Transcripts For CSPAN2 Tonight From Washington 20120107

consumer finance plays eliza that the american. consumer financial products and services can help each of us achieve our trains. but what risks are not clear and peter had, they can make as much harder. we saw that the other day when we visited in alder lake coplan heard their story about predatory lending firsthand. predatory lending almost cost them their precious home of many years. because the president understands this, going up way back to his days of community organizing, hoping working-class families cope with struggles on the streets and neighborhoods of chicago, he has been a strong supporter of rules of the road that make the consumer financial system safer for all americans. we are now an independent federal agency. we are responsible by law to act in the public interest to protect american consumers in the financial marketplace. to do our job well, we will be reaching out and working with public officials from both sides of the aisle and every part of this country, including not only the president, but senators, representatives, federal officials and state and local leaders who want to work with us as we stand up for consumers. we are proud of the work that you all do and we want the president to see it firsthand. so it is my pleasure to introduce to all of you and to welcome to the consumer financial protection bureau, the president of the united states. [cheers and applause] >> thank you, everybody. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> thank you. thank you. well, it is wonderful to see all of you. i thought i would just drop i do hope your new direct to move in. [laughter] he's been a little busy, so i thought moving some boxes, a little plan. [laughter] i also just wanted to say hello to all of you who have just been doing extraordinary work in standing up to what i think is going to be one of the most important agencies for people that there is. and i know all of you have devoted enormous amounts of time and energy in many of you are here making significant sacrifices for your family if, to make sure this agency gets up and running really well. so i just want to see thank you to all of you. let me begin by saying a few words about the latest economic news. this morning we learned that american businesses added another 212,000 jobs last month. altogether, more private-sector jobs were created in 2011 dead any year since 2005. [applause] there's a lot of people that are still hurting out there after losing more than 8 million jobs in the recession, obviously, you know, we have a lot more work to do. but it is important for the american people to recognize that we have now added 3.2 million new private-sector jobs over the last 22 months. nearly 2 million new jobs last year alone. so after shedding jobs for more than a decade, our manufacturing site is also adding jobs two years in a row now. so we are making progress. we're moving in the right direction. and one of the reasons for this is the tax cut for working americans that we put in place last year and when congress returns, they should extend the middle class tax cut for all of this year to make sure we can keep this recovery going. it's the right thing to do. there should not be delayed. there should not be a lot of trauma. we should get it done. and the american people, i think rightly understand that there's still a lot of struggles people are going throughout there, lyceum is having a tough time, small businesses are still having it set time. we are starting to rebound. we're moving in the right direction. we have made real progress. now is not the time to start. eldritch congress to make sure they stay on top of their jobs to make sure that everybody else is able to enjoy hopefully an even more robust recovery in 2012. said the economy is moving in the right direction and we are creating jobs on a consistent basis. we're not going to let up. not until everybody who wants to find a good job can find one. but we have a responsibility to do even more and just try to recover from this devastating financial crisis. we have a responsibility to make sure that the economy we rebuild is one where middle class families feel like they can get ahead again. a lot of the problems we are dealing with are problems that existed even before the recession, even before the financial crisis for a decade or more middle-class families felt like they were treading water, that they were losing ground. and what we want to do is make sure not just that we are getting back to the status quo, we want to make sure we do with underlying underlying problems. getting to a point where middle class families feel they can get a headache, where hard work pays off again, or everybody gets a fair shot in everybody does their fair share and everybody is playing by the same set of rules. and that is where all of you come in. everyone of you here has a critical role to play in making sure that everybody plays by the same rules, to make sure the big banks on wall street play by the same rules as community banks i mean street, to make sure the rules of the road are enforced and that a few bad at this financial site for can't break the law, can't she working families, can threaten our entire economy all over again. that is your mission, to make sure the american people have somebody in there corner, but american consumers have someone that's out there that. he finally have a creature your who was tailor-made to lead this agency and richard cordray. [cheers and applause] we've also got an extraordinary team that is lined up behind me here, who did a great job in getting this agency up and running and i are going to continue to show extraordinary leadership in all the various issues that you are going to be addressing. i also want to give a special shout out to the women who dreamt that this agency and spent so much time turning it into a reality. our friend, elizabeth warren. [cheers and applause] just to be a little more specific, millions of working americans use financial products like credit cards, student loans and mortgages and that's a good thing. these products have a tremendous potential to make people's lives better, byproducts, earn an education, afford a home, raise a family. and we'll use them. but when they are sold in an irresponsible fashion, they can also make life brutally hard on people. they can turn the dreams of a family into a nightmare. things like hidden fees, traps on credit cards and student loans cost working americans billions of dollars. things like subprime loans and skyrocketing interest that you can't escape can not only bring families to their knees, but the entire economy to its knees. you know, richard just mentioned the example of this elderly couple that we met when we were in ohio yesterday. these are folks, you know, the gentleman was a marine who served in korea. they had been married for 42 years. he had worked all of his life. they had poured their savings into this home because of a code violation. obviously there are fixed income and don't have a lot of money. they thought, well maybe we can get a loan to make some modest repairs. and what initially was promised as an $8000 line of credit to make these repairs ended up being an $80,000 debt with no repairs that threatened them going into foreclosure. in those kinds of stories are replicated all across the country. and it not only hurts those individuals, it hurts the entire economy. that shouldn't have been. not in america. that is why we are here. we are here to put an end to stories like these. and already, your work is making a difference. but "know before you owe" campaign you've been working for months is making home loan applications more transparent so families will no what they owe on their mortgages. it's making it easier for students to compare financial aid packages and know what they await my when they graduate. i could've used that. [laughter] in fact, i've got a law school classmate here who she probably went through the same thing i did. [laughter] is making credit card agreements shorter and simpler so that cardholders will know what they owe and what they're getting into. and i know that folks all across america have been sending in their stories to help shape these new initiatives. this is not something worth the washington talk down process. you are gathering experiences of individual families, seeing how they got hurt, how they might've gotten cheated and that is helping to define how you enforce these rules. and that is vitally important. and now that richard is your direct your, you can protect consumers under the law. now that he's here, irresponsible debt collectors and payday lenders an and independent mortgage services among providers, they are all bound by the same rules as everybody else. no longer are consumers left alone to face the risk of unfair or deceptive or abusive practices. not anymore. that we can make sure that folks don't lose their homes or their life savings just because somebody saw them as an easy target. we can make sure students don't start in life saddled with debt that they can never pay back just because of a lousy deal. we can safeguard families and seniors and veterans from toxic financial products. we can help give everybody the clear and transparent information that they need to make informed financial decisions and how companies compete for their business in an open and honest way. that is richard's commitment. that's my commitment and that is the commitment of everyone standing on the stage and that is your commitment. that is why this agency is so important. so i want to thank all of you for choosing to serve your country during these challenging times. your mission is extraordinarily important. it is vital for the strength of our economy. it's really important to the security of working families and i know that it might be personal for some of you. you may know a friend or family member whose life is turned upside down because of some of these on a very private justice that this agency is designed to root out. and maybe you were then determined to prevent that from happening to somebody else. now you can and we are not going to let those folks down all across the country. you know, when i meet americans all across the country for a week letters that i get every night, you know, they really don't ask for much. they are not looking for a handout or special treatment. they just want a fair shake. they just want a fair deal and we have a chance to give it to them. so let's do everything we can to make sure the middle-class families can regain some security they lost over the last decade. but how to protect what they worked so hard for her and give them a chance to hand it down to their kids. i know you guys are ready to go to work. i am, too. couldn't be prouder of you, so congratulations. richard. [applause] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [inaudible conversations] ♪ [inaudible conversations] >> during the current recess, the houses holding pro forma sessions intended to prevent the kind of recess appointments the president made this week. the legislative business is allowed, but at today's pro forma, james clyburn.: >> i pledge allegiance to the flag ofgi the united native justic america. and to the republic, for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> mr. speaker? of >> gentleman is out of order. of house organizational or legislative business will be conducted on this day. pursuant to section 4 hc of house resolution 493, the house stands adjourned until 2:00 p.m. on tuesday, january 10, on tuesday january 10, 2012. >> after the house galloped out in congressional cameras were turned off come the democrats staged a rally on the house floor, where they criticize republican majority for not returning to legislative work great democratic leaders held this 25 minute news briefing. >> good morning. the democrats are here and we're ready to work and we just can't wait. i think that what we heard this morning in the jobs report is an indication that the president's proposals are working. this program is taking hold. and we believe that our republican colleagues are doing a tremendous disservice to the american people by continuing to vacation when the foundation for moving an agenda seemed to be solid and should be the fields abroad. we are here ready to work to make sure we rehabilitate and the lives of american people. archon for a thorough hearing washing 10, looking for their republican colleagues so that they can develop a proposal to extend the payroll tax cut for the american people and do so in such a way that certainty and stability will be built into the lives of the american people. 160 million americans are in jeopardy of not having a continued tax cut. we democrats believe that middle income americans are preserving his tax cut, but they are also deserving of certainty and that is why our colleagues are here. as you notice, we just sat down and are not allowed to speak on the floor. we were told that we were in session. and we went to the floor to work. but we were not allowed to do the people's work. and so, my colleagues are here with me today and i would like now to yield to our illustrious leader who has come back from vacation so we can do the people's work. speaker pelosi. >> thank you very much, peter clyburn to call for the conferees to me to give a payroll tax cut to 150 million americans, to assure and reassuring millions of americans are out of work through no fault of their own, that they'll have unemployment benefits and detention of millions of our seniors that they will be able to see their doctor under medicare. this certainly gives people's confidence, and will inject a managed economy because for those who received a tax cut and an employment benefit need the money, will spend the money and create jobs. it's good for the economy. it's good for america's family. we were told with great vehemence yesterday that the congress was in session. that's why a lot to the floor today to call upon the conferees. the american people are crying after jobs. we can do that. i don't know what the americans are a pub afraid us. they were saying there late in december it can't be here in january. what is this one of, one month off. we have a job to do could bea. as leaders that come the president american jobs that has given confidence to people. already the economy is responding to his leadership in that regard and with the hope that we'll continue our work in a bipartisan fashion and in a timely fashion to extend the tax cuts, unemployment benefits for the rest of the year. there is no reason. tommy why, how can we explain to the american people by the conferees are not here to do their work, it even if the leadership does not want the congress to the here during the couple's work. one year and one day ago, the republicans were sworn in as the majority in congress that the united states. we can't associate ourselves with that a great privilege it was to do the people sort. one year later we are working five days in the month of january when the american people desperately need us to take positive action for job creation. i am very proud of our conferees. some are with us right now. all of them here this week to get the job done. scores of our members came across the country to urge congress to get moving on the conference report, hoping we could be in session to have some exchange of ideas on this subject. but evidently, the republicans think that the needs of the american people can wait. we can't wait. i am pleased to yield to the distinguished vice chair of our caucus, john larson of connecticut. >> to underscore the urgency, and meeting with ed reilly of the ironworkers in the current head of the greater hartford trade association and the trade in my state and in the greater hartford area have experienced in the last two years more than 40% unemployment. 