(Photo: Allison Bell/ALM)
Changes at the U.S. Postal Service could cause headaches for life insurers and health insurers that still depend on USPS mail to reach customers and prospects.
The Postal Service has been taking mail-processing machines out of some facilities, in an effort to cut costs, according to Vice.com and other news organizations.
USPS is supposed to fund its operations with mail delivery revenue, but it faces an unusual federal law that requires it prefund retiree health benefits. That means that it's responsible for large retiree health benefits payments, in addition to having to deal with COVID-19 response expenses and competition from UPS, FedEx and the Internet.
President Donald Trump told a Fox Business host Thursday that he's opposing congressional Democrats' request for $3.6 billion in mail-in voting funding, and $25 billion in support for the U.S. Postal Service, partly because of concerns about fraudulent mail-in ballots.
"Now they need that money in order to have the Post Office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots," Trump told the host, Maria Bartiromo. "If they don't get those items, that means you can't have universal mail-in voting, because they're not equipped to have it."
Trump said Democrats in Congress want the mail-in voting funding "for something that'll turn out to be fraudulent."
Many news organizations are running reports about slowdowns in mail delivery. KRON, a radio station in California, says livestock mail delays have led to an increase in turkey chick deaths.
Members of Congress last week sent letters to the postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, asking him to cancel service and equipment changes that might slow mail delivery.
