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Floor Speech

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Mr. MORAN. Madam President, I rise this afternoon to express my support for the Postal Service Reform Act, a piece of legislation that we expected to be on the Senate floor this week and look forward to it appearing shortly.

The U.S. Postal Service has been struggling to stay financially solvent for years, and I am pleased Congress is finally--I say ``finally.'' I think for as long as I have been in the Senate and perhaps as long as I have been in Congress, we have been working to address this issue, and I am pleased we are about to do so.

The Postal Service has long been an essential piece of American communication and commerce, but its financial condition has recently, at least, threatened its future. Kansas's rural communities, in particular, where broadband access to brick-and-mortar businesses is limited, rely heavily upon the essential services of the Postal Service as a means of staying connected and competitive.

The familiar sight of a U.S. Postal Service truck--the jeep, the truck that goes down our country roads making its deliveries--is part of the daily life for Kansas's farmers, ranchers, businesses, and neighborhoods.

For rural America, the Postal Service--their mailman or their mailwoman--is often the glue that keeps those communities connected to the rest of the country. In many instances, we rely upon our postal carriers to make certain that somebody is alive and well, that they are OK in their homes, and report odd behavior or a crime that might occur. Our postal carriers are a significant component of the fabric of our communities.

Unique in its ability to reach nearly every address in America, the Postal Service is an indispensable piece of infrastructure, in fact, created by the Constitution of the United States giving us the instructions to provide postal roads.

During the height of the pandemic, the Postal Service employees maintained their delivery routes, bringing essential medicines, groceries, and vital supplies to families' doorsteps.

We pay a lot of attention to veterans' issues, and I would highlight how important the Postal Service is for those who served our Nation. In most instances, it is how they receive their prescription drugs. It is beyond just handwritten cards and notes, although those are clearly important and, again, an important component of our life. We all enjoy receiving those. But the Nation is reminded firsthand about the irreplaceable role of the Postal Service.

As I said, in my earliest days since representing Kansas in Congress, I have advocated for the preservation of rural post offices and commonsense reforms to ensure the Postal Service's stability.

With every conversation I have had with the Postmaster General, I have reminded them perhaps they should spend less money on consultants and listen to their employees who might be the best people to tell them what they might do to improve their efficiency and save costs.

When a post office closes--and we have had a few of those happen too frequently in Kansas--it creates problems for businesses and families; it may cause significant harm to the local economy; and it certainly makes a difference in the lives of seniors in those communities.

For the past several sessions of Congress, the Senator from Delaware, Senator Carper, and I have introduced postal reform legislation and worked together with the goal of putting the Postal Service on firmer financial footing, improving service, and allowing for the development of new revenue streams and enhancing transparency through performance metrics.

I have indicated to the Postmaster General in my conversations that the solution to the post office's financial conditions cannot be simply reducing services. The more services are reduced, the less likely Americans will or can use the Postal Service.

So closing post offices, shortening the number of days in which mail is delivered, reducing the hours of the post office, slowing the delivery of the mail, closing mail-sorting centers can't be the solution to making certain that the post office has a bright future and that Americans are served.

The Postal Service Reform Act of 2022, which I hope is on the floor soon for our consideration, was passed by the House last week, and we look forward to its arrival here. It builds upon our previous attempts to accomplish postal reform.

Included in these reforms is the creation of a new Postal Service Health Benefits Program and focusing on reestablishing--stabilizing the USPS's finances, instead of funding benefits in advance.

The bill will allow the Postal Service to enter into agreements with State, local, and Tribal governments as a new method of revenue for the Agency.

I am also pleased that the bill will codify 6-day delivery, which is a provision I have long supported in my role as an appropriator and one that greatly benefits rural Kansas homes, where mail delivery is more difficult.

The Postal Service Reform Act represents a great step forward to ensure that Kansans and Americans can continue to rely upon the U.S. Postal Service. I am a sponsor of this bill, and I intend to support it when it arrives in the Senate for a vote and urge my colleagues to join me in doing so.

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