40% in the building trades. and here is the president, with a plan that puts the country back to work, that focuses on our infrastructure system and most notably our schools and the contrast couldn't be more clear name to understand the need to have a first-rate education system and see our schools upgraded in a way that many of them haven't been in years and to understand that the same time you'll be putting those very people back to work. the republicans have left this in the dark abyss of uncertainty and that uncertainty is what we see when we go home and speak to her constituents almost every single week. they want us here working. they feel a part feel that martin luther king said so at colloquially as long ago that the urgency of now to put them back to work. and that is why we are here both ready to take on a conference assigned in lead capably prior vice chair, javier becerra who will speak next. >> thank you, mr. chairman. this is a little difficult to understand. we have been told to -- by the republicans that we spent four minutes today in session and ours done. well, most americans spoke up at the beginning of this week wanting to be able to see -- love and the opportunities and going back to work after this vacation. yet here we are and we're done, four minutes and we've got some work to do. either we are in or we are out of session. can you imagine what would have been if we had republicans working with the president to create jobs for 237 private-sector jobs were created with the recession of republicans in congress number 1.6 despite the obstruction of the republicans in congress, can you imagine how many americans would have been able to say after they vacation guess what, i'm going back to work. as ricky ricardo used to tell lucille ball. the republicans of explaining to do because this is not the way you run government and we need to have every hand on deck because every american is working hard as possible. we need to make sure every single american, including those who got elected to the house of representatives are ready to work. with that, let me go to the yankee member, kristen hall. >> i think my colleague. i may just present to numbers. one is 160 million americans. the other number is about 20 conferees, 435 members of the house. you would think not 20 conferees are 435 are able to get back to work on behalf of 160 million americans and put that uncertainty to rest. that is that this is all about. we saw some good news this morning and the jobs numbers. we saw them and i'm a little bit. we saw 200,000 new jobs created, but we also know that the economy remains very, very fragile. we know millions of americans are still out there every day looking for a job unable to find one through no fault of their own. and that's why it's so important we get to work and get to work now, just like all the americans who have jobs and got back to work. now, a majority of house republicans on the conference committee has been on record in the past opposing the idea of a payroll tax cut for 160 million americans. so i hope the fact that they are not here today is not an indication that they don't want to continue to extend that tax cut for 160 million americans because we know during the last one they try to add all sorts of extraneous unrelated provisions to the package. which is why we had to do it for two inside of a year. let's get back. let's finish the job. let's make sure we keep this fragile recovery moving. and with that, i want to yield to the ranking member of the energy and commerce committee and a member of the conference committee who is here and ready to get to work and relax a little. >> republicans are playing the game lets pretend. let's pretend we're in session for four minutes. let's pretend we are working because they banged the gavel and allowed the pledge of allegiance. let's pretend they had a a democracy, where they keep other points of view from even being expressed on the housework today when they cut off our assisted theater and all of the members that are here today. they are playing, let's pretend it doesn't make any difference that we are only going to meet at days in the month of january. let's pretend that it doesn't mean anything to them that their 160 million americans that are depending on us to act, to extend middle-class tax cut, to extend unemployment insurance for those who aren't working, to make sure that doctors are adequately reimbursed so they'll keep seeing seeing medicare patients. i think we had to stop playing games whether it's pretend or any other game. it is already the new year 2012. let's get to work. millions of americans are depending on us. let us summon the republicans from the four corners of the earth. hawaii, india or wherever they may be unfair privately funded trips. i should throw in las vegas because i know there is a trip in las vegas. come back into washington. the weather is not as nice, but the work we are elected to do has to be done here. what the conferees made, we have been informed that we won't even have a meeting until january 18 thereafter. let's get to work. come on, republicans. let's not pretend to work. let's really work. i now want to yield to the gentlelady from maryland who so ably led us in the pledge of allegiance and has been here with all of us to express the feelings that we also strongly hold that the american people are depending on us. >> thank you. this morning when i came in to lead the pledge i saw that it was a work day. it is sad that here we are in january. , when millions of americans actually went back to work after their holidays. millions of americans, except republicans in congress who thought that it was okay to take virtually the month off while we wait to extend unemployment compensation for millions of those who are unemployed for no reason, no fault of their own, while we wait to extend and give certainty to 160 million americans across this country who want those middle-class tax cuts that they can take care of themselves and their families and put that into the economy. we came here to work. and i am just a rank-and-file. i thought it was a work day because that is what people do after the new year begins. but that is now a republicans in congress have done. instead, they said we want to work five days in january for a months pay. we want to work for minutes on friday for a day's pay, while they spend it someplace else other than here in washington on capitol hill, doing the business of extending unemployment benefits, providing 160 million americans are certainty of a middle-class tax cut in making sure seniors and disabled have the ability to have doctors pay for their medicare reimbursements. we can't wait any longer. it's time to work. it's time for republicans to get back here in washington and work a month for a month's pay. >> i think my colleagues for being here. i thank them for going to the floor to express the concerns that i know are felt a people across the country. where are the jobs? where the republicans? we talked about passing the bill that would extend the payroll tax cut for 160 million americans, extend unemployment benefits for millions of people unemployed through no fault of their own and extending the ability to see a doctor for tens of millions of seniors. there's plenty else we can do. the absence of congress being in session deprives us of the opportunity to take those to the floor that we agreed knight the american dream where people are so hopeful and the potters of opportunity for people who want to work hard and play by the rules to reach their success. we have plenty of work to do. we could be taking up an infrastructure built to rebuild america and reignite the american dream, rebuild the middle-class, rebuild america. the kids in america as mr. hoyer always says. we can be passing that kind of ledges nation. the president has it all in his proposal. instead, the republicans are missing in action. you've heard us on the floor, but unfortunately the public could not hear because we were shut down mr. clyburn, the distinguished gentleman from south carolina stood up to speak on behalf of the american people. so we will be pleased to take any question you have. >> the republican are provided over the pro forma session is calling theatrics. reviewer speak her, house republicans staged a similar practice during the august recess, but she did in the house back. >> they dance on the floor. they stated they were on television as you recall. but the fact is right now we have massive unemployment in our country. perhaps people in washington don't notice. i wish you could read my christmas cards, cards i received from hundreds and hundreds of people talking about their need and how they want a job. can congress please work together to create jobs? this is a very, very difficult time for the american people. they are losing patience with congress. they simply don't understand why when they need jobs we can't do ours. and again, an important time when we could be instilling more confidence in the public that we will be getting the people's work done. >> this question is for ms. edwards. use of a job in this morning he thought this would be a work day. her district is close to washington washington d.c. democrats aren't in show you are often asked to preside over pro forma sessions. when you're presenting a recession did you anticipate that any of those would be workdays or is this somehow different? >> for me as a member of congress representing people of the fourth congressional district, every day is a work day. it is a work day they would need to get to work creating jobs for the american people. that's what i expect after a long vacation. the rest of america that has a java back to work. the congress needs to come back to work, too. we have work to do. we need to create jobs and make sure we extend unemployment for millions of americans who are out of work. and we need to make sure that we extend those tax cuts for 160 million americans who went to work after the holiday. i came ready to work. our democratic colleagues, many of them were here yesterday also ready to work. our conferees are here. it is time for republicans in congress to get to the business of the american people. >> and it's very -- it's about time. it's about the time the american people have been out of work. it is about the time we are not working for them. it is about time for us to get here and get the job done. so if you want to get yourself well done and when we came to congress or the first 100 hours we pass legislation to lower -- to raise the minimum wage, to insist that the secretary had the right to negotiate prescription drugs, to make sure that those who are truly not sure paid their royalties. not all of it became law. president bush was president at the time, but most of it did. we continue to be on the job as long as there is a need and the opportunity for us to get the job done. and right now it is a time for a to have the conferees sit down at the table because the work was not completed last year. it was not completed last year because as mr. van hollen said, many of the conferees in addition to members of republican caucus did not support a payroll tax cut for 160 million americans. tax cuts for the wealthiest people in the country. the 160 middle income americans, no. and then they use the excuse that it wasn't long enough. i've told some of you is like yogi berra talking about a restaurant. i don't like the food there. it isn't any good. and besides, the portions are too small. they don't like the payroll tax cuts and yet they wanted to be -- saying they wanted to be longer was their excuse for not getting the job done. so there is some insert key here. so if you don't think this is a different time, take a ride outside of washington d.c. see what the public mood is. see what they need is for us to create these jobs, not only to do what they say in the legislation, but what it engenders in terms of confidence in people, hiring by businesses and objecting demand into the economy. i simply will not have the same page and this 10 years ago. this is about the here and now and the highly unusual circus dances we are in because of republicans failed to policies for economic policies that president george bush took us to a financial meltdown, took us into near depression, took us into deep deficits that we still have to deal with. are they just too tired to come to work? i hope not. >> senate democrat aren't here. were you calling on the senate democrat to combat? >> we are asking the conferees to come to work. they were here. they met this week geared we are asking all of the conferees to get to work. >> i just wanted to confirm something because i think you have to distinguish what republicans did when they came in the fuller was not open for work and what we are trying to do today. when the republicans came and told us to do some work, we had recess. we had formally recess. we essentially told to remember kovac your district to work at home. this is your opportunity to work at home. we're not going to have votes. republicans today are upset at the president for having made an appointment on a recess appointment and they claim we have not recess. we are so up work, which means you should be here prepared to go. there is a great difference between a situation where we formally recess in every member says he cannot work in your district versus republicans today saying, we are not in recess, which delivers a member of congress to be prepared to cast votes. whether it's donna edwards or any other member of congress, there is a great difference between what the republicans did on the house floor and what we are attempting to do today. the republicans are the ones saying we are at work. we are saying, prove it. [inaudible conversations] >> we are joined by jonathan strong, rollcall house leadership reporter. what were democrats trying to get done when they try to get recognized in today's house performance session? >> well, it is kind of a political theater. they are making a point that they are here ready to work and this is project do for them from a messaging standpoint on two levels. one, it shows they are anxious to deal with the poor economy and it also addresses the controversial recess appointment by president obama. and they are saying, i thought congress was in session. but today we weren't able to do the work of the people. and so, we are either in session or not in session. we are ready to work and there's no congress happening. so they are addressing both games. >> you call it a piece at the adair, but it is a piece it is interesting because how schemas are controlled by the house gallery. >> well, that's true. the cameras can't see it, but we reporters are made well aware of it. and that harkens back that republicans did the same thing in 2008. at that time, gas prices were very high and it was the august recess that held a number on the house floor with no microphone power to show that they were here, ready to try to address high gas prices. this has now kind of become a tax take the chicken is in the minority when you want to make a point. >> well, they're a number of pro forma sessions in the house comes back in january 17 to get underway with legislative work. any indication they plan to continue this sort of effort? >> well, they kept it up for the last several days and it seems to be -- they seem to be enjoying themselves. they have come off a big win from the perilous standoff that happened just before christmas. i think they feel the wind is at their backs are so yeah, i would expect it, but i haven't heard that they are going to for sure. >> and our comments today and yesterday commented house democratic leadership talk about the payroll tax extension of the unemployment extension? are they trying to set the scene because it is just what for two months? >> ray. and they are demanding that the conference committee get to work on a full one-year extension. and they'll ask for certain things and there's probably surtax on millionaires is the democratic position on how they had to pay for the full year and they feel they have got the upper hand when the republicans had to capitulate under pressure on the two standouts. so we'll see how they can do a map. >> there had been thought that after the president did the recess appointment of richard cordray did in fact republicans may