Speaker Pelosi Remarks at Bay Area Postal Service Reform Event

San Francisco – Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined postal union leaders for a press event celebrating the House's passage of the Postal Service Reform Act and highlighting the bill's critical provisions supporting the U.S. Postal Service. Below are the Speaker's remarks:

Speaker Pelosi. Good afternoon, everyone.

We're here for a particular purpose. A cause – excuse me – a cause of, really, great excitement for our country. A bipartisan legislation that has passed the Congress – in the House. And will be, as Leader Schumer has advised me, be taken up in the Senate next week. And that is our legislation for our Postal Service.

It's a privilege to be in – thank you again. We were here for our ‘Don't Mess With the Post Office' event just recently down the street. And it was a pleasure to be with you then, Mr. President. President of the Board of Supervisors, as you all know, Shamann Walton. Thank you for your leadership, and thank you for your hospitality, once again, today.

Again, we're joined by some of our labor leaders who helped pass this legislation. Shirley Taylor, you'll be hearing from, the National Business Agent, American Postal Workers Union, who were so – an intellectual resource to us, but also an advocacy group to pass this legislation. Christina August, Assistant Secretary-Treasurer of the Golden Gate branch, of that. And then, John Beaumont, a regular at our meetings, legislative and political organizer, National Association of Letter Carriers.

I want to acknowledge my dear friend, Matthew Murray who is here. Thank you, Matthew — one who is working for the Postal Service. And also acknowledge Avinesh Kumar, who was the acting Postmaster General of San Francisco. Mr. Postmaster General, thank you for being with us today.

Quite frankly, my friends, this announcement today is really something very special because it comes at a time – we're so immersed in our national security issues. I just returned from the Munich Security Conference. Our subject was Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine. And I got back here last night – but that's been since all morning with the Russian assault on, on Ukraine. And I'll take questions on that after we deal with this subject.

When we came together last time, we had the privilege of hearing stories from some of our friends in San Francisco. We heard – well, let me just say first, we heard from Elaine. Elaine, where are you, Elaine? There she is again with her facemask. Elaine faced a lose-lose situation when her – when her husband Peter's medicine was delayed, forcing them to put their health on the line and go to the pharmacy in the time of COVID. I'm sorry for the loss of your husband in the meantime, but thank you for being with us again today.

Michael, a proud veteran, endured double the wait for his VA-ordered epilepsy prescription.

And Cathy, who runs a senior home, Cathy Davis my – her husband was my dear friend for many years, the two of them. And they saw the difficulties inflicted on residents whose deliveries were delayed or lost entirely.

This, this is because we were not having the resources put to the Postal Service that it needed. What was – when there was an assault on the Postal Service by others in Washington, we had a tremendous turnout all over the country. We had ‘Don't Mess With the Post Office.' Our event here was wonderful. Thank you again, Mr. President, for your participation in that.

And we halted the assault on the Postal Service, the lack of resources going there. With this legislation that we passed in the House – overwhelmingly bipartisan, and again, to be passed in the Senate next week, and then going to the, to the President.

These San Francisco stories that I mentioned serve as an urgent reminder that the U.S. Postal Service can mean the difference between life and death. It remains – to hear, you know, but over a billion dollars worth of pharmaceuticals were being delivered to our veterans alone. And that there should be a hesitation or a lack of urgency was just unacceptable. We must strengthen the U.S. Postal Service and alleviate the financial burdens threatening reliable delivery.

And – now here's what we did: we – see, service reductions that they were proposing would hurt countless families across the Bay Area. Worsening delays would hold up, as I said, about 1.2 billion prescriptions delivered by USPS each year. And absentee ballots, paychecks, Social Security benefits would arrive late, and USPS would run out of funds it needed to operate. Run out of funds by 2024.

That is why the House took the historic step passing the bipartisan legislation. It's called the Postal Service Reform Act. It includes bipartisan, common-sense reforms that deliver more reliable service for families, more predictability for small businesses, more secure future for our devoted postal workers – many of them are veterans.

Here's what it does: it's strengthening services by guaranteeing six-day delivery. It bolsters reliability with new transparency measures. Securing benefits by welcoming retirees into the Medicare system – which they weren't. And lifting the outrageous – can you imagine – requirement that the U.S. Postal Service pre-funds health benefits for like 75 years in advance. I mean, it's almost impossible to run a business when you have to pay all those many decades into the future.

Since San Francisco, at the time of the Gold Rush – connected our fledging city to the nation – our families have relied on the Postal Service. Again, as the mother of five, grandmother of nine, I see firsthand the blessings of delivery from our Postal Services. Even in this time of technology, we like to see the physical photos and the rest.

The U.S. Postal Service serves our nation together, and we just and – this bill is transformative, long overdue and, again, we are very eager for it to be passed. Let me just say, the connecting of America by the Postal Service is something that we always, always have respected. When it came time for the Postal Service to meet that requirement of all those years in advance, it was crippling to its ability to do its job.

