It’s a fact: Americans love the United States Postal Service (USPS). This has been well documented time and again in polls showing that the USPS is actually more popular among voters than even our national parks systems. One look at the value offered by this agency and it’s easy to understand why.
The postal service and its hundreds of thousands of hard working employees provide an integral and irreplaceable service, delivering mail to every community across our country, by nearly every mode of transportation available. Their efforts delivering products, goods, correspondence, and services efficiently and reliably help keep our economy running. And during the Coronavirus crisis, the features offered by USPS — including the delivery of medications, PPE, and other essential goods and equipment — are more crucial than ever.
Now, new polling released by North Star Opinion Research and Hart Research Associates, shows just how much the American people value and support the services provided by our postal service, and want those amenities to continue.
Results from the nationwide survey, conducted by two leading Republican and Democratic public opinion firms, show that regardless of political affiliation or geographic location, an overwhelming majority of voters favor appropriating funds in the next coronavirus relief legislation to ensure the postal service can maintain operations.
One striking feature about the polling is the lack of divergence among Republicans, Democrats and Independents or rural or urban voters in this view. In fact, 90 percent of Republicans, 83 percent of Independents, 96 percent of Democrats, 90 percent of rural voters, 92 percent of non-college whites, and 94 percent of retirees support the Postal Service and want temporary funding to help it weather the economic crisis created by the Covid-19 pandemic.
This matters because the postmaster general has warned that without emergency relief funding, the USPS could run out of money by fall. We’ve already seen government relief programs for other sectors critical to our economy and transportation network, including our airlines, passenger rail, and transit systems. But there has been no similar assistance for the Postal Service, which relies on earned revenue, not taxpayer funding, for its operations. It’s ridiculous that the Treasury Secretary has stood in the way of needed financial assistance for this vital service over petty political grievances.
Voters understand the financial peril the postal service faces, and they believe temporary, emergency federal funding for the agency is the right answer. Transportation labor stands with the American public and our brothers and sisters at USPS. We are eager to work with Congress and the White House to stabilize this agency in the next stimulus package, and ensure the postal service and its workforce can continue serving the American people, both during this crisis and well into the future.