come to the house floor to say something about that during pro forma sessions. what is ahead in terms of that. what can you tell us? >> republicans are angry about the appointment, which they argue is the illegal and unconstitutional because neither chamber is technically in recess. but they are exploring a number of avenues. one of those is a lawsuit that would challenge the appointment and ultimately this might read result in court. >> jonathan strong covers the house leadership for rollcall. you can read his rollcall.com. thanks for the update. >> thank you. >> a public meeting on the postal service's planned closure of a processing plant in vermont. >> if we begin now to master policy is that ideas, and i believe it is yet possible that we will come to admire this country not simply because we were born here, but because of the kind of great and good land that you and i wanted to be and that together we have made. that is my hope. that is my reason for seeking the presidency of the united states. >> the leadership of this nation as a clear and immediate challenge to go to work effectively and go to work immediately to restore proper respect for law and order in this land and not just prior to election day get there. >> these young people when they get out of this wonderful university will have difficulty finding a job. we've got to clean this mess that cannot leave this country in good shape and pass on the american dream to them. >> the u.s. postal service has proposed closing of two dirty 700 postal facilities took the country by 2015 in order to save $20 billion. plans call for closing a processing plant in white river junction vermont as 245 workers for a savings of $8 million a year. tuesday night, 500 people filled an american legion hall in white river junction for a public meeting which included the governor and all three members of the state's congressional delegation. this is just over two and a half hours. >> may i have your attention? thank you and good evening. by name is michael powers. i'm a marketing and customer relations manager for the northeast air as the united states postal service. thank you very much. great input already. i appreciate that. i will be serving as tonight's moderator for the town -- for the community meeting for anp process. a couple housekeeping issues if i made before we begin. in the unlikely event that we need to vacate this space, the emergency exit is to my left, to my right, in front, two doors in the back. mentzer mideastern are located at the far end of the hall. for those of you who currently have a cell phone or an electronic device, a kindly ask you turn it to me at. and for any hearing-impaired people here tonight, we have signed service is available, seats available reserved as well to my last. let me begin by thanking the american legion post 26 and specifically commanded deanne reid for allowing us to be here tonight to user space. commander, where are you, please? thank you, commander. [applause] i would like to introduce a number of folks with us tonight. i would say to first introduce senator that he is a test. [applause] senator sanders. [applause] congressman welch. [applause] governor shumlin. [applause] i'd also like to introduce a representative from senator shaheen, bethany urich. [applause] with us also are the representative from congressman bowser's office, chris collins. [applause] also representing the u.s. senator from new hampshire, mica skylight. [applause] also with us, jim condos for and secretary of state. [applause] new commissioner from department of labor. [applause] also, vincent losey, vermont state senator. also with us are a number of folks in the united states postal service. district manager, and a bass essler. delete plant manager for the northern new england district, michael breed. [applause] be acting plant manager for the white river junction, mary woodward, also known as woody. [applause] and from our postal unions, jonker ziskin a regional coordinator for the northeast region of the american postal leaders union. [applause] wayne martin, local president at local 520 for the av debut. [applause] frank rogerio on agents for the american postal workers union. [applause] representing the national association of postal supervisors in vice president, i do mouse. from vermont state president of the national association of postal supervisors, rayfield. [applause] and randy sharon, the burlington national association of postal supervisors. [applause] from our mail handlers union, local 301, new england president of the mail handlers union, tim dwyer. [cheers and applause] and the branch president of the white river junction, bill kramer. and i'd also like to recognize a number of current postal employees that are here in the audience tonight as well as and i would ask for a lot of applause for every tire postal employees. [applause] as information come with two cameras located >> in the back of the room and i would like to invite c-span being here tonight and they will be filming throughout the night. i very much appreciate you to take your time to come to white river junction tonight. into my rate, the two women will be recording all that is said tonight and making it as a matter of the record. just briefly, why are we are here, the purpose is to get input from postal service is looking for input relative to a current study that is being conducted with the white river junction plant processing facility. the reason that this study is being conduct did this the postal service fans ourselves in a financial difficult situation. and that is no new news to anybody. as information since the year 2006, our urbanization has seen a loss of 43 billion pieces of mail per year. because of that, it is requiring us to take actions to ensure the greater efficiencies are the efficiencies of the postal service on a national basis maintained. we find ourselves in a situation it will have a presentation by deb that will clearly articulate the enormous challenges we us americanization face. we thank you for being here tonight. we look forward to the input. any comments or questions you may have, understand, no decision has been made relative to the white river junction plant as we speak today. this is a process again that we have instituted on a national basis. this is a segment that is very important to us. what you have to say is that they will take forward and consider as we begin to create the postal service said the future. so again, welcome. with that, i would like to introduce to everybody the district manager of the northern new england district. the northern new england district covers the state, deb essler covers new hampshire vermont and maine. [applause] >> okay. we will speak real loud and i invite -- i encourage others that will be speaking tonight are the problem with the room as the speaker system and halfway through the room. so what we have done is put a temporary speaker here and we'll try to extend as far as we can. but we will definitely speak out. these continue to let us know if it's difficult to hear in the back. all right? thank you. >> thank you very much, mike. welcome, everyone. this is a very important part of the process. as mike pointed out, it is preliminary information we will share with you in terms of the area the processing study. one of two out of 52 studies currently going on across the united states. as you know, the postal service has recently announced it intends to see some significant changes. in the mail processing network among other things. i've given you some background tonight on these changes and why we believe they are necessary. i will associate the proposed changes for mail processing operations located at white river junction, vermont. i have a lot to cover tonight and as many questions and hopefully a lot will be answered as we go through the presentation. i'm going to have to sit or questions, comments and concerns until we're finished with their presentation tonight. we are here tonight to hear from the community and we hope you focus your questions and comments and concerns on service and cost and customer issues. potential employee impacts are summarized in the presentation as well in labor issues are handled internally within the postal service with the appropriate personnel. let's begin tonight with just a short video that will help illustrate the process mail today. ♪ first-class mail is declining at a rapid pace because people are mailing last, with less mail to process and deliver, postal service has to make smart business decisions that are critical to preserving his future. the postal service has undertaken area mail processing. these studies are one part of the overall strategy to get the postal service on the path to profitability, strengthen its financial future for those customers and employees. right now, the postal service has saved vast network of mail processing facilities here at the facilities were established many years ago to process increasing mail volumes. as a nation group, so did the postal service. but now it's so many web-based communications available, people and businesses are moving away from the postal service for sending those, statement and other documents that were once held exclusively through first-class mail. the simple fact is that the postal service must adjust its mail processing network to evolve as our nation's mailing habits change. most mail processing occurs during overnight hours, with the majority of the processing occurring between midnight and 6:00 a.m. during the day, however, there is little processing that actually occurs. most people our mail and accepted meanings. for a significant part of the day, the plant is largely idle. here's the problem. but there's a lot of capacity to process an ever dwindling volume of mail, how can the current system of mail processing be changed with little or no impact to the customer? the answer has to do is something called mail service standards, what most customers may not realize is first-class mail currently receives overnight service in metropolitan areas. because of this standard, the nationwide processing operations has been set up to handle this need. the sobering reality is that first-class mail volumes will not return to the levels in the past and changing service standards to match reality is one way of keeping the postal service bible. viable. .. we just have to get our financial house in order right now. >> have these changes would bring huge changes but also lay the foundation for the financially stable service will but we continue to serve our customers for many years to come were 64. before i go forward with the presentation i just want to make a couple of comments. i think it's really important that we all understand while there are 252 sightings going on currently across the united states there were no facilities selected based on any criteria that was specific to performance. the junction performance is outstanding the employees are outstanding this was a network realignment of the social service. [applause] and it's based on looking at the network changes we are going through right now and where we want to be between now and 2020 to really be successful and support a very large industry as well so in no way is this an indication that our employees again are not doing an outstanding job because they are. the postal service is responding to a changing marketplace. the reality is the value of the mali process annually has declined more than 43 billion pieces in the past five years and we know it will continue to decline. as a result the mail processing network is not much larger than we can afford. looking ahead the declining volumes dictate that we must make radical changes to the mail processing network and so this evening we will provide you information around two very important topics. first that we intend to rely on the mail processing network in the next two years based on the to to treat a standard for local delivery of first-class mail and a second the initial results of the area processing site of preliminary information on the reduction from last. to bolster the case for change let me start with this graph. it shows the trends in the production through 2020 it shows our first-class product which includes both traditional cards and letters that you put a postage stamp on and the standard mail also known as advertising mail. 2006 was the high water mark. since then first-class mail has declined 20% deutsch electronics and version and the economic slowdown. the sobering reality is first-class mail will not returned to the previous levels. more and more people are continuing to use electronic means to communicate to pay their bills. experts predict the continued decline in the volume of the first-class mail which is the product that drives the network requirements and pays our bills and the postal service contributes the most to the bottom line. during part of the businesses advertising mail which we expect to show some growth in the out years but even significant growth and continued growth of that we are experiencing in the volume is not enough to make out for the ongoing decline in the first-class mail this change in the makeup of the male for first cost of advertising mail therefore has significant institutions for the postal service infrastructure for two major reasons. one is the volume of declining with less revenue to cover the cost of the infrastructure and number two we also have excess capacity through the network. simply put to process less kneal we need to look at your facilities. i'd like to mention the word capacity a few times tonight. it relates to the devotee to process mail and packages. our mail processing network footprint involved for many years in response to the volume fluctuation for the improvement technology between 1970 and 2006 our focus was on expanding to handle on the then current volume from 1970 to 2006 we increased the used to the greater efficiency. we build a large new facilities to house the advanced processing equipment it was the purpose of growth and a significant capital investment to the postal service. we build facilities with the confidence at that time the the population and the economy make rules that the volumes will also increase. since 2006 the confidence in the perpetual volume growth has evaporated. prior to 2006 our operational goal was to stay ahead of the growth curve to ensure that we had the capacity to support the larger volumes. now our operational goal in this cost curve is to ensure that we have just enough capacity to meet the lower volumes. and to operate at a lower cost than our revenue can support in the future. so now we are going from the expanding environment and to a contracting environment. we have to reduce the mail processing infrastructure to get ahead of the declining volume. this activity is at the core of our ability to the profitability. reducing our infrastructure in response to the volume decline is really nothing new. since 2006 the mail volume dropped 20% and we reduced our network buy nearly 200 mail processing facilities. we did this successfully without any impact on our customers. in fact we delivered record service during this period. these reductions were accomplished without laying off any of our employees. how did we do that? in part through the process involving area mehl processing studies which we are here for to discuss tonight eventually had been using this process for a decade and has served us very well. using the study data and objective criteria we determined whether the business takes for the consolidation. and there are opportunities built into the process opportunities including the input meetings such as the one here tonight. and also a written comment period that extends 15 days beyond tonight. these are times for the committee members and any stakeholders to comment ask questions and provide concerns to the postal service and many times from these meetings suggestions as well as how we go forward and looking at the right thing to do. we will continue to follow the process with the study data the public input and objective criteria in making our decisions. by 