions. It will also
further harm all those who will be separated from their families this holiday season if they are
unable to rely on promise of the U.S. Postal Service to receive mail from loved ones -- a small
but critically important way to reduce isolation, depression, and loneliness, particularly for older,
more isolated Vermonters.

On behalf of our constituents, those who are U.S. Postal Service employees as well as all those
who rely on the timely processing of the mail, we demand that you deliver and install the AFCS
200 cancellation machine immediately. Given the urgency of this matter, please provide us with
the specific date of delivery and installation by no later than October 16th. Thank you for your
prompt attention to this matter.
Sincerely,

Source