RESTORE Act

Floor Speech

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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, the U.S. Postal Service is a fundamental part of our Nation's history and what it means to be an American. In fact, it was actually talked about in our Constitution.

Nationwide, the Postal Service employs 550,000 Americans, and it serves as the linchpin of an industry that contributes over $1 trillion to our economy. I have heard from a number of businesses in New Hampshire--one being Goss International in a neighboring community, which has been a major competitor in the area of printing presses, and now they are making wind turbines, or parts of wind turbines. They are very concerned, as is a company called Polaris Direct, about what is going to happen to our Postal Service and are we in Congress going to resolve this issue.

In New Hampshire, the Postal Service provides thousands of jobs, as well as a critical economic connection for many of our rural communities, which are not often in some areas of New Hampshire connected to the Internet, so they don't have high-speed broadband, and the Postal Service is their connection with much of the outside commerce and community.

Today, as we know, the Postal Service is facing a fiscal crisis that threatens its future. We should all be concerned about Draconian proposals that seek to slash 220,000 good jobs, close 3,700 post offices, and make mail delivery slower across America. The bill before us today attempts to avoid the worst of these outcomes, and I commend all of the bipartisan managers of the legislation, including Senator Lieberman, Senator Collins, and Senator Carper, for their tireless work to save the U.S. Postal Service.

I was proud to join a group of 28 Senators who pushed for important changes to the bill in an attempt to better protect rural post offices, develop new sources of business, and maintain the reliable and timely service Americans have come to expect. Some of these changes have been incorporated into the legislation, and I think they are an important step toward improving it.

With that said, I think we have more work to do. I know there are a lot of
people in this body who wish to see us debate a number of amendments related to the bill and try to make changes to improve the work already done. Rural communities rely on the Postal Service, and I think Congress and this Senate should improve the legislation to make sure that people have a real voice in the process when their post office is threatened.

If we don't act, the Postal Service could go bankrupt or could be forced to make devastating service cuts. So while this legislation is not perfect, I urge my colleagues to vote for cloture tomorrow so we can consider relevant amendments and make sure this important American institution, the U.S. Post Office, is saved for all Americans who so desperately need the services it provides.

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