Testifying in a congressional hearing Friday, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said he is considering elimination of Alaska’s bypass mail program, which ships groceries to rural communities and indirectly supports airlines in Bush Alaska.
“Take the Alaska bypass plan that’s under discussion. That’s an item that’s on the table. That’s an unfunded mandate,” DeJoy told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Alaska Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, said eliminating bypass mail would create “a tremendous tsunami” throughout the state.
“This would essentially lead to the collapse of rural Alaska if bypass mail went away. It’s that significant,” he said.
Despite its name, the program ships mostly groceries and other bulk cargo. Businesses deliver shrink-wrapped pallets of goods directly to airlines contracted by the Postal Service, bypassing post offices in a procedure that gives the program its name.
The program was created in 1972 and has been maintained under the principle that the Postal Service must serve all Americans.
“Universal service means universal service -- whether you’re in Los Angeles, Miami, Bethel or Allakaket,” U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said in 2011.
Federal law requires the Postal Service to charge shippers ground parcel-post rates, but air contracts are much more expensive.
DeJoy incorrectly told senators that the program “costs us like $500 million a year.” A 2011 report by the inspector general of the Postal Service said it cost $103 million per year to operate in fiscal year 2010 and generated $30 million in revenue, for a loss of $73 million that year.
But Edgmon said that without the program, life in rural Alaska would become unaffordable. At a store in Dillingham this week, he saw 2 pounds of stew meat for $25.
“And that’s in Dillingham, not in an outlying village,” he said.
“What I asked for was all the unfunded mandates. That’s a way for us to get healthy: Pay something for the unfunded mandates,” he told the committee.
Members of the House and Senate have proposed a $25 billion aid package for the Postal Service, but DeJoy said that’s not enough to fix long-term problems.
“If you’re just going to throw $25 billion at us this year, we’re going to be back here in two years,” he said.
This article is developing and will be updated.
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Alaska's expensive rural mail subsidy is 'on the table,' postmaster general tells Senate committee - Anchorage Daily News
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