2013 the network makes up fewer than the 200 mail processing facilities which would put at the head of the cost curve for the remainder of the decade. we know this has been a plan with of the operating network that would need to be to meet the needs of the nation the next 30 years. here is what our mail processing footprint looks like today. you can see we have facilities throughout the country, facilities in varying sizes that employee anywhere from 50 to 2,000 employees. what happens in these facilities is relatively simple. first the mail is brought in almost always accommodation of the mail collected from post offices and drop off directly by business customers. then it is sort of almost all of it during an automated process and either shipped back for local delivery or shipped to another mail processing facility depending on its ultimate destination. to support our overnight service commitment, most of this processing takes place in the middle of the night. in fact our entire network was designed based on a requirement that we maintain the capability to deliver first-class mail on the next business day. this requirement presents us from being able to sort the mail until all the mail that needs to be sorted gets to the delivery order for the last year and a right to the facility. this has enormous implications because it constrains our operating window to process mail in the middle of the night and enforce us to make a large number of mail processing locations. >> this represents all of the mail processing facilities for possible consolidation. the blue stars and i realize they are hard to see from the audience here, the blue stars represent facilities for which studies are already underway and the rest represent the 252 additional mail processing facilities that are on the list would be released by the postal service on september 15th. as you can see -- >> why don't we just talk about -- new hampshire >> we will be getting to that. appreciate that. >> [inaudible] [applause] [inaudible] [applause] the study's will have the overall financial impact of closing and consolidation and significant stakeholder input. this is what the mail processing network might look like in the future if after consolidation all of the studies were approved the standard is the stated goal for the service achievement for each class of mail the postal network is built to meet the existing goals. that means that even though the dramatic decline in mail volume is resulted in excess and a network it will reduce the network to address the excess capacity problems we would not be able to consistently achieve the existing service standards. that's why we intend to propose to rebuild the network based on the two to three days standards for the local delivery of first-class mail. the operational would be tremendous. and even though the change would go relatively unnoticed by the average customer this would allow us to design and much more efficient lower-cost mail processing network to the facility. [inaudible] here we get a sense of what the changes would represent. let me show you how we meet the current overnight first-class mail delivery requirement. the circle represents 24 hours. on the left you see that the overnight first-class mail delivery requirement in the mail processing time into a small window of activity. beginning roughly at midnight and continuing the next four to six hours. i did meet last night and earlier this morning with some of the employees at the junction post office at the plant and they wanted to be sure that you knew that in white river junction you process more than the four to six hours, significantly more. even with that, we are going to show you a little further along in the presentations there are strong business case is but this represents the national the average of mail processing and it is a little bit longer window in the junction. deutsch the overnight first-class mail service to her to have to maintain its capacity even though it's not especially efficient. given the time and distance associated with getting mail to and from each facility it also means we have to maintain numerous facilities. the proposal operating model would be based on changing to the two to three day first-class service range. this would allow meal to be processed during much longer stand in the 24-hour slide. we anticipate that this kind of future network would support a two to 31st class standard. what include revised time for dropping of first-class mail or what we call entry time for first-class mail. we would also expect the consolidations would result in an estimated 50% reduction in the mail processing equipment and significant reduction in our physical footprint eliminating the capacity many times when the equipment is not running in our network. but also enabled of us and our customers to optimize transportation. the question about these changes is how does it attract the customer? there are two major areas of change that would attract the commercial customer. first the local footprint. literally where business customers would need to drop off meal. customers can drop me off at most any accepting facility. however estimating the scum that some currently receive may not be entered where it is processed the team is available to discuss the specific concern to the mailers we did meet to discover an ongoing dialogue with them. shouldn't this be a study that goes forward we would want to problem solve with them on a regular basis to make sure that this is not impacted. we also think our commercial customers would be able to really accommodate the new schedule. many of our largest customers and have told us this is something we need to consider. we know the proposed changes would have a significant impact on the mailing industry and local mailers. we outlined the proposal to both the major industrial groups and successful basis and generally have been pleased with the response. we have a good track record of working with the industry and global mailers and are committed to making sure the transition would be as smooth as possible, again if this were a sight that were to go forward. list speak for a moment about our employees. the business decisions were not made lightly and these changes would affect many of our employees. we've dedicated and committed work force not only in white river junction but across northern new england and across the united states. postal employees to a phenomenal job and they deserve tremendous credit for achieving record service and efficiency means over the past few years. even in very challenging times. [applause] nearly every employee in the mail processing facility can be helped by these changes. changes even the possibility of change is very unsettling. change becomes reality we would make every effort to accommodate employees and provide positions where we can. we also worked closely with our unions to reposition the affected employees. over the past 12 years the work force has been reduced by 250,000 positions mostly through attrition which largely involves requirement. we've never had to lay off employees as part of the culture for a responsible employer and that won't change. now that i shared a little bit about the general information on the processing, let's talk a little bit more about this study. again, let me make it clear that we have great employees at the river junction. this slide shows the extent of the white river junction of the manchester location at approximately 82 miles apart. this gives you a little geographic information here. the next slide shows 91 miles between the white river plant and the burlington vermont plant processing center. if the consolidation of operations at these facilities is approved, there is an expected annual savings of almost $8 million. the business case shows the data that the mail processing work hours savings are estimated to be $3.3 million annually. the mail processing management savings are estimated to be $487,000 the maintenance savings $3.2 million annually and the transportation savings of 490,000. there are other miscellaneous savings you will notice the slide doesn't add up to the bottom line. these are the major categories the we keep you here tonight. in most consolations employees are impacted the often change jobs, hours and over rotation. reassignment will be made in accordance with the agreement that we have with the union in this time to go forward. the study shows that projected net reductions under 51 employees. every event will be made to place employees in a job with a number district. so you understand what that net impact is. it's taking the number of positions in the three plants involved, manchester, new hampshire, white river junction, vermont and burlington vermont which is an ethics junction. and after the study if we were to close white river junction there would be a net increase of the 51 positions for the three facilities. the proposed consolidation would support a two or freed a service standard for first-class mail. other local customer considerations include retail services currently available at the river junction processing distribution center. those would remain to be a business meal acceptance units that are currently at the white river junction processing facility will also remain. the collection by the time could be adjusted slightly if it went through. in local postmarks continue to be available for first-class mail to take that to retail and delivery times to the residences customers would be unchanged and unaffected so the mail delivery would be the same time each day that it is now. for the commercial mailers who presort the mail continue to receive appropriate postage discounts. mailers who dropped shift the section also devotee discount can expect that there could be changes if it is approved. we did discuss some of these changes this afternoon with some of our larger mailers and they are giving us some very detailed information on the impact would have so we can start looking should this go forward on how we invest and support each of them. >> can i ask a question? >> if you can wait until when finished would appreciate that. thank you. as i stated earlier this evening it's currently under review at the area headquarters there may be changes to the study made. we will continue to take comments through january 19th so that we can take all of those comments for work to the area in the headquarters office that the at&t proposal can be considered at that time. we take very seriously our obligation for the entire industry. it's a trillion dollar industry that employs more than 8 million people across the united states. we are soliciting your input to night so that we can make sure we make good business decisions that you heard your comments questions and suggestions are heard and we continue to make the male strong for us, for you and the industry for many years to come. we will leave this up there to remind you that you do have 15 days after tonight and want to be sure that in addition to the information that's been written down here for questions and comments tonight that you also are encouraged to mail in any of those to us as well to read >> [inaudible] before we get into the question and comment section -- >> [inaudible] >> thank you. before we get into the general question and comment part of the presentation, we have some very distinguished guests i would like to invite up to speak and i'd like to begin with governor shumlin, please. [applause] estimates before. i'm honored to be here and i will be very brief because i want to hear -- i know we want to hear the obligation wants to hear from the hard working employees of the u.s. postal service that do such an extraordinary job delivering in our mail on time in vermont. so my hat goes off to you. thank you for being here tonight. i want to thank so much all of you for being here and our congressional delegation for helping to organize this forum tonight. i feel blessed as your governor to serve in the state that has the best congressional delegation in america, senator leahy. [applause] they don't get any better than senator leahy. senator sanders and congressman welch our hometown boys a thank you very much. [applause] before i say a few words about the sheer idiocy of shutting down the white river junction processing facility -- [cheering] i want to thank our congressional delegation for the announcement that just came through from washington where they with their extraordinary power rests convince the congress who does almost nothing to send hundreds of millions of dollars back to the state of vermont to help us rebuild from the worst flood in our history. thank you, bernie, patrick, peter. we are proud of you. [applause] a couple of quick words. i was born and raised in windham county and we understand what closing the white river junction processing facility would mean to vermont. we are a rural state the and we require mail to get to us not only to communicate with our loved ones, but to run our businesses, create jobs and economic opportunities. it is critical for the to wondered 50 hard working people who process the male right here and do a great job of it. it's critical as we slowly crawl out of the worst recession in american history and start building jobs in vermont that we have a postal service that delivers mail when we send it not to the four or five days later that we send. [applause] i say this to the u.s. postal service you do a great job. it doesn't get a better. in my other life in the private sector i run a small business just south of here called put me student travel. we rely on the white river junction facility to get our product to the market that allows us to employ vermont, and they don't do it any better than here. but we happen to do in that business is sent community projects with high school students all over the world to developing countries and the one thing that helps us is that the u.s. postal service gets mail reliably to people when you need to get their. we dread sending mail to the third world developing countries that we are dealing with because their postal services don't. this proposal will join that in having a backwater postal service that costs us jobs and economic opportunity. [applause] i will close by saying this. we in rural vermont are an internet service is spotty, cellphone service is at times nonexistent needed the postal service more than anyone else in america, keep it open, keep it strong, keep our hard-working postal employees working and go somewhere else to find pretend savings. what i find extraordinary about this is -- [applause] and i ask this one question. if the studies on the madison avenue videos intact suggest that there are going to be savings to through employees but are somehow not going to lose any jobs i ask what kind of math you are using. [applause] so i will be standing together with our congressional delegation to do everything we can to bring sense to the u.s. postal service could keep the white river junction postal center open and keep us a growing jobs and economic opportunities in vermont. thank you. [applause] >> okay, thank you come governor. [cheering] [applause] thank you, governor. at this time i would invite senator leahy, please, senator [applause] >> does this sound better? okay normally i would go first but i'm not going to. as senator sanders who has worked so hard on this along with the congressman and myself to speak first and i will speak after but i want to read just one thing. we got a lot of christmas cards this year, a lot. one that we saved especially is from chris richardson. is he here? [applause] there he goes to get my family and i just want to take a second and thank you for all you've done for the post office, its employees, their families, their customers, we appreciate everything you've done. i want you and your families to know senator sanders, congressman, governor shumlin and i will not stop one moment. [applause] >> thank you. [applause] let me begin by thanking all of you not only for being here this is a phenomenal turnout, that think you for the extraordinary work you do every single day. sometimes we take