Bernie Sanders is serving his third term in the U.S. Senate after winning re-election in 2018. His previous 16 years in the House of Representatives make him the longest serving independent member of Congress in American history.
Born in 1941 in Brooklyn, Sanders attended James Madison High School, Brooklyn College and the University of Chicago. After graduating in 1964, he moved to Vermont. In 1981, he was elected (by 10 votes) to the first of four terms as mayor of Burlington. Sanders lectured at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and at Hamilton College in upstate New York before his 1990 election as Vermont’s at-large member in Congress.
The Postal Service is one of our most popular and important government agencies, providing universal service six days a week to every corner of America, no matter how small or remote. It provides decent-paying union jobs to nearly 500,000 Americans, it is one of the largest employers of women and people of color in the country, and it is the largest employer of veterans. We absolutely cannot allow the Postal Service to face financial ruin and privatization.
As a rural state, Vermonters rely on the Postal Service not just for their letters and packages, but for everything from prescriptions to groceries to government assistance checks. The COVID-19 pandemic has also highlighted how essential a fully-functioning Postal Service is to our country, with postal workers around the country ensuring people can safely vote via mail-in ballots.
Protecting the Postal Service remains one of Senator Sanders’ top priorities in the United States Senate.
Pre-funding Mandate
Senator Sanders remains committed to abolishing the pre-funding mandate imposed on the Postal Service. In 2006, Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act which forces the Postal Service to pre-fund 75 years’ worth of retiree health benefits. This financial burden is unique to the Postal Service, with no other federal agency or private company having a similar policy.
This disastrous policy has greatly impacted the Postal Service’s finances and has been used by bad-faith actors as a reason to privatize the Postal Service, which we cannot allow. Without the pre-funding mandate, the Postal Service would have actually made a profit from 2013-2018. Removing this undue burden will allow the Postal Service to operate like every other federal agency and better serve the public.
Postal Banking
Senator Sanders sees an opportunity for the Postal Service to further serve communities around the country and create new revenue streams. That is why Senator Sanders, alongside Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, recently re-introduced the Postal Banking Act. This legislation would re-establish postal banking to provide financial security to millions of Americans in low-income and rural communities and create approximately $9 billion in annual revenue and strengthen USPS.
“It is absolutely unacceptable that communities all over America lack traditional banking services,” Senator Sanders has said. “During the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, we need to make sure that everyone in America is able to receive the affordable banking services that they desperately need. No one in America should have to pay a 400 percent interest rate on a $375 loan from a payday lender. The time has come to put predatory lenders out of business and provide affordable banking options to all Americans through the United States Postal Service. And that is exactly what our legislation will do.”
Senator Sanders is also interested in further innovation at the Postal Service, and is actively working with other congressional offices, postal unions and workers, and advocacy organizations to help bring the Postal Service into the 21st century and become a true one-stop-shop for government services in communities around the country.