Statement of Gus Baffa, President of NRLCA
to the U. S. Senate Subcommittee on
International Security, Proliferation, and Federal Service
October 30, 2001

Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, My name is Gus Baffa.  I am President of the 101,000 member National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association. Thank you for holding these hearings.

The use of the US mail as a vehicle for terrorist attacks was intended as a biological poisoning of prominent Americans.  The attacks have had other effects as well. One effect has been a tremendous disruption of one of the great services to the Commerce of this country, Our United States Postal Service. Mail delayed costs the economy billions of dollars. Banks, Credit Unions, Utilities, Mortgage Companies and Credit Card companies are granting amnesty because of mail delays.

Another effect of the attacks is that the use of one of the most reliable staples in American’s daily lives has become frightening to many Americans. Yet, since September 11^th USPS has delivered more than 20 Billion safe pieces of mail.

The tragedy to our Postal Community is very real. On behalf of all the members of the rural letter carrier family, I offer our Sympathy to the families of victims of the terrorists. We offer our thoughts and prayers for a full and speedy recovery for our brothers and sisters who are currently undergoing treatment for anthrax poisoning. To the rural carriers who work in Trenton or receive mail from Brentwood, our continuing prayers of thanks that not one of you has been diagnosed positive.

The Postal Service has attempted to do it’s very best during this crisis. There is no playbook to follow; this is a road none of us have been down before. This is an asymmetrical attack on our country.  It doesn’t matter if we are referring to a rural letter carrier, a postal clerk, the PMG, the FBI, or the Center for Disease Control (CDC), it’s new to all of us.

Postal Workers are part of the army of foot soldiers in this war against terrorism and back toward normalcy. As our President said, we must continue life as normal. Our members are doing that every day, we are reporting to work, casing mail, putting it in our vehicles, and delivering it. Sure some are very worried. As a Kentucky rural carrier said in a National Public Radio interview, when asked if anything had changed, he replied sure, now when I come home each day instead of hugging my three children immediately, I bathe first.

At this time of extreme anxiety, PMG Potter and postal employees across the country have stepped up to the plate to ensure continued delivery of our nation’s mail.  Now it is time for Congress to step up to the plate by appropriating the sums necessary to ensure safe and ongoing mail delivery, and by passing postal reform legislation to ensure that the postal service can function safely and effectively in the 21^st century.

The mailing industry is a vital service engine to our Nation’s commerce and economy, generating $871 billion annually, and making up approximately 9% of the Gross National Product.  However, the postal service is operating under an antiquated law that hinders its ability to adapt to the changed world of the new century.  Congress needs to enact legislation that enables the Postal Service to operate in the 21^st century as a 21^st century institution.  Congressmen McHugh’s, Davis’s, and Chm. Burton’s bill is an excellent vehicle to bring this essential change.  The time to mark-up this bill is NOW.
 
We are grateful to the White House and Congress for the $175 million as a short-term carry-over for November. We appreciate the $63 million related to the destruction of Church Street Station in New York City and events immediately after September 11^th.  We are most grateful for this beginning.

However, we desperately need additional appropriations assistance with the enormous costs of sanitizing the mail and the significant revenue losses associated with this disruption. In addition, we need postal reform legislation to ensure that the short-term money and future appropriations to be properly utilized. We urge Speaker Hastert to make room on the House calendar for reform legislation this year.
 
A high level task-force consisting of  USPS Headquarter Officers, the Presidents of the 7 employee organizations and unions, the Chief Postal Inspector, the Inspector General of the Postal Service, and the CDC has been meeting daily.  These meetings bring concerns and questions from our memberships to management and the CDC. It is management’s opportunity to share the latest actions with us so we may disseminate them to our members. It’s vital communication in this period of uncertainty.

Those meetings are where we learned the USPS has purchased 4 million facemasks and shipped 2 million of them on Oct 23 to 140 locations, starting on the East Coast. These masks are able to filter out 95% of all microbes in the air, including anthrax spores. Use of these masks is not mandatory, but is highly recommended.

The USPS has purchased 86 million pairs of gloves made of vinyl and Nitrile, a high-grade industrial plastic, to supply 3 pairs per employee per day throughout the nation. Forty-four million pairs have been shipped. Use of these gloves is not mandatory, but is highly recommended.

USPS has consulted with the Dept of Defense and is purchasing irradiation equipment to kill any biological agents in mail separated by targeted screening. This new equipment will be built directly into the sorting process. Its technology will be completely safe for employees and customers. It will be using the latest, state-of-the-art technology.

This war effort will not be cheap or completed without sacrifice. The Postal Service needs an appropriation for the long-term sanitation of the mail to protect employees and customers alike, and we need assistance because of the income disruption. The management and employees of the US Postal Service will come to work and do our jobs each and every day. We need you in Congress as a partner to pass postal reform now, so the appropriations needed to insure the safety of the mail for our employees and customers will be well spent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would be pleased to answer any questions.