for granted. we shouldn't. you are doing a great job and think you for that. [applause] i also want to thank the post office. this meeting was originally scheduled for december 18th. there was a very bad time. i appreciate your rescheduling the meeting to a more convenient inappropriate time. now let me begin by taking up on a point that the governor and senator leahy had already made. we are in the midst of the worst recession since the great depression triet 25 million americans are either unemployed or underemployed. on the floor of the senate and the house senator leahy, congressman welch and i and many others are doing everything we can to try and i have to tell you again very strong opposition to try to create millions of jobs our economy needs. we are also trying to make sure that our veterans get the jobs that they are entitled to. in the midst of all of that it is in san to be talking about throwing 100,000 americans out of work. [applause] the post office has made a case which is certainly true. this is the 21st century. many of us use e-mail. we know that there must be changes in the postal service. but in my view if the postal service does the right thing and in congress senator leahy, congressmen welch and i are working on legislation to do that, there are business models available to grow the postal service rather than cutting and cutting. [applause] , this is the business model of the postmaster general in the postal service right now. they want to eliminate 252 processing plants, or they are looking at that concluding the one here in white river junction. they want to shut down thousands of the rural post offices which in many parts of our country and our state are the centers in town if we have people come together including 15 in the state of vermont. [applause] they want to eliminate saturday mail delivery. now when the you do all of that in my view when you do as the post office indicated slow down the mail delivery so when i put a piece in the mailbox if they get to the destination in today's, three days, maybe even five days, when all the people will be delayed in getting their prescription drugs, when you begin to do that, you are the sort of way that cycle, a death spiral for the post office. [applause] because who is going to use the post office at its strongest attribute of the speedy delivery the longer exists? now one of the things that senator leahy, a congressman welch and i have worked on with some success is that i had a very strong feel that with the post office wanted to do is ramrod these cuts against congress could act. so no matter what legislation may be out there doesn't matter if congress doesn't have the time to deliberate and deal with country inns of legislation. we met with postmaster general donahue a few weeks ago and had a very long meeting. i wanted a six month moratorium on the cuts. we agreed to a five month moratorium. the importance of that is that when we return from washington in january, the end of january, one of the first orders of business up in the senate will be comprehensive postal reform. [applause] now what is disappointing about the postal presentation i really have a hard time understanding it to the it is absolutely true the first-class mail system. no one knows that, but one of the great financial problems facing the post office in addition to the decline of the first-class mail is in addition to the recession is absolutely unfair and onerous financial requirements be made on the postal service. [applause] and it's very hard to understand and presentation how this is dealt with. the postal service as a result, not their fault, as a result of congressional action some years ago is required to come up with about $5.5 billion every single year for future health care retirees. there is no other agency or government that comes close to having this requirement, and its best as we can understand there is no company in america that has to do that. [applause] now i talked briefly to the gentleman who was the head of the office of personnel management and he agreed that this is an onerous and unnecessary requirements. there is already enough money in the future retiree health benefit program to pay off benefits for the next 20 years. the post office does not need to come up with 5 billion. that number can be very significantly reduced and that is part of the legislation that senator leahy, congressman welch and i are working on. will that solve all the problems? no, but it's a good start. [applause] second of all, the postal service has overpaid the federal employees retirement system and is now agreed upon over $11 billion. if the post office can report that money plus the cuts in what they have to pay to retiree health benefits, that will come close to giving the postal service the $20 billion they need in the first four or five years to reach the kind of solvency that they are talking about. [applause] in addition to that of the house side, congressman welch is on board legislation, which would provide that $55 billion in overpayment made to the civil service retirement system be returned to the post office as well. [applause] so the point is does the postal service have to change? the answer is yes. but we also have to be fair to the postal service and not place burdens on them that no other agency of the government has or no other private sector company has. so we have to short-term focus on these accounting issues to give the postal service the three, four, five years that it needs to begin the kind of reorganization. now, the business models that the post office is talking about now is basically cut, cut, cut. i disagree on that approach. we do need a new approach, but the new approach must be an entrepreneurial approach, an approach of growth, an approach of being aggressors in the business community. for example, right now, giving some examples of this, right now i walk into a post office, and i say to the clerk you know who writes this letter for you know the clerk says, it is against a law for me to notarize that letter. it's against the law. if i say to the clerk by the we can you give me ten copies of this letter, i can't do it. post office does not allow to do that. it's not doing that today. if i'd been a rural post office and i see by the way, can you sell the fishing license orie hunton when simms, can't do that, it's against the law. i think if we get some smart people together to understand that we have a letter carriers knocking on 60,000, 160, every single day we have infrastructure all over this country if we sit down and say how can the post office work with other government agencies, how can the post office be more with the private sector generating for business i think we can come up with solutions that is a lot more positive than the cuts that the post office is now bringing. [applause] for the last several months i've been working with some of her leaky on these issues now let me reintroduce senator patrick leahy. [applause] faugh >> thank you, bernie. deborah told me the hearing back in the back and i said don't be unusual and shaw, speak up so we can hear you. thank you. [applause] serious for a moment. one of the hats that i wear representing all of you is as the chairman of the senate judiciary committee you may wonder why i bring that up. i want to remind when people talk about post office is being run in the business and so on, there is only one business it's referring to in the constitution of the united states. an article 1, section 8 of the constitution it gives congress the right to establish the postal service. that has been that way since this country was founded and all of you people work for the post office be proud of that. you are in the constitution. [applause] if it isn't subtle, if it isn't too subtle color that means congress needs to be consulted before the postal service implements reforms that threaten to destroy itself. [applause] every day i wear this pin this was given to me when i was first sworn into the united states senate. among other things i took an oath to uphold the constitution. part of the constitution is how we established the postal service. i am not one iota on my oath to uphold the constitution and neither will senator sanders or congressmen welch and i know the governor is with us on that. and you can count on that, too. [applause] you have not been shy letting us know how you think. i appreciate that. the mail handlers union, the others that have spoken up, thank you for doing that. you know, all of us worked together in 2006 to successfully reason the closure of a similar facility essex. now they are glad they didn't close it. senator sanders and i am congressman walsh feel that way. we haven't changed our mind about closing this facility or any of the processing facilities. it's not a case of us trying to hang on to something that's outdated and gone. making it work, and make the constitution work and keep the postal service running. it is part of america let's not forget that. [applause] now, we do not have the testing moving -- fastest moving congress these days. we did have a lot of gridlock, but we are all going to work hard and we are going to see him to leave to seek help from republicans and democrats alike to make sure that we can to protect vermont and the service they expect from their postal service. i don't believe this is not the issue here tonight we are talking about processing but i don't believe the postal service should be balancing its budget on the backs of the rural post offices. and the door on the service standards the mail processing facilities. we are a special state, but we work only if everything does work. so let's not -- i don't need to tell you all the things i have here what you should know them. but stop and think for a moment if you're going to do cuts that slope the service, that slow of their abilities, doesn't harm the future competitiveness of the post office? [applause] how in heaven's name is that helping? i'm just a small town lawyer born in mount the earlier and i can't figure that out i can't figure out anything. they want to survive and thrive the postal service has to find new markets. the postal service will not cut its way to greatness. it can grow its way to greatness and we are going to stand and help. [applause] thank you, senator. the third member of the delegation, and again i just want to make no every member of the delegation is with us this evening and we are proud and thankful that you are all here. i would like to ask congressman welch to please come forward. [applause] >> thank you. we are going to be hearing from you very soon, but i have to tell you my office was literally went on the road used to stop in at the processing facility to come three come sometimes four times a week after a few years i actually got the tours in the back where all the magic happens. i really want to thank each and every one of you for the work that you've done for us. the four corners, the street corners, norwich, you got everyone here. when i walked in and i shook hands saying how long have you worked here? 33 years, 28 years, 37 years, this has been your life and your life have been serving us and i want to tell you we appreciate it, we notice it. we know that you have been an anchor in the communities and each and every one of us and governor shumlin want to say thank you for your service we are going to keep doing it we won't get out of it that easy no matter what they say over their. [applause] if you on the job you've got to have that job and folks the 25 million people that are not in a job that want a job sometimes wonder why anyone should protect someone else's job when they don't have it. and you know, at the moment when we have to remember that we are all in this together it's something that our country is in danger of forgetting. the pressure israel on you. but you see folks coming in on christmas time trying to figure out whether they can afford the stance to send the package to a grandchild. you've been seeing that. it's tough for lots of folks. as we've got to be generous a spirit and we've got to be smart. you know, the postal service has been with us for 237 years. now we are talking about e-mail, electronic processing. but you think that there were not huge changes that have to occur in those 237 years? from 1775 when benjamin franklin got this operation going up until now of course there were but of course the postal service adjusted it and why? yes, your jobs are worth saving but the united states postal service is worth saving. [applause] in our goal has to be how what do we save it, and altogether dewey save it, we do make the changes but when we have a plan it's not in the plan that we are going to exempt or take up this excessive burden of billions and billions of dollars of funding and over funding this isn't to avoid meeting your obligation, it's too over fund the retiree benefits and health care oncoming to impose and inflict its financial burden and make it impossible for us to be successful and to make the slow and gradual change that needs to be made not just so that you can have your job which is extremely important but so that this community and white river junction, the state of vermont that we all know, this country in the united states of america, rural and urban will have a postal service for another 237 years and counting. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much. at this point, i will invite anybody who would like to ask a question, make a comment i would ask that the line and from the podium back because the significant number of folks here tonight it's important that we recognize the time. i will be instituting a two minute limit on those who wish to speak if you have an additional question beyond the when you ask i would ask that you go back to ensure that everybody has an opportunity to make a comment or ask a question also as part of the article i would ask that you identify yourself so that people recording your comments will have an accurate record. so please come in your name? >> i am bill kramer the local branch president for the union in white river junction vermont. [applause] and also a vermonter and i want to keep my job. keep the postal service in vermont. my question to you is what examples do you have of any business that to get away with their service that survived? how do you think by cutting your service and delivery standards in the age where everyone wants something now that's going to save the postal service? i think the senators and congressmen and the governors were correct if you go from the one to three days service and if you go from five days to whenever on the third class service people are going to leave us. we are not going to have a postal service anymore and that is unfortunate. [applause] >> we appreciate your concerns on the service. is there a question, comment? >> let me rephrase that. how do you expect to save the service by cutting service? [applause] that's the reason we are here tonight we appreciate the comments as well only from the but from the delegation over here and that is what will happen to make some decisions going forward is if we do consider exactly that one point will insure it is part of the record. >> let me ask all of the vermonter in the room tonight to what your postal service degraded? de watch as service? yes or no? >> no. >> thank you. [applause] thank you. >> next, please. >> in the northeast regional coordinator for the postal workers union. [applause] i'm in the microphone. >> [inaudible] >> i have the distinct pleasure and honor to represent the postal workers at the white river junction vermont and every time i come with the great centers sanders we have a great crowd. we get a program about 40 days ago we had 100 people in the public meeting and the message was very loud and very clear, keep the service in the united states postal service the was the message. but as the senator said, we are here today because we are not being honest, we are your because we have to pay $5.5 billion every year before we start the year off. no company can survive that, not even the postal service. as i said, this isn't my