This bill is so beautiful, in my view, because it has been written – it has had the advantage of the workers telling us what they think would make the service better, would make the service better. So it's about not what we're telling them – ‘You should be doing this' – but listening to what would make the service better. And that's what this legislation does. I'm so very, very proud of it.

And now, it's my privilege to yield to a very distinguished leader in San Francisco. Again, the President of the Board of Supervisors, the Bayview's voice at City Hall, but he speaks for many of us across the city: Mr. President Shamann Walton. Mr. President.

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I've known John and his job for many, many years, and he has served in almost every capacity of the letter carriers.

I am particularly happy today because this is about meeting the needs of people where they live. And again, not everybody is on the internet, but even if they are, they have their packages that they want to receive or their mail they want to receive firsthand and soon.

And so when we talked about – actually when Christina talked about the mobilization of this, this is what it was. It was, again, the intellectual resource that the workers provided to us. It was the outside mobilization. Those ‘Don't Mess With the Postal Service' events that we had, where the American people just weighed in and said this is the most popular agency of government.

And quite frankly, the postal – the person who comes to your door is probably one of the most popular people that you welcome at your door. I know – I do in my home, and I mentioned that, and my friend – he works with the Postal Service, and he met his wife at the Postal Service. We were happy to honor them in our home when they got married. So it's a family thing as well.

So with that, again, just think — if you were having a business, and when you started your business, you were told, ‘Okay, this is your, this is what you need for your materials. This is what you need to pay your workers. This is what you need in terms of renting the space and this or that. And by the way, you have to pay the health benefits for your workers for 75 years into the future.' How could that possibly make sense? Well, this – changing that is really a liberation.

I'll make one more point, then take questions. And that is, at the same time as all this is going on, when we're doing the infrastructure bill and Build Back Better and the rest. There are all kinds of initiatives that talk about changing the vehicles of the Postal Service into electric – into green, green vehicles, and that's progress for us in many ways as well.

With that, I'm pleased to take any questions and I hope that we could stick with this first, on the purpose of our coming here. Any questions on the Postal Service?

Well, just be on the lookout the first week of March. We go back the beginning of next week. And then, we have the State of the Union address by the President, which we're very excited about. And hopefully, we'll be able to do it in a more relaxed COVID way, but we don't know. We'll just hear from the Capitol Physician about that. And then, this bill will be tasked shortly in that week.

Any other questions that you may have? Yes.

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Q. Speaker Pelosi, on sanctions, the President, today, announcing more sanctions on Russia –

Speaker Pelosi. Yes.

Q. While also answering a reporter's question saying that he does – they didn't expect these sanctions to actually prevent an invasion of Ukraine –

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah.

Q. Is this acceptable for you? Or, are you looking for different options?

Speaker Pelosi. No, I think that what the President – we're very blessed to have this President, with his knowledge of foreign affairs, his understanding of the personalities that he has to deal with and his diplomatic accomplishment, to bring all of the – they all did this working together. It wasn't just the U.S., but all of the 30 nations of NATO coming together as one around the sanctions package.

Yes, it wasn't to – they were going to be enacted if they went in. And what the President said today is to ratchet it up, and that's what he is doing. And I feel the package is very, very, very devastating to Russia.

I had the privilege of talking to the Speaker of the Ukraine Parliament this – that's one of the reasons I was late here today, just to hear from him. He called me to say what they wanted. And what they wanted was more intense sanctions. That's what they were asking for: more intense and swift sanctions. Shortly thereafter, the President made that announcement.

So no, I think what – diplomacy, diplomacy, diplomacy. There is – you know, war is not an answer to anything. What Putin is doing is an attack on democracy as well as on Ukraine. And what we're doing with Ukraine is making sure that we have humanitarian assistance to help the people, that we have lethal defense weapons going into Ukraine to the tune of $600 million for them to fight their own fight. And again, many statements by all of the presidents – heads of state, some presidents, some prime ministers, whatever it is – about how wrong this is – so that the people feel that the world is connected to them as they protect the Ukraine and defend democracy.

Q. So you agree that these sanctions do prevent further invasion activity right?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, we'll see how that works. Not going to happen in the next couple of days. This is a – and what's interesting about it, because I just came back from the Munich Conferences. I mentioned the Munich Security Conference, where I could see representatives of all these countries – meet with many of them. We met with the new Chancellor of Germany, and then then we went to England and met with – the U.K. and met with Boris Johnson, but all the other people that we met there – presidents of countries, defense ministers, foreign ministers and the rest – all united and saying, ‘This is a big – this is a big undertaking that we're going to try without engaging in a third world war. How we can make sure that the devastation that has to happen to the Russian economy, happens by the use of sanctions through democracy?'

And again, try and get a message to the Russian people that we're – this isn't about them. It's about Vladimir Putin.

Q. Can you talk about whether Congress needs to weigh in? I know the President has promised not to send troops into Ukraine, but he has talked about expanding our presence in NATO countries.

