Blumenthal, Senators to DeJoy: USPS Operational Changes Disproportionately Harm Deployed Servicemembers
USPS is the only mail service that can deliver to our military overseas. “Making absentee voting more difficult disenfranchises the very Americans who serve and sacrifice on the front lines in defense of our right to vote.”
[WASHINGTON, DC] – Today U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), a member of the Senate Armed Services and Veterans Affairs Committees, led a group of twenty-nine senators including Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Ranking Member Gary Peters (D-MI), and Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI), in writing Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to raise concerns over the heightened impact of harmful United States Postal Service (USPS) policy and operational changes to servicemembers and their families.
Because USPS is the only service that can deliver to the Army Post Office (APO) and Fleet Post Office (FPO) addresses used by our military overseas, deployed servicemembers and their families are uniquely impacted by changes that have left USPS “intentionally hamstrung and severely strained.” Active duty servicemembers who are deployed domestically also rely heavily on USPS to vote, pay their bills, receive packages, and stay in touch with family members and loved ones.
“This population of Americans is disproportionately affected by any actions that restrict or delay the mail, which is sometimes the only reliable connection they have with loved ones during their military service. Servicemembers rely on USPS for the delivery of medicines, ballots, bills, and countless other pieces of vital mail,” the senators wrote.
“Even more alarming is the reality that servicemembers depend on the mail to exercise their most important rights as American citizens: the right to vote. Absentee ballots are the only way that most of the military community can use their constitutionally protected right to cast a ballot. Making absentee voting more difficult disenfranchises the very Americans who serve and sacrifice on the front lines in defense of our right to vote and live in a democratic society – a cruel irony to our men and women in uniform that must be remedied immediately.”
Today’s letter was also signed by U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Jon Tester (D-MT), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Tina Smith (D-MN), Bob Casey (D-PA), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Tom Udall (D-NM), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Chris Coons (D-DE), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), and Mark Warner (D-VA).
The full text of today’s letter is available here.
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