According to AOL news, over the last 18 months, Congress has passed and the President has signed a total of 237 pieces of legislation.
Of that total number, 27 percent of the bills have been renamings and dedications of federal buildings, including many Post Offices. That's 63 different bills.
These Post Offices are usually dedicated to local war heroes, political personalities and community leaders. The process involves an Act of Congress, a small ceremony, and placque installed in the office.
What do you think about this?
Comment here.
14 comments:
Unless they are going to put my name on the placque....then its worthless. OK, seriously....this is another one of those things that I think we should cease doing at this time. I have a placque on my PO wall and no one in this communtity even knows who that person is! I have heard of PO's being renamed several times...another waste of time. This idea is right up there with new stamp dedications. We spend huge dollars in marketing to have a ceremony dedicating a new stamp....what a waste of money.
I will go on the other side of the fence from the first comment. I think it is a great honor to have a Post Office named after a local citizen that deserves it. Doing so should be as cost efficeint as possible though.
The other day this was a story that Fox News was beating the USPS on; naming a building for the senior senator from New Jersey that is still alive among other things Fox doesn't like about the USPS. You can check it out on YouTube search under Fox business news D'Amato. I wonder if anyone has looked at how much support this senator has done to pass legislation to help the USPS, other than to name a building for himself. I think naming a building can be appropriate but there should be a criteria to follow but what happens in the future when someone else is more deserving do we yank the first name and put up the second one?
I agree, naming public buildings can be a boon to local morale. I also agree there should be a standard for naming of federal bldgs - even where local communities recognize their heroes. Where to draw the line? I'm sure congress can create a committee, tie-up resources and drag it out until an election comes along, then SUDDENLY it will become an election "bragging point".
We just had our Post office renamed. The local congresswoman is up for reelection. Go figure. Our office spent thousands of dollars getting ready for this "honor" Money we don't have. So very stupid if you ask me. AND a waste of money. The thing that really stunk about it was the congresswoman didn't honor the family that DONATED the land to the post office they honored one of the families that are one of the biggest contributors to their campaign.
In smaller cities and towns, the Post Office can be a very important place in the community. Honoring the communities heroes helps with their civic pride. Granted, to much money is spent doing this and there is way to much politics involved. Until we change our style of government, we may have to live with the bad as well as the good when renaming these buildings.
When naming a Post Office after someone, that person should not be living at the time. That is what we do with our "stamps".
Also...why should we worry about what "name" an office has? People just say... "I'm going to the Post Office"...and if there is more than one they usually reference it by saying "the one on 9th" or the one on the "west side"...(whatever)
We could save ALOT of money, and avoid ALOT of uncessary lobbying for this person or that person to have a PO named after them. What if every Post Office was just "THE POST OFFICE"? TOO SIMPLE, I KNOW!
Post Offices should be named for their community. Community names rarely change- however, if we must rename buildings let be for those who really did something truely honorable and memorable. Will we ever forget the postal employees who gave their lives due to contaminated mail. (Thomas Morris, Jr. and Joseph Curseen, Jr) We have a facility named for them just so we do not forget. This is honorable and memorable.
Set standards and keep them.
I'm all for honoring heroes; not enough of that happens, in my opinion. The amount of time consumed by Congress on these bills is miniscule. However, the naming ceremonies should be modest in cost, consistent with USPS' financial condition. I would much rather Post Offices be named as an honor than our naming rights be auctioned off to the highest bidder, like sports arenas.
Not only is the PO wasting time and money, but let's look at the time and money Congress and the President spend on all the honoring and/or renaming of a PO. That is my big concern, considering our out of control deficit.
Congress needs to be using their time and money more wisely than worrying about renaming Post Offices right now. I could understand maybe a couple of Post Offices for some hero that year, but 63! That's way too much money and time being wasted!
Let Congress focus on more important issues in our country right now.....like the economy, unemployment, etc!
I agree that it is a BIG waste of postal funds, along with the stamp dedication ceremonies as another person said. There are many more things to spend the money on. Our Post Office was renamed and I haven't talked to anyone in the community that has a clue who the person even is.
I, too, think it's silly to "name" a post office since everyone calls it "the post office" or the "mytown post office." I've never heard of anyone calling it the "John Doe Post Office." However if they want to name post offices they should be name only after local or area postal employees, such as the ones names for the anthrax victims. And can't Congress just let HQ name them without having to pass a bill? And if they want a ceremony let the local office decide what type and keep it simple.
Can anyone put a dollar amount on these renaming bills? I can not find a CBO estimate for any of them. Started searching for the answer when I saw zero nay votes.
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