Senator Tina Smith talks postal service reform, fuel prices in Minnesota

Congress this week passed legislation that would shore up the U.S. Postal Service and ensure six-day-a-week mail delivery.

The long-fought postal overhaul has been years in the making and comes amid widespread complaints about mail service slowdowns. Many Americans became dependent on the Postal Service during the COVID-19 crisis, but officials have repeatedly warned that without congressional action it would run out of cash by 2024, the Associated Press reports.

Gone for now are ideas for cutting back on mail delivery, which had become politically toxic. Also set aside, for now, are other proposals that have been floated over the years to change postal operations, including those to privatize some services.

Minnesota’s U.S. Sen. Senator Tina Smith said during a March 10 interview that passage of the bipartisan Postal Service Reform Act –which she cosponsored – will ensure postal delivery standards are not cut and will help stabilize the long-troubled USPS budget, which in turn will mean reliable service for customers nationwide, including remote pockets of the country such as Cook County.

She spoke with WTIP’s Joe Friedrichs about this topic during a live interview on WTIP’s Daybreak program. Also discussed were rising fuel costs and what this says about the push from the Biden and Walz administrations for more electric vehicles on Minnesota roadways.

Audio below.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Joe Friedrichs March 10, 2022