Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) stopped to talk with TMZ on Saturday about the issue of the United States Postal Service's survival and what everyday Americans can do to help their local
postal workers. This conversation was prompted by Cher's tweet last week, in which she asked if the USPS takes volunteers. The answer is no (they are hiring!). But wouldn't it bring some much-needed light to 2020 if Cher showed up at your door with a birthday card from your grandma?
The interviewer brought up Cher's desire to volunteer for the USPS and asked AOC what she thought of that. AOC broke down what people can do to help their local postal service workers right now:
"First of all, that love for the community, for the postal service, just shows how essential it is for our country. Now, postal service workers are highly trained professionals, the mail is so sensitive, people's medicine is in it, people's money is in it, so I don't know about volunteering to touch people's mail, but anything you can do to support our postal service workers right now is a good thing...I would say, first of all, buy stamps while we work on this bigger picture over here. The second thing I would say is make sure you're supporting your postal service workers...They're going through a lot. There's a lot of stress right now. Small businesses are going through a lot right now, so I think, honestly, one of the biggest things we can do is be patient and compassionate with our postal service workers and small businesses. A lot of people are waiting on shipments and stuff like that. It is not everyday people's fault. It's not your postal service worker's fault, it's not small businesses' fault that your mail and your packages are taking a while, so please support them."
Following testimony from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy last week, the House voted on Saturday to give $25 billion to the USPS. Since LeJoy was hired to the role, he's cut funding to the USPS, which, per The New York Times, has resulted in canceling postal workers' overtime pay, removing sorting machines from postal locations, and more.
"What are you guys looking to see?," the TMZ interviewer asked Ocasio-Cortez, referring to Congress's actions over the USPS crisis.
"Well, I mean, one thing that we need to do...it's not enough to stop the changes that the Postmaster's made. And so on Monday we're gonna be having a Congressional hearing. And it's not enough, again, to just stop the dismantling of these machines, overtime changes, all of that. We need to go back to what he did, and we need to go back to what things were before he came into the picture. So we need to get those machines back, the sorting machines back, so people can get their medicine, they can get their checks, they can vote, and we need to make sure that workers get their overtime back, that we start hiring postal service workers so that we can meet the capacity that people need right now."