Coalition delivers 150,000 signatures demanding Postal Banking - YouTube

Twenty-nine organizations are gathered here today to deliver more than 150,000 signatures

calling for postal banking.

Nearly 28% of U.S. households are underserved by traditional banks--call them the unbanked.

This percentage is even higher--a shocking 53.6%--among African American households.

As a result, those least able to afford it must turn to expensive and often predatory

practices like payday loans.

Thank you so much.

I must tell you, you know, one of the slogans most associated with the Postal Service is

"through rain, snow, sleet," well, they decided not to leave you out in the rain.

That's the very least that the Postal Service should do.

Look, I've come simply to thank you and to congratulate you for doing more for the Postal

Service than the Congress of the United States.

I don't see any bright ideas coming from the Committee on which I have served ever since

I've been a member of Congress.

I can't even remember when the last hearing was, but you have brought 150,000 signatures,

really bright ideas, and I want to thank you for gathering that kind of support

for Postal Service banking.

Now, it's not as though this is an idea that came floating out of the sky.

This is an idea from postal banking experience of the Postal Service itself.

Go to the streets of the District of Columbia, any large city, or any county, and you will

find them lined with check-cashing services and other exploitative services like payday

lending.

Yet who is really, who is honestly trusted in our country?

The most trusted, the most popular quote "federal agency" is the Postal Service of the United

States of America.

People by and large did not understand what payday lenders were doing.

If you haven't used them, you don't know what they were doing.

And so, they were charging, in some cases, up to 3000% interest.

We had documented cases where people ended up on that treadmill and could never, ever

get off of that treadmill.

And they were focused in poor communities, in communities that were underserved by banks,

where banks weren't even present, where the threshold was too high for people to be able

to use the products of the traditional banking services.

And so here came the payday lenders into the community and basically ripped off the community

and basically bankrupted people who were already poor.

And so, this is important, because one of the things is that you already have the infrastructure.

You're located in every community, urban and rural and suburban.

And so, it make great sense that, basically, banking services could be offered through

the Postal Service.

And that would really be a benefit to folks in the community who are seeking, one, to

be able to have the kind of resourcing that makes life better and makes life easier.

So I really want to thank everybody for being engaged in this endeavor because it's a truly

important endeavor, that we move forward, that we push it forward.

We will continue to talk about it within the faith community and continue to lift it up

so that people understand the vital importance of this issue.

Thank you very much.

Older Americans, more than any other group, as much as we've heard today, need postal

banking.

The average income for a Social Security recipient's household is only $25,000 a year.

Having postal banking, every dollar counts, every dollar is needed in their daily lives.

Food, fuel, medicines, healthcare.

Having a Postal Service with 31,000 plus facilities around the country makes it easier for seniors

who need a spot to go do their banking.

We've got underserved populations all over the country.

We've got rip-off banking systems in poor communities.

We have the banks abandoning communities, and we have post offices all over the country.

Why not?

And therefore, we've all joined together to collect these petitions.

We are going to continue to fight for the idea of postal banking.

Thank you for coming down to personally receive these petitions.

These are folks from all across the country.

Every state in the country who are delivering and saying that they want postal banking.

Thank you so much.