first public meeting i come from maine and down to jersey and to the virgin islands and puerto rico so i've been through a lot of these. when you came up with a flat rate box that was a good idea. closing down these amts isn't a good idea. let's talk a service standards. the service standard is what predicates this entire process. it hasn't even been approved yet. yet we are predicting all of this information. we are predicting all of these moves, 252 studies all predicated on the standard that has not yet been approved. i think that this criminal. in addition to that -- [applause] let's talk up the number of jobs new york city that's what this is is a shell game. this is a shell game. 46 jobs being lost because it looks good to the stakeholders and it looks good to the congressional people. but the real impact is the 200 jobs. one of my jobs as the union official of the region is to find jobs for other impacted employees. that's what i do. and i can assure you that we do not have 200 jobs available. in addition to that, we don't have 35,000 jobs available for all of these impacts the fate all of these that they could in fact cause. so i ask you please read into this. i thank the congressional delegation from vermont coming up with that piece of legislation i think it helps you as much as it helps us. gives you more time to rethink. let's put a stop to this madness. let's put a stop to the madness and the change in the service standard as we say what other company says we are going to do a tv commercial and rather and say we will get the pizza to door house in 30 minutes you say we will get the pizza to your house and three to five days. it's nonsense, it's stupid, i know you are only the messenger is here tonight but we have to make sure that you listen to the public and we have to stop this madness. let's stop it right here in vermont. [applause] >> next, please. >> my name is amy and i am not a postal office person. i am a general person. i citizen of west hartford car and i came to speak because i had a small reservations i wanted to make available. the state of vermont is now the most rural state in the nation. unlike other states, however, our population is almost evenly spread across the whole state. not like montana or idaho whether delete where there are hundreds of miles of land in the larger city. the state of vermont also has a total population smaller than the city of new york. forget the suburbs. in new york the distance between the processing centers is only a few minutes. the distance between burlington, white river and manchester is five hours. apart from the population exactly who is here? vermont is also one of the fastest aging states in the country and the poverty level is high meaning the ability to move around is more limited than the other states. even compared to new hampshire are massachusetts we don't have easy access to public transportation, shopping centers or other conveniences. even the internet is so outside of many people's reach here. for some, the male is the only way to pay bills come contact friends or relatives or make purchases like medications as our leaders have said. for some it has dared lifetime to the world outside, and that contact needs to be timely and assured. another consideration is the companies that people do business with. i happen to know that many utilities charge extra to make payments on the phone or online and how many of us in vermont can afford that? with the loss of processing in white river junction male becomes unreliable a raging at a company on time as it is companies tell customers they didn't receive a payment on time when in fact it arrived, the company processing could be the culprit and in vermont is known as the mail arrives in the state after one or maybe two days of the loss of the plant would make the mail so unreliable as to allow all kinds of the fiscal to cannery to occur with various companies who can claim it didn't get there on time. .. this affects our entire state. thank you. [applause] ! enemas lawrence miller, secretary of the agency of commerce and community development for the state of vermont. one frame in question and then a couple of comments. the $8 million in savings, what is that of the total operating expense related to the effect to its facilities? >> i don't have that. the >> $89.7 not. mayor may not be allowed. it's hard to understand that the relative impact intelligence of your saving is that it doesn't seem like a lot. i appreciate your talking alert shippers. i come from is not manufacturing background. i've had to compete with overseas manufacturers and may not facilities and i know what that looks like and i understand the challenges you're facing. i understand looking with our shippers. we have thousands of thousands of small business and home-based businesses that rely on the post office is for a meaningful portion of their income. the service change is not minor. i watch you think about what changing the cash cycle of businesses by a couple days implies. it implies moving our cash position is 7.5% to 10%. that's a meaningful financing component. this is not money that's going to come out of nowhere. a couple days of receivables in the state of your mind as they pack a lot more than 8 million bucks, probably 10 or 15 times that. and that is the result you're going to have. i think understanding the total system costs for all the users as well as for the service is important in judging where you ought to be cutting services or where'd you may need to reflect appropriately in charges. having lived a whole bunch of small business shipping, small packages to the postal service because they did such a great job, you take away that delivery service. we're going to have to go back to the competition. it does not work. thank you. [applause] >> by name as mary ann will send. i work for a nonprofit organization here in labor junction. i'm also a resident of white river junction. the process of payroll under contract to a state of vermont for over 13,000 employees in the state of vermont to provide home care for individuals with disability. the delay -- the change of the standard to two to three or four days delivery will have an immediate and direct impact on all of those employees. those employees currently mail their timesheet into their solutions and expect to be paid within seven days. without the ability to receive those timesheet on time, to put them in the mail on time and turn them around so employees can have their pay one week later on friday can be devastating for those of a 13,000 individuals and their families. in addition the delay of pay to those employees can have an adverse effect on individuals at risk in the state. they depend upon the care that their employees provide for them. those employees must be paid so that they can continue to provide that care and safeguard those vermonters who were oppressed. we process a number of 12,000 at 13,000 paychecks eat lunch. i was disappointed to learn that we were not included as part of the larger shipper conversation earlier today. we mail out over 30,000 pieces of mail, 36,000 pieces of mail from the white river junction post office. the white river junction post office has done a valuable action fabulous job of prostheses in the mail and making sure -- [applause] at employees across the state of vermont are paid the wages that they are due. without the ability to have overnight or two day delivery, we will leave many vermonters that risk and many more who are at risk of losing their jobs. thank you. >> thank you very much. [applause] >> yes, hi, affects floyd, a resident here in the town of hartford. i came tonight to speak to the fact that i do not believe that the business case has completely analyzed the geography situation that we have here in vermont in the same way that previous speakers have spoken about on the rural character of vermont and its needs. you also understand and don't take enough into account the value of the local employees who understand that the delivery area as the chosen point area zip codes than just the p.o. box is are so often the mail is misaddressed by people, but they look and no where people are trying to get to. they deal with it right away. now, if you have people doing that work down in andover, massachusetts, i'm sorry. they're not going to know the local geography. the business case probably inherently misstates the value of local employees appear. i would also point out that this area is the sixth-largest micro-metropolitan area in the united states. in order to be a micro-metropolitan area, you have to basically be more than an hours drive away from any other senses to find metropolitan area. for more than an hour from burlington and manchester. we are more than an hour from springfield, massachusetts and therefore this area contains a pretty significant population, which if you mapped against the list of cities in the united states comes out to right around 200. now, can you pull up the potential network site, please and zoom in on the northeast? the fact of the matter is if you look at the potential network side, you'll see that the potential network has zero facilities in vermont and new hampshire. zero. could you enlarge the upper right corner. so clearly, if you have mapped out the post office is better in massachusetts and andover and framingham and we share an springfield and made that on a map of vermont, that would be like brattleboro, springfield, windsor come away richard junction. the travel time between those places is relatively insignificant. the speaker earlier was talking about how difficult the travel time is around here and importance of the local delivery and so forth. i don't believe the business case has been correctly analyzed by the post office. finally what i want to say is that i went on to your website to understand how these business cases are put together. you can get all of the documents that show what needs to be filled out in order to prepare one of these business cases. but you know what, you cannot download the filled out forms for this study that's been done around white river junction. in fact, you can download and read what has been sold out for any of the post offices here. and another thing is they are is no evidence that there is any investigation of consolidating into white river junction as opposed to eliminating white river junction and consolidating elsewhere. so, i say this material should be made available. we all should be able to understand your business case because right now it just is not up for me. and i thank you first time. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> my name is liz blom, an elected blister in the town of norwich. and just so you understand in maine and anywhere else, vermont was hit terribly hard by hurricane or tropical storm irene. we have not recovered and we will work for years to recover. many of our towns have to add over $100,000 to our town budgets for town meeting in march to recover every year in spite of the great hope is gotten from our congressional delegation. so this is putting -- making the situation worse. you asked when you give your presentation what is the right thing to do. the right thing to do is to get rid of the requirement for the post office to prepay and overpaid benefits for 75 years and to work to pass reform legislation sponsored by vermont entire delegation and other congresspeople and get other people, other congresspeople to sign onto the delegation. that should be the first order of congress this year would make it back to washington. many people have asked what kind of business plan is it to succeed by reducing services? it can't succeed this way. you need to expand services and change services to the united states postal service has been doing this for 237 years and it needs to continue to do so. >> thank you. >> i just want to say to me and many other people this is an undisguised plan to destroy our postal service guaranteed by the constitution and to privatize it. and i urge you to rethink your plan. [cheers and applause] >> i am kilkenny, a resident of new hampshire and a clergy person with the south danbury new hampshire united church of christ come a small rural congregation. my congregation is like many small rural congregations all over the northeast and frankly the entire country in the rural parts of this country. our congregants depend on the u.s. postal service. many of our congregants depend on a postal service with reliable next day delivery in the areas where it is now being delivered. and in addition to i also run a small business or home based business, which as mentioned before. i absolutely depend on the u.s. postal service. my milk is processed in white river junction and if anybody wants to know how people like me, depend in white river junction and the distribution, i know based on what is it because because i mail it what is going to get there the next day or the day after or the day after that. right now i can calculate what might mail is going out. from 7:30 to 7:59 at night, the people who depend on the next day delivery and what they can do. but i can see here today that we are talking about the wrong thing. if we are pinning wayfarer junction and arguing over who gets cut, lucas closed, it's the wrong argument. the argument should be the mail processing standards should not be reduced and i implore our congressional delegation. [applause] to say, this shall not stand. this is clearly -- there is no question if you reduce service standards, what you are doing is someone that should me, attempting to destroy the service from within so it becomes a shadow of his former self. you are privatize it, privatize it and no longer is the u.s. postal service. as a clergy person, one of the things i learned to try to remember on a daily basis is bowsher are not bear false witness. i'm not saying anyone here is purposely lying. using talking points that have been given to you, but somebody is witnessing falsely when they say you can reduce service standard and you are going to come up with those numbers on there about all you'll say i'm trying to save and how you'll thrive. you cannot reduce standards and drive. it is a road to destruction of the u.s. postal service as we know it and it cannot stand. [cheers and applause] the mac my name is susan clark and i live in a very per hampshire. have a strong connection to vermont. my former husband as a full-time employee at the plant and first of all he want to say that you can see that maybe they were a little harder working than your figures show from 46 hours or whatever it is. i know he's for different tours. they were very hard 24 hours a day. so i don't know where those figures came from. i just want to add that. i cannot care because i have a home-based business. half of the last 16 years and i have delivered sent to new london, new hampshire come a company called flash photo. i have to say and always praising the post office and telling them that they need to do more publicity about priority mail. first of all, yes, we are losing people doing e-mail, but on the other hand we are gaining because all those orders being placed on the internet have to be shipped. so wise in the post office doing more with? i have to tell you my experiences i have a delivery sent to flash photo. the reason why an essential po boxes i look to a liar just sugar in greensboro north carolina and employ a lot of people that i know when it's shipped on thursday, i will have that in my hands on saturday. if it goes to ups, it is a week. the other side is this. our company sends out checks on friday afternoons. we have a small rural post office in newbury. i have my hand monday, tuesday. if this goes into effect on us when i'll see it and i'll be back the pain all my bills. the last thing is because i have a small connection to my children, what to vermont for college and make him appear that, all you need to do is right around and see the devastation for the flight and how in the world can the post office at more insult to injury by doing this to all the employees they are quite >> thank you. [applause] my name is david breaks. i'm a