The postal service says mail volume could drop by at least 50 percent this year — the biggest drop since the Great Depression. The National Association of Letter Carriers warns that postal revenues, which topped $70 billion last year, could be less than half that amount in 2020. "Postal Service officials warn that without immediate intervention, the precipitous drop off in mail use across the country due to the coronavirus pandemic could shutter the postal service's doors as early as June, " Representatives Carolyn B. Maloney, D-New York, and Gerald E. Connolly, D-Virginia, wrote in a joint letter to Senate Leader Mitch McConnell on March 24, two days before the bill was approved by the Senate. The House stimulus package included $25 billion in emergency appropriations to the postal service, but the set-aside was struck from the final bill that was passed by both houses and signed into law. While much of the country's labor force continues to follow stay-at-home orders, postal service employees are showing up for work daily, processing and delivering the nation's mail — and paying a physical price for it: The agency reports 60 confirmed cases of the coronavirus among its employees so far.
"It's a little different today, " Jordan said. "I had a phone bill in college that was $60 or less, but I only had $20 in my account. The thing that people will learn, and my kids will laugh about when they see it, is we used postage stamps back in those days. Looking at the video you will see things that people have forgot, that life was this way. "We didn't have Instagram or Twitter, so you had to live life as it came.... Spending time with friends and family, it wasn't the phone. It was in presence — and you wrote letters. " Jordan discussed his parents during the interview with Good Morning America, saying they were the biggest influence in his life. He said he learned many valuable lessons from them, including the ability to learn from the negatives in life and turn them into positives. He also praised his older brother, Larry. "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my brother Larry, " Jordan said. "Larry pushed me. We used to fight me every day. But through that fight emerged someone like me.
The mailbox at the corner of East 53rd St. and South Cornell Ave. in East Hyde Park, Wednesday. Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times file Illinois voters have a good track record for returning those ballots by mail. Four years ago, a total of 5, 666, 118 Illinois voters cast ballots in the November election –about 371, 000 of them by mail. In that 2016 presidential election year, 87% of those who requested mail-in ballots returned them. Officials are taking steps to make sure the surge in voting by mail doesn't slow down election results any longer than necessary. They are processing ballots as they arrive "so a steady flow of ballots into the election authority will allow for smooth work flow for the election judges handling them, " but no vote totals can be run or announced until the polls close, Dietrich said. Mary Morrissey, the executive director of the Democratic Party of Illinois, said the increase in the number of requests to vote by mail is "a reflection of the depth of passion to see a change in Washington — to see a change in the White House. "
If ever there were an entity that deserves financial relief from the coronavirus, it's the U. S. Postal Service. We fail to understand President Donald Trump and Congress' astonishingly shortsighted move last month to exclude the financially troubled postal service from the nation's $2. 2 trillion coronavirus bailout. The postal service is on the front line in the COVID-19 battle, processing and delivering 500, 000 pieces of mail daily, including the prescription medicines, lab tests and medical supplies needed during the pandemic. The postal service will also be pressed into service to deliver relief checks to American workers and families in the upcoming months, and it could play an important role in upholding our democracy in the fall if voting-by-mail becomes a reality. Now is no time to leave the postal service empty-handed. But that's exactly what the House and Senate and the president have done. And without emergency help, the agency — so important to the nation that its duties were enshrined in the U.
"We definitely know that the president is absolutely wrong concerning vote-by-mail, " she said. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., chair of the House subcommittee on government operations, said Trump is acknowledging that he wants to hold up funding for the U. Postal Service to hinder Americans from voting. "The president admits his motive for holding USPS funding hostage is that he doesn't want Americans to vote by mail, " Connolly said in a statement Thursday. "Why? It hurts his electoral chances. He's putting self-preservation ahead of public safety, for an election he deserves to lose. "