The Save the Post Office coalition, a group of labor and progressive organizations, said in a statement, "Asking Louis DeJoy to make a ten year plan for the post office is like asking the fox to build a better henhouse. Politics When It Comes To Clean Energy, USPS Delivery Trucks Don't Yet Answer The Mail
Twenty percent of what she identified as coast-to-coast mail "might not arrive for five days." Kristin Seaver, the Postal Service's executive vice president, said the change in delivery times would affect only "the fringes of our network." She said 70% of first-class mail will still be delivered in two or three days under the proposal. Under the plan, "a small percentage" of post offices would have their hours reduced, and "a small percentage" of city stations could be closed.ĭeJoy said he "was not in a position right now" to say how much the price of a first-class stamp would rise, but that the service is counting on $44 billion in new pricing authority. If the Postal Service's long-term financial woes are not addressed, he said, the USPS will "run out of cash and require a government bailout." "This is a very positive vision," DeJoy said. Postal Service he unveiled Tuesday.ĭeJoy outlined the changes at a news conference with other Postal Service officials. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is calling for longer delivery times for some first-class mail, shorter hours for some post offices and more expensive postal rates - all part of a 10-year reorganization plan for the U.S. in 1800.Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, pictured last month on Capitol Hill, has announced a 10-year plan to reorganize the U.S. The newly expanded service kept its headquarters in Philadelphia but moved to Washington, D.C. (In 1872, Congress reduced the penalty to five years in prison.)Ĭongress also called for more mail routes to service an expanding nation. Offenders faced up to six months in jail and a $300 fine.Īnd to make sure people knew Congress was serious, section 17 of the act included death as one of the possible punishments for robbing a mail delivery person, or for stealing mail from a post office. The law also protected privacy by making it illegal for postal officials to open mail unless it was undeliverable.
The act ensured newspapers could be sent at low mail rates, which facilitated a free press across the new states. And the act addressed issues related to commerce and privacy. Congress granted the Postmaster General broader powers. But it was the Postal Act of 1792 that established the foundation of a modern Postal Service.
In 1789, that meant 75 Post Offices and about 2,400 miles of post roads. In Article I, Section 8, the Constitution gave Congress the ability “To establish Post Offices and post Roads.” That means it not only does Congress have the power to create a postal system, it had the ability to acquire and control the land for the “post roads” to carry the mail and the buildings needed to maintain the system. The Articles of Confederation, which preceded the Constitution, also made it clear that the government “shall also have the sole and exclusive right and power of … establishing or regulating post offices from one State to another, throughout all the United States, and exacting such postage on the papers passing through the same as may be requisite to defray the expenses of the said office.”Īnd the Constitution made sure that these crucial services were preserved. Mail delivery and an earlier version of the Service had been in place since 1775 when Benjamin Franklin was named as the first postmaster and the Continental Congress paid him a salary of $1,000 a year. On February 20, 1792, President George Washington officially created the modern United States Postal Service by signing a sweeping act that promoted a free press and put privacy safeguards in place.