volunteer chairman of the hartford development corporation. we'll deal with economic development by citizen involvement and are supported by the town of hartford. we are is an protective of the economics of the town, especially when it comes to jobs. whenever new developments of any kind is proposed, the concept of the multiplier effect is always the main fact year. jobs lead to a very deep impacts that touches all. once in place, the loss of jobs has a deep impact to the entire community and none of it as possible. reducing jobs is not viable for community. if you have a productivity efficiency problem, don't move the jobs come and find another way. my input to you tonight if you have an entrepreneurial challenge and entrepreneurial opportunity. don't take it down on the community by slashing jobs in bailing out. [applause] >> animists try them a shot and a mobilization coordinator for the vermont afl-cio. welcome to vermont. >> thank you. >> my understanding is that the postal service retiree health benefits fund now has over $42 billion it. that is enough to cover future retiree health premiums for the next 20 years. also, audits show that the postal service overpaid by 50 billion, maybe 80 billion into the civil service retirement system. further the postal service overpaid at more than 10 billion into federal employee retirement system. also my understand is nearly a quarter of the postal workers are veterans in the postal service is paying the entirety of the veterans pensions. despite the fact that many of their workers service is divided by the postal service and the military, just despite the fact the department of defense pays this proportional pension shared for every federal tea except the postal service. given these factscome over tonight to hear you respond to, why is the postmaster general making the case that we need to close thousands of post offices and mail processing facilities, they have employees integrate service due to alleged insolvency? but you see here in this room is just the tip of the iceberg. i would suggest that you tell the postmaster general that if he intends to go ahead and try to impose this plan, he's going to meet his waterloo and vermont. thank you. [applause] >> next, please. >> and jesse davis, officer of the vermont post office and i cannot ask for a better stuff or better group of customers there. [applause] we keep hearing out of washington cut, cut is our congressional delegation so aptly put it. one word we haven't heard of innovation. for the last several years i've been saying that e-mail is killing us. i have one simple question. why are we not having an e-mail server that rivals gmail or hotmail? why are we not a web hosting server that rivals go daddy? i don't know how much money you can make off of that. [applause] >> my name is bob reid. my name is barb reid, a resident of white river junction, vermont. they think it's real interesting that in 2006 when they started seeing declines and it's also the same year that this blog a pass that said that the post office had to pay 5.5 billion a year for 10 years to fund current and future postal workers to the year 2075. i'm not sure everybody knows that. that is kind of ridiculous. i have to wonder why that came into effect. i heard somebody say about the privatization of the postal service. i am here representing myself and not my company, but i have to say that i am in the post office every day and i get excellent customer service they are from the front window to the people who pick up our mail. i would be lost without paying business mail entry unit. the other thing i want to say is i never have to worry about the mail getting into my mailbox at home when there is now. as opposed to my paper getting into the news tube. so, thank you all. >> appreciate you coming, thank you. [applause] >> good evening. by michelle charbonneau, charbonneau, i'm a member of an alc bridge 521. i have been delivering parcels for the postal service at christmas time since 1983. this year i noticed i was delivering parcel postmarked -- priority postmark december 12 on december 19, which i consider to be serious erosion of service. parcels postmarked december 19, delivered on december 27 i think is a shame that was not delivered by the 24th. and i understand you are from maine? that's correct. are you familiar with l.l. bean? i believe they are a very service oriented business and that is really the kingpin of their success. i see the internet as a coal mine for the postal service. an absolute gold mine. and if the postal service would put some energy into that cometh in the energy they put into disrupting service enclosing the post office into growing the business, we would be an incredible, successful story. i absolutely ask the postal service to support the postal service protection act. the postmaster general should be leading the charge with senator sanders and senator leahy and congressman welch. we should be working together with them to preserve the post office, not dismantle it. thank you. [applause] >> not sure which ones we can do. my name is again to me malia and i'm a resident of white river junction for the past nine years. having a name like mine, you can imagine my letters get addressed wrong all the time. but i know my postal carrier branding. her name is janet. i know she's out there, hi. she's wonderful. my kids love her. you know, she's very personable and does the job well. i am not postal or military affiliated, but i have someone's little girl and i'm a follower of the golden rule. so i feel for those in mice that had men and women out of the country, some of them killed by a roadside bomb, what if a little girl nailed her letter under these new circumstances you have here in that letter made it too late for her daddy was killed? and he never got to see that letter? i mean, that would be terrible for that little girl to grow up knowing that. i have one question at the end of this. i live on disability and i am also an employee of areas that the woman spoke about earlier. i make less than $2000 a month for myself, my husband and five children imail etched country manage to balance my budget with that. you guys should figure out how to deal with what you have. [applause] now, my disability comes in on the third. my mortgage is due on the first. i can mail it out and make my 10 day grace period now. if you screw that up, then i don't make my 10 day grace period and i am charged a late fee or am charged a fee to do it over the phone or do a bike computer, which i don't own. i don't own a car that runs right now so i can't get somewhere to a computer to mail out or pay those bills. i don't want a credit card. if i did, how they pay the credit card bill if they couldn't it out? doesn't make sense to me. sorry, i lost my point here. i guess my last thing i want to say is i have a question for ms. essler. the billions of dollars you plan on saving when you get rid of all these employees, is that going to be lining the pockets of somebody who's already lined pockets of somebody like yours or is it going to go someone else in our community? [applause] i actually do want you to answer that question. and don't tell me you don't know. >> clearly, they are not going to line my pockets if that's your question. i'm not going to be reimbursed or compensated in any way from any of the antique packages across the united states, nor will any other district manager. >> where will the money go? >> towards the bottom line they are past our business at the time. >> you don't look too starved to me. >> i name is chuck gregory from springfield, vermont. i'm a volunteer but the vermont workers center. i think i have an answer to the question the last that he posed. the author thomas frank wrote a book called the wrecking crew. and that, he talks about how for the last 40 years republican operatives have been destroying significant portions of the american infrastructure. i'm a leader have just described her problem is the sort of person who is affected most by the destruction of this particular feed and infrastructure. i've a question for the new hampshire representatives of their congressional delegation and that is considered republican operatives are still trying to destroy parts of the american infrastructure, where does the new hampshire delegation stand in the republican approach to this piece of the american infrastructure? thank you. [applause] >> good evening. i'm glad everyone is here. make me believe in democracy again. my name is tim berio. i work in the real estate industry and i've been a teacher and pretty much worked in about every industry and vermont taking. and i am here to state a few of the points that have been brought up already. the issue of economic vitality, unique services and products to make businesses thrive. you cannot grow without services. to grow and sustain the must-have business support services in this economy. this is a huge loss, not just in the jobs, which i care about all of you dearly, but in the confidence we are ready to deliver. been in real estate, i've tried several significant companies to downtown white river and as you heard tonight depend on the postal service as part of their business models. we can't cut that and i think the best metaphor i can come up with is the concept of perhaps public transit. we know public transit is not a profitable entity, but a service we need as a society to function and thrive. so yes, the postal service may not have a bottom line due to lack of invasion are changed, however, if you cut these public components come you kill the dirt in the areas would be the public sector or need to work together in a cooperative model to make that work. finally, i also had the joy of writing out the last.com fallout and has been touched on tonight also, i'd like to leave you with this final five. change or die or cut inside. you can't find your way out of any economic malaise attending. you have to change and innovate and i know you guys can do it. you have to believe in all these people speaking tonight. thank you. [applause] >> my name is wayne martin. i am the president of the american postal workers union in white river junction. [applause] the consolidation plans at the postal services, put are all predicated on changing the service standards. i think you've come out in the back. alas, this is a rhetorical question because you haven't answered it when anyone else has asked it. how does a decrease in service increase their business? want to just drive people to her competitors? part of the presentation you expect to the service standards to be virtually unnoticed. i think just the netflix customers that have dared service cut in half by the standard change will generate an uprising. [applause] we have a va hospital here in time it ships their medications. i know i have to get my medication through the mail, based on my insurance. how many people is that going to affect when their medication takes three to five to seven days longer to get to them? and vermont -- in white river junction, we process mail 17 to 19 hours or more a day. we are centralized location at the crossing of two interstates. we affirmed the best product to reduce numbers in the district. we stared to follow and vermont in the montpelier areas. we serve western new hampshire from pittsburgh in the north to acworth in the south. the projection is to know white river junction, the processing into burlington and manchester. one thing somebody brought up earlier, the potential network doesn't show burlington or manchester. so how is that going to affect the service? is it going to continue to degrade? the last thing -- i do have an actual question. last night at the postal service presentation to the employees, somebody asked, what do you think the public would say to the change in the service standards? mr. the free, delete plant manager said studies show that the public doesn't care. so my question is, what do you think now? [cheers and applause] >> well done. [applause] >> thank you, wayne. next, please. >> i name is cindy was the and i live in wave river junction. i have a family here in my work in the upper valley. what im is a customer of the postal service. i think what needs to be made very clear is that the closing of white river or as six or manchester is strictly phase one of this postal plan of consolidation. i am standing here before you today as simply a customer, a customer that is angry, a customer that is unsatisfied and a customer that is not going to stand for this. not only to an unexpected phase one, but i do not accept phase two or three. i grew up in retail and various service industries. and when i was a new employee, the first ring i was taught was that the customer is always right. i want my voice to be heard and i want people to know that i am right. this is wrong and i will not stand for it. [applause] >> my name is ron of order. i am the executive board member to the local 31 national postmasters union and i work up in white river. it is just suspicious to myself and a lot of fellow employees and friends that you're doing the studies that depend on the whole delivery day standard been changed. israel suspicious to us as to why are you putting the cart before the horse? you should be doing it -- is there going to change a standard, change those into your studies. talk people worked up over something else that may not even happen or do know is going to happen or not telling us. [applause] my second statement that i like to make is ms. essler come you said you have plans to process mail 20 hours a day. white river junction processes 17.5 hours. wouldn't be economical to move to a half-hour's worth of mail to white river junction then between 17 and a half hours of mail to burlington or to manchester? can you answer that? [applause] >> thank you for your question. >> essentially what it does it takes a lot more into consideration than just that. it takes into consideration the size of the facility and which ones can consolidate easier -- >> are not asking you to consolidate. and same at two and half hours worth nanometer criteria. >> we'll put that into record is one of the things they want to look at going forward. >> thank you. [applause] >> my name is catherine harwood. my foreign mailing address is p.o. box 94, north stepford, vermont. a very small post office. it is open for approximately an hour and a half a day. and i have a very big dog in this fight. i am computer literate. i easily send e-mail messages all around the world, received them as well. so why do i maintain a post office talks for my farm in north stanton? i do so because i have learned very recently that electronic communications, e-mails and others are not reliable. they are not universally available when i send them or when i received them for many of the folks that i need to be in contact with. but mostly, and above all, they are neither secure nor private. [applause] i know when i take a properly addressed, properly sealed envelope to the north stepford post office, i can expect an account times seemed united its flag flying because the post office is open. i expect and always find postmaster holli towle at the window, wearing her usps i.d. and she is able to sell me post office that i need. she is able to take in the mail that i need to post. and i know that i can go and not post office and find the full, fair -- full faith and credit of the united states post office at my disposal. i know that i can count on seeing that flag in being those ideas wherever i go, wherever iem in these united states. this is a fundamental and extremely critical function of our government to make sure that these communication lines remained open. i know that if i print out her hand write hard copy of whatever it is i need to send an properly address it and pay for that stand and it receives that postmark with the originating post office, i know that it will get where it needs to go safely, speedily and securely. i urge you all to stand behind these excellent post office employees and figure out a way to keep us all in contact with each other's security, privately and reliably. >> thank you very