| OCTOBER 9, 2010 -- National Grange President, Edward Luttrell, testified September 16, 2010 before the U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission expressing opposition to reduced scheduled mail delivery and expressing how rural small businesses disproportionately rely on affordable and consistent six-day postal services as part of their business plans.
Luttrell told the Commission a major digital divide still exists for many rural communities that do not have access to reliable, cost-effective, high-speed Internet or PDA services. Additionally, rural consumers rely on the Postal Service for delivery of discretionary, as well as critical-need, products such as prescriptions, in a timely manner that only six-day service can provide.
“Today, even in an age of emerging and rapidly evolving electronic communications technologies, the efficient and reliable functioning of the mail delivery provided by the United States Postal Service is a bulwark of personal communication, commerce and participatory democracy in tens of thousands of farming, tribal and rural communities across the nation,” Luttrell stated.
“Reducing Postal Service delivery is the wrong way to address pressing financial issues facing the post office and will create a disproportionate hardship on rural communities across the nation,” Luttrell concluded.
In addition, President Luttrell was joined by U.S. Senator, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who made an appearance before the commission to explain the adverse effects a reduction in mail delivery would have on the citizens of the Last Frontier State. |
