Tennessee Congressman Introduces Legislation to Protect Consumers from Postal Delays

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[WASHINGTON, DC] – With the United States Postal Service (USPS) proposing the elimination of Saturday deliveries and other threats to the speedy delivery that consumers around the country rely on, Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) late last week introduced the Postmark Payment Act of 2014 to protect Americans from being charged late fees stemming from delayed USPS deliveries. Just as the Internal Revenue Service accepts tax returns based on postmark date, the Congressman’s legislation would ensure that, for any payment made through the USPS, companies accept postmarks instead of receipt date when processing the payment.

“‘Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night’ stops USPS mail carriers from delivering our mail–usually within just a day or two,” said Congressman Cohen. “Weather like this makes us realize just how hard those jobs are, but the Postal Service faces significant challenges to stave off delays and price increases. Citizens around the country including seniors and those living at or near the poverty line rely on speedy delivery by the Postal Service to pay their bills. They didn’t cause these problems, and they shouldn’t be punished for them. My bill will hold companies to the same standard used by the IRS, protect consumers from late fees stemming from delayed USPS service, and help Americans save money.”

Before returning to Memphis at the end of last week, Congressman Cohen also introduced the Expanding Nonpostal Services to Americans Act to help the USPS address its budget deficit without additional service cuts or price increases. The legislation would lift the ban on the Postal Service offering non-postal services including check cashing, public internet, and notary services.

  • Sandy Smith

    You can place the blame for a small portion of the delay in mail on the weather, but the majority of the delay can be placed right on the shoulders of USPS upper management and the closing of the processing plants. On a daily basis mail is intentionally delayed and sits on loading docks across the nation due to late truck arrival and insufficient staffing. The poor logistics, increase in distance local mail has to travel and reduced staffing creates holding patterns in the delivery units. USPS believes chopping the customer service is the way to be profitable in a Customer Service business……………Sound Management logic? I think not.

  • Bella

    That’s fine if the mail piece has a postmark on it. A lot of our mail that comes back to our plant has no postmark on it and we were told by a supervisor that it doesn’t need to be cancelled and that the mail carriers could do it. What about the mail in the dps the carriers have no time to go through the mail to make sure it has a date on it. I think the mail is being delayed that’s why there is no postmark on it.