Coalition urges Congress to prevent postal service from expanding into financial services
On behalf of our organizations and the Americans we represent, we write to express support of your Amendment to Division B, within the Financial Services and General Government section of H.R. 6147. This amendment would prohibit the use of any taxpayer funds for postal banking and financial services and prohibit the creation of any new pilot program that would expand this business practice through collective bargaining.
While the USPS serves an important role in delivering mail and packages, we are concerned about expanding the Postal Service’s primary role and allowing the government to compete with the private sector. This would include lower fees, subsidized services and even competing based on real estate and office location.
Consideration of expanding postal operations to engage in banking and financial services is not a new concept. It has been touted as a solution to help stabilize the US Postal Service’s financial practices. The cost alone to hire additional workers and retrain existing employees to offer banking products would further undermine the Postal Service’s budgetary issues.
Additionally, we have reservations about the ability of the Postal Service to safeguard customers’ identities and information such as bank accounts and passwords. Regardless of the federal agency, the government has shown it can be slow to react to cyber threats, allowing bad actors to access citizens’ private records.
It is clear the US Postal Service’s financial health is troubling. Expanding USPS’s operations to compete with private sector banks and credit unions is not the answer. We, the undersigned organizations, support your amendment to H.R. 6147 and encourage its inclusion in the final appropriations legislation.
Sincerely,
Grover G. Norquist
President, Americans for Tax Reform
Tim Chapman
Executive Director, Heritage Action
Tom Schatz
President, Council for Citizens Against Government Waste
Adam Brandon
President, FreedomWorks
Brandon Arnold
Executive Vice President, National Taxpayers Union
Kevin Kosar
Vice President of Policy, R Street Institute
Andrew F. Quinlan
President, Center for Freedom and Prosperity
Iain Murray
Vice President for Strategy and Sr. Fellow, Competitive Enterprise Institute
