Coronavirus aid bill provides $10 billion to ailing U.S. Postal Service
21 December 2020
The latest coronavirus relief deal, which is Congress is aiming to approve later today, provides $10 billion to help the ailing U.S. Postal Service, legislative aides familiar with the text tell Axios.
Why it matters: This new round of funding comes as the Postal Service has struggled to operate amid the pandemic, withstand a surge in Christmas shipping and be ready for a busy January, when Americans typically receive documents used for their tax preparation.
- A fresh round of stimulus checks, this time $600 per adult and child, also are expected to be mailed before the end of this year.
Driving the news: The new bill will convert $10 billion from the government's March CARES Act loan program into direct funding for the USPS. The money will be used for operational and other increased costs resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Democrats portrayed the outcome as a win, since it reallocated money the administration had threatened to eliminate.
The backdrop: The Postal Service has faced widening losses during the past several months, and had been projected to run out of money as early as Oct. 1 if Congress did not act.
- President Trump has also waged open warfare on the Postal Service, criticizing its deals with express shippers such as Amazon and installing a longtime Republican donor, Louis DeJoy, as postmaster general.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.