Much attention has been paid over the last week to the United States Postal Service (USPS) and their ability to handle the additional mail-in ballots expected in the 2020 election. I would like to make a few things clear about the order of events this past week and the USPS's ability to handle the extra volume of mail.

On Saturday, August 22, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for a vote on a bill that authorizes $25 billion to be sent to the USPS to aid in the handling of mail-in ballots for the November election. This is equivalent to 30 percent of the 2019 USPS total operating budget. No public hearings were held with the bipartisan appointed and confirmed Postmaster General Louis Dejoy and the bill had no bipartisan input while being drafted.

I spoke on the House floor on Saturday during debate of this bill to emphasize the point that USPS revenue is up this year, they have north of $14 billion in the bank and an additional $10 billion in borrowing authority from a stimulus bill passed earlier this year.

On Monday, August 24, after the $25 billion USPS had already passed, the House held its first public hearing with Postmaster General DeJoy to discuss the state of the organization and whether the USPS needs the additional funding to handle the increase in mail-in ballots during the 2020 election. DeJoy said “We have plenty of operating capital right now to get through November”. This statement was made knowing that the $25 billion bill that had passed the House has not been signed into law, meaning that the USPS will be able to handle the mail-in ballots in their current financial state.

Click here to read more about my questioning of Postmaster General DeJoy.

An argument I have heard is that the USPS does not have the resources to handle the additional wave of mail-in ballots expected in the 2020 Presidential election. The USPS delivers 433 million pieces of mail per day, that means that from October 1 to the election on November 3, 34 days, the USPS will process 14.7 billion pieces of mail. If the same number of people vote in the 2020 election as did in the 2016 Presidential election, 139 million, and 100 percent use mail-in ballots, the USPS would see a volume increase of 0.9 percent spread out over the course of those 34 days.

Additionally, I have heard negative reactions to the news that the USPS has retired several sorting machines. In response to this, the USPS has told me that since 2016, the volume of letter mail has dropped by 29 percent and the volume of flat mail (large envelopes, magazines, catalogues, etc.) has dropped by 32 percent. During the same time period, letter sorting equipment was reduced accordingly, 27 percent for letters and 25 percent for flats. In April 2020, an evaluation of letter and flat sorting machines revealed that the USPS was only using 32 percent of total available letter sorting machine hours and 38 percent for flat sorting machines. 

The USPS is a vital Constitutional service that I fully support. After speaking with the Postmaster General and receiving information directly from the USPS, that they were not in dire need of additional funding based on the expected increase in mail-in ballots for the 2020 election.

As we continue to work through the COVID-19 outbreak together, I feel that far too little attention is being paid to alternative ways to combat the virus that can help save lives right now. Far too little attention is being paid to treatments that will help people who do contract the virus.

In my previous newsletters, you may remember, I mentioned two possible treatments for COVID-19. While studies on these treatments are still in their early stages, they are promising options that could help save lives.

Vitamin D has already been proven to strengthen your immune system and early research has shown a correlation between countries with populations that have known vitamin D deficiencies and an increase in COVID-19 mortality. You can read more about vitamin D's effect on COVID-19 by clicking here.

Fenofibrate, which is the generic form of the brand name drug Tricor, is a cholesterol medication that has also shown early promising results in studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and New York’s Mount Sinai Medical Center. COVID-19 is a respiratory virus, which means it replicates itself by attaching to cells within the lungs. Fenofibrate burns off excess fat cells in the lungs, taking away the very resource COVID-19 needs to survive. The researchers stated that  “the virus almost completely disappeared within only five days of treatment”, according to the Jerusalem Post. You can read more about Fenofibrate's effect on COVID-19 by clicking here.

In order to shed more light on these prospective treatments, I recently addressed my colleagues on the House floor. You can watch my address here:

Here are photos from some of my previous radio appearances in Appleton, Fond du Lac and Green Bay in honor of National Radio Day.

It was great to be in Winnebago County for the towns association meeting, where we discussed important issues facing Wisconsin's local towns and villages.

I joined my colleagues in sending this letter to United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue urging him to grant flexibility in schools’ child nutrition programs to make sure children in need can access the nutrition they deserve during COVID-19.