much. [applause] >> just a quick question if i may make a commitment to allow everybody that wants to contribute tonight to do so. i'm looking at the back of the line. their five-minute short of two hours to be scheduled. however, to the folks who are going to speak, a two-minute limit and will be sure to get everybody's. >> and in this area from plainfield, vermont. and i am here because i'm really tired of talking about the postal service is if we only care about it to make money. the postal service is a public good in the something or committees care. so just like the fire department, we should pay the fire department does not make enough money. we are going to downsize services of our fire department. the point of the fire department is to put out fires when they happen in our community. same with the road crews. we ever occurs because we want good roads. where the postal service not to make any, but because we care about mail being delivered in communities and care about how much people in our communities depend on that delivery. so i think that we need to reframe this conversation about not just a bottom line in making money, but about the things that are communities need. our public good. i'm from the vermont workers center and i just want to say me and the rest of the folks are going to keep fighting for this public goods. for not going to let this happen. we will fight from everything else like housing and jobs, mail delivery, all of the things that are communities depend on. we are not going to let this get cut. [applause] >> my name is leslie mathews. i live in northfield, vermont. i am a state employee and member of the vermont state employees association. i happen to work in the department of environmental conservation and one of the things they do in my job is identified plant samples that volunteers around the state are concerned about water quality. so i'm probably one of many people who is depends on the postal service to ship perishable are done for me timely fashion or my work to operate effectively. so i will notice it the standards are degraded. and i fail to understand why if you are going to do a study you don't start with the premise that you are not going to do great services and look at how the post office can operate under that starting premise, instead of trying to look at degrading services at the same time as you are looking in all of other business properties of the postal service. i just want to also say that i think the solidarity with the other public employees that i work with, including postal workers. i think what is really going on is this is part of the attack on public employees that we've seen in this country in the last couple of years. clap [applause] public employees have been escaped goes for bad decisions made by ceos and some politician that it's gotten us into a financial crisis and into a recession. and i think that we need to protect those public jobs. >> thank you very much. [applause] >> i name is peter quite attack. i am processing clerk in white river junction, but i live in claremont, new hampshire had been a lifelong dedicated postal customer. one of the things that i haven't heard mentioned today's yesterday when we had our mission at the plant, we talked a fair amount of time about transportation and changes to transformation and consolidation of trips. and this was presented as a means of saving money. but i have to ask you, if you are going to reduce the number of troops coming into a river and if you are going to reduce the number of trips going for white river to the larger processing centers that remain and that those processing centers then have that much for volume of mail, isn't this a question of more than just first class mail? are you going to have to drop your express standards for mala quality mail also? you take all the mail at the same time and processing the same distance, only fewer pickup some longer distances. how does that not affect all of your other classes of mail, including your most profitable classes? >> there is no thing to change the service standards. this is strictly for going to two to three day, were to add a date to it. there's a pretty comprehensive plans the postal service is looking at going forward to make sure we don't change -- >> so you do have plans in place but there is a first-class letter and express mail piece is picked up at the same rural office at the same time, sent to white river, put on a trip to manchester and there is a plan in place to process that express mail in a timely fashion? >> we have in our addition to keeping those on place must it come up with something different. there haven't been any plans looking forward to change the service on any other class of mail. >> thank you. appreciate it. >> next, please. >> my name is bob and i respectfully request that i withhold my last name. i'm going to be doing a press release before the new hampshire primary, which is coming up next week. i was born in this area. my dad was involved in the administration of this the hospital for 30 some years. from the time of a child i was taught to develop a great credit, worth that could, et cetera. i worked 10 years doing engineering. peter welch was sitting here. i've done work in reference to powerlines on some land he subdivided in heartland and i've known him. after i left cv, it was because of lack of ability of customers to go on the front door and order anything. it's all like the phone company has been for years. i hit the ground running, building residentially, commercially, had met construction business. by 92 i had an issue with a divorce yet my ex-wife happened to be come -- with the u.s. postmaster of our community. two years later i found she had diverted by irs mail and multiple other pieces of mail and i requested of a u.s. federal postal are assigned to my issue out of manchester, new hampshire, to get me at a given general store to pick up i.d. numbers of two certified trackable items that i desperately needed him to go see because it was attested to in a legal environment that i signed for, which i never did. he sat in his chrome office overlooking the manchester airport and wrote to me quote on postal team letterhead and signed in ink that i did not have an issue at the u.s. post office, but i have a problem that should be handled in the new hampshire court divorce court and if i have a problem with a ex-wife, i should get my mail on saturday is the rather times in which she was not working. congress vass became instrumental in his first time as a congressman pushiness through to the top congressional liaison. i believe his name is tony leonard. this is so fragile and so revealing of the death sybarite that the devastation done me, had at least enough decency to tell me he was told not to help me anymore. the amount of mortification of what i earned and what i had for a credit rating and assets is nonrecoverable. now i don't want to splash water on this environment here and i know there's a lot of good basic people who work the average of. i would not be given food chain of our u.s. post office in the right manner, asked for the right steps. if you have someone holding you up to your home with a gun, you expect to dial 9-1-1 to get the right response. if you have a fire as it's been said, you respected the the fire department showed as efficiently as they help you. what happened in my case is this one of the foodchain of the postal service. they dug in. i have a number of attorneys that ropes and the issues to try to take the matter in a different direction and quite honestly, i have been destroyed by the u.s. postal service. and i have nothing good to say about it. and i respect the people locally, but you know what, i am an employer of people in this area and i have been. and i just want you to realize that has been devastating. and not one person never apologized either from the irs for the postal service. >> thank you. please, please, next. >> my name is prevent trembling and i am from wilder. i've always understood the post office to be a service of the united states government until the recent depression, it has been -- i've always understood it as a service. it is now considered a business. this is only given the opportunity to make what would normally be a rational decision into the sixth sophie's choice about laying off workers and repealing a bill intended to privatize the u.s. postal service. a release that is what i've understood tonight. so my question to you is since we are short on time, whitey jamaica is watch propaganda film instead of letting this comment about the post office, which is what we are here to do. thank you. >> thank you. >> i appreciate the input. our commitment is to out everybody who has something to say to do that tonight. the presentation is part and informational session if you offer those folks up to date with postal ways perhaps as you are. so that was the purpose. next, please. >> my name is heather, a volunteer with the vermont workers center and for the past several months we been having these people put people first meetings. there'll be one heartland on january 25th -- hartford, i'm sorry. hartford on january 25th. you know, we had one for another several months ago and what we find there is that we are living in communities, where wages have been stagnant for many, many years. unfortunately, we have had many waves of public workers being laid off in our communities. and the suffering that's going on as a result is heartbreaking. and the effects of iran have only compounded that suffering for many, many people across the state. and it seems to me like many hundreds of thousands of dollars have been put into studies. my question for you is whether or not the postmaster general has conducted a study about what the impact of closing this processing center and many of our rural post offices under which would lay off hundreds smart people in vermont, what would be the company multiplier effect on our communities? because we know that as more and more vermonters lose their job, that has an effect across many towns. we have seen that you and water very after a rain. so has there been a study done on that? >> be in the states are reviewing this. we don't do much offer an actual economic impact, but we are very interested in going forward and looking at that. >> next question, please. >> it's not a question. anton urgo from packard center. the post office was created under the constitution was amended in 1970 by the postal lack and then there was that 2006 postal accountability act. it seems -- it seems that the idea of the post office is to foster communication in america. that seems to be the idea in the to to shame. so why doesn't the post office embrace the internet? and instead of hiring people, why don't they hire people so that vermont can be the first e.u. states as was promised in 2006 and perhaps we cannot people putting up high-speed internet lines so that more people could use the internet, order goods and services, have been delivered by the post office and the post office could increase its profitability instead of destroying the lives and incomes of other citizens. and the only thing i have to do with the post office is by stance. that's it. >> we appreciate that. thank you. >> thank you. >> and edward english from woodstock. i am a customer of the post office and to begin with, i was sitting about three quarters of the way back. i could hear people, but i couldn't hear you, mr. moderator. but that's beside the point. but when it came to this projection that you put on, i couldn't even see it because there is too many people in front of me. and where'd you come come up with your eight something dollars that you are cutting when it wasn't even on that as far as i can see. i couldn't come up with anything on these papers are in your presentation. besides, i don't have a computer. and so i depend on the mail or else i won't have any. thank you. >> thank you. [applause] >> my name is david kranzler, a member of the vermont workers center. i believe that the postal service is a public good. a public good is something that should serve the needs of our communities, not destroy our communities by shrinking itself in a death spiral. my first question and i apologize because i think it's a rhetorical question is, are you accountable to our communities as the public good should eat? my second question -- i came here and watched her presentation i have to admit i am not a business person, but i am not that time either. [laughter] you said people are so name or e-mail. i sent e-mail because i want the people and communicating with to get the message quicker. and your response to your customers wanting the people they are communicating with to get the message quicker is to slow down how fast you deliver the mail. [applause] so i look at this presentation and i think, who put together this business plan that the postmaster general or the ceo of fedex? because if i were the ceo of fedex -- [applause] i would say wow, they are letting me put together a business plan for the postal service. the first thing that i would do is figure out the best way to put it into a death spiral. why don't i respond to their customers needs for better service by starting off with a study that predicates were service. [applause] >> hello, my name is david catrin and i work about the food co-op. i'm a vermonter. i went to school in new york city and i am one of the few who have consciously come back to vermont to live here because i love it so much. when i was in new york, one of the first places i went with the james fairly postal center at sixth avenue. above that is an inscription and it says neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from their appointed rounds. how much are you going to cut and so we can't say that anymore? eventually you will cut yourself out of a job. [applause] >> good evening. my name is jim wynberg. i find myself in a very difficult position. again, i find myself in a very difficult position. i am a proud retiree at the postal service for over 30 years. what i'd like to say is that in this planet just like to recognize or have someone recognize the fact that currently the state of vermont is serviced out of the white river junction post office. that post office was established actually in the status as mentioned earlier between two major enters dates as well as the east to west carders in the state. we currently go from white river all the way down to spending 10, brattleboro, up to and reduced to go into montpelier as well as into burlington. and we do have one acr that does traveling to maine. all of this right now being centrally located at one time use the facilities at the railroad. we also used the airport out of west lebanon. we are in the middle of the state. i hope that this has been taken into consideration when we are looking at moving, transferring or doing away with the plant. i know this. i was a transportation manager and white river for many years. i've lived through 5:00 a.m. tease, where we try to get the mail to the rest of our current processing area. it just wasn't possible. the old saying is you just can't get there from here. the other thing is the post office is like into a big back-to-back games. all of the processing plants are the dots, a very, very old friend of ours told us this one and the only way to make that total picture, to give you a vital postal service is to connect those dots. the connection of the stats is a transportation. i think we should keep the white river junction plant open. >> thank you. [applause] >> minus four assignment. i am from wild vermont and i have a couple prongs to my question. first, i want to inform you that i been a social worker and teacher for 36 years and few communities within the area of this plant. and i think i can speak on behalf of the hundreds of other people who do my job in the thousands that we serve. they are among the more vulnerable people in our communities. so one product to my question is, can you assure that their needs can be met as they are now at this new plan that you have? my next part of

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