Speaker Pelosi. Well, the President has the authority to do that. If we – president – and use of sanctions, that's all within the authority of the President. It would be nice if we could have legislation just supporting that, but I don't know – in other words, we'll see if that's necessary. It's not necessary, but we'll see if that would be good, because the unity of NATO is very important in all this. The unity of America would be very important to demonstrate as well, but the President did not need an act of Congress to do the sanctions. Where he has – as he has said repeatedly, we're not going to have boots on the ground in Ukraine, but any use of force would have to be approved by the Congress.

Q. Do you have a message for the people of Ukraine?

Speaker Pelosi. My message to people of Ukraine is obviously one that is – it's a sad, heartbreaking time. We pray for them. We support them with our humanitarian assistance. We also support them with our military assistance, as well. The Speaker said to me, there was great appreciation for what America is doing and a recognition of it, but it is – we'll just see what the insurgency can do and just see how ruthless of — Vladimir Putin will continue to be.

But it is – this one where, as I said, they have asked for us to be speaking out more about – not more, continue to speak out about their plight and the fact that it is unprovoked and reckless on the part of Vladimir Putin. In a previous – today we'll have a briefing for the whole Congress, just a short one. And then next week, when we return, we'll have an in-person classified briefing.

But every step of the way is to point out this is terrible loss of life, unnecessary collateral damage to civilians. The children – the Speaker brought up the children and the – again, even to the military on both sides. The Russian mothers do not want their children coming home because – for something that was – in a body bag because of something that was unnecessary on the part of Vladimir Putin.

Q. Speaker Pelosi, we're about to go to a demonstration at City Hall with a bunch of Ukranians, and some of them are saying the United States should be doing more. Is there a red line for you to where you would think the United States should be considering –

Speaker Pelosi. But we are doing more. Well in other words, NATO – Title 5 of – Article 5 of NATO says: ‘Harm to one is a harm to all.' Ukraine is not a NATO country. The NATO countries that surround it are very concerned about what Putin is doing. But it is my belief, not just in San Francisco, but across the country that people want us to exhaust every remedy to be sure that we tried everything diplomatically. And that includes strengthening the ability of the Ukraine insurgency to fight off the Russians.

It's not an easy thing to have an insurgency for a long time, on the part of the Russians. They'll have a price to pay there as well. But diplomacy, diplomacy, diplomacy.

Q. Has the West underestimated Putin?

Speaker Pelosi. No, I think everybody knew he would go in there. Nobody — somebody had any good thoughts. What do you mean underestimated? It's terrible. He's – what can I say? He does not share our values. It has been his purpose for a long time to undermine democracy. He contends right now that he is going in there to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO. But the fact is, Vladimir Putin does not want a thriving democracy on his border. That is a threat to him in his own country.

There are demonstrations in Russia against going into Ukraine. Of course, they're arresting everybody who is – and telling – they don't have permits and they're going to go to jail if they turn out. So it has a chilling effect on turnout, but people have been very courageous.

But Vladimir Putin is – I don't usually say somebody is an evil person. I usually say they do bad things. He's an evil person who's doing bad things. He's a combination of the two. And again, he fears democracy – interfered in our elections in 2016 to undermine democracy. He interfered in other elections in Europe to undermine democracy. His attack on the Ukraine is an attack on democracy, as well as an attack on the Ukraine.

So this is a formidable challenge that the West has, as far as dealing with him is concerned. We're not going to let him provoke World War III, but we're going to make sure that he is debilitated in terms of the nature of the sanctions.

Q. Speaker Pelosi, two questions: how concerned the pump – how concerned are you about the pump with gas prices going up, and how much will Americans be hurting from that?

Speaker Pelosi. Yes, that is a very important question, with or without the Ukraine. The price at the pump is always a very direct one to livelihood of the American people. The President has addressed this again and again, about how we have to – let me just enlarge the issue. When you do sanctions, there is collateral impact in the other countries that are exacting that – the sanctions. And in – one of the promising things we heard from the head of the EU and heads of state in – in – and parliamentarians in Munich, was that they are moving to diversification. So they're not dependent on Russian oil and its impact on the price of oil or gas in their countries.

So as we are concerned, the President understands full well how important it is for us, whatever it is, to increase the supply, so that the price does not go up. But let me just say this, because this is really important. If in fact, we were to raise the gas tax – but to some people, I mean – give a holiday to the gas tax – that we reduce the gas tax. It is not a given that that reduction goes to the consumer. It's in the hands of the Big Oil. And so, if we were to go down that path, which some people suggest, understand this: it's up to Big Oil how it goes. So we're trying to write the law in a way that ensures that any reduction in the gas tax is something that's passed on to them.

But it's about supply. Again, it's also about diversification. It's about – a number of things. I'm sure the President will be announcing, but this is a central point.

Q. Thank you very much. What is your reaction to the San Francisco recall election?

Speaker Pelosi. Oh, well. As a mom – of a granddaughter in public school in San Francisco, I think it's an unfortunate course of events that it has to come to this. What is important is that our children are in school, that they were safely returning to school – that should have been of the highest priority. It wasn't, and you see the consequences.

Thank you all, very much.