e-Team Report, Sept. 16, 2011
APWU Members Call Your Member Of Congress In Opposition To H.R. 2309 Today!
The APWU is asking you to take a few minutes to save your job! Call your member of Congress today and tell them to oppose Rep Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) legislation, H.R. 2309. The Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service, and Labor Policy is likely to mark up H.R.2309 on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011. This bill then could be brought before the full House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for a vote in October.
Rep. Issa’s bill does nothing to correct billions of dollars in current USPS overpayments into both CSRS and FERS pension accounts. This bill will set up a system to empower an unelected board to unilaterally cut all of our current negotiated pay, benefits, along with our current protection against layoffs. This will result in layoffs of at least 120,000 USPS employees. H.R. 2309 will also target billions of dollars worth of savings in postal service retail facilities within the next two years. Rep. Issa says his bill is designed to avoid what he labels as a “bailout,” but the USPS doesn’t rely on taxpayer funding, is not asking for a bailout, and does not need a bailout.
What can you do to help? Contact your member of Congress today! You can reach your member of Congress by calling the Capitol Hill switchboard today at (202) 224-3121 or to find your member of congress click here.
After you call your member of congress make sure to also send them a quick message asking them to oppose H.R. 2309 by clicking here!
Also, please reach out and urge your member of Congress to cosponsor and support Congressman Lynch’s H.R. 1351, which will let the USPS use billions of dollars in CSRS and FERS overpayments to meet its financial obligations. Unlike, other bills that address the pension overpayments, H.R. 1351 will not attack the rights of workers to collectively bargain.
To send your member of congress a quick message asking them to cosponsor and support H.R. 1351 please click here.
Below you will find a list of those members of congress who have signed on in support of H.R. 1351 since 09/02/2011. If you see your member of Congress below please thank them for supporting H.R. 1351. There are currently 206 members signed on as a cosponsor.
Barrow, John GA-12-D
Becerra, Xavier CA-31-D
Bishop, Rob UT-01-R
Bishop, Sanford GA-02-D
Bordallo, Madeleine GU-AL-D
Boren, Dan OK-02-D
Brown, Corrine FL-03-D
Carney, John DE-AL-D
Christensen, Donna VI-AL-D
Conyers, John MI-14-D
DeFazio, Peter OR-04-D
Dent, Charles PA-15-R
Donnelly, Joe IN-02-D
Emerson, Jo Ann MO-08-R
Gutierrez, Luis IL-04-D
Hinojosa, Ruben TX-15-D
Kind, Ron WI-03-D
Marino, Tom PA-10-R
Matheson, Jim UT-02-D
Ruppersberger, Dutch MD-02-D
Sarbanes, John MD-03-D
Watt, Mel NC-12-D
Waxman, Henry CA-30-D
Below you will find a list of those members of Congress who have not yet signed on as a cosponsor of H.R. 1351. If you see your member of Congress listed below please reach out to them and ask that they cosponsor and support H.R. 1351.
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Adams, Sandy FL-24-R |
Landry, Jeff LA-03-R |
Congresswoman Fudge along with 55 other members of the U.S. House of Representatives Send Letter to Postmaster General
This week Congresswoman Marcia Fudge (D-OH-11) authored a letter that was sent to Postmaster Patrick Donahoe. This letter was co-signed by 55 other members of the U.S. House of Representatives. The letter strongly opposed the Postal Service taking any action that would break current labor agreements allowing the Postal Service to terminate upwards of 220,000 postal employees. The letter cites the current unemployment rate and goes on to say now is not the time to add to the massive group of current unemployed workers by dismantling current labor agreements.
Below is a list of those members of the U.S. House of representatives who co-signed this letter with Congresswoman Fudge. If your member is on this list please call their office and thank them for co-signing Congresswoman Fudge’s letter to Postmaster Donahoe.
To find the contact information for your member of congress please click here.
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Marcia Fudge (D) OH-11 |
Senator Carper of Delaware Looks to Debunk Postal Myths
This week Senator Tom Carper of Delaware released on his Senate website a list of 8 Postal Service myths along with their corresponding facts. This was aimed at straightening out some information that is not true surrounding the Postal Service’s financial condition.
To see the list of Myths and Facts please click here.
H.R. 1351 Receiving More and More Attention
In the mid 1990’s the Library of Congress launched a website simply named “Thomas”. This site was aimed at making all federal legislative information as openly available as possible to the general public. Thomas is the key website used to look up bills, cosponsors of bills, resolutions, congressional records, information about committees, presidential nominations and treaties.
The Library of Congress through Thomas keeps track of what they label as a “Weekly Top Five List” of bills that are the most searched for in any given week. This past week Congressman Lynch’s H.R. 1351 was listed as the third most searched for bill in the last week. The Thomas weekly top five is found on the right side of the page. To see where H.R. 1351 stands today on Thomas click here.