LIEBERMAN
QUERIES POSTMASTER GENERAL, POSTAL WORKERS
ON
ANTHRAX RESPONSE
October 30, 2001
WASHINGTON - Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe
Lieberman, D-Conn., sought answers Tuesday from Postmaster General
John Potter, postal unions, and postal workers about how the
Postal Service moved to protect its workers and the public
following the discovery of anthrax in the mails.
At an oversight hearing titled “Terrorism Through the
Mail: Protecting Postal Workers and the Public,” Lieberman
questioned Potter about the timing of the Postal Service’s
response upon learning that anthrax was being sent though the
mail.
Both Potter and union representatives agreed postal
officials "did about as much as it could do, as quickly as it
could do it," Lieberman said.
This new, insidious terrorist attack has been difficult to
detect, and has emerged slowly over a period of weeks, striking so
far in Florida, New York, New Jersey, Virginia and over a dozen
places in Washington. Two
Washington D.C. postal
workers and a newspaper editor in Florida have died, while a dozen
others have been diagnosed
with either cutaneous or inhalation anthrax
“Our committee wants to find out whether adequate steps
were taken to protect postal workers - and, for that matter,
anyone who opens their mail - once it was known that the mails
were being used to further terrorize the American people,”
Lieberman said. “We
need to take stock of
what we have learned from this experience and assess what needs to
be done to properly protect those who work for the Postal Service
and those who depend on its services.”
The
first transmission of anthrax through the mail was confirmed
Friday, October12, when an NBC employee was diagnosed with
cutaneous anthrax after opening a letter addressed to anchor Tom
Brokaw. Federal
officials and the Postal Service apparently thought the risk of
inhalation anthrax was negligible until two mail workers, now
being treated in Virginia, were diagnosed with it over a week
later.
“The question many are asking, admittedly, with 20/20
hindsight,” Lieberman said, “is should someone have recognized
what now seems like an obvious concern not only about those
receiving envelopes with anthrax but about the safety of the men
and women who work in the mail system that delivered them?
Should health workers have been on the lookout for possible
anthrax infection? Should
environmental and worker testing have begun sooner than it did?
Did the Centers for Disease Control and the Postal Service
take too passive an approach toward postal workers and the public?
“It is particularly important,” Lieberman continued,
“that we end what has been called a “multi-voiced
disharmony” from government officials in recent weeks.
Governor Ridge, as the lead government spokesman on these
matter, and others in positions of authority need to tell the
truth to the American people and if they don’t yet know the
truth, then they need to tell us that as well.
Otherwise, in this time of crisis, the federal government
risks losing the credibility and trust it has gained from the
American people in the first stages of the war against terrorism.
“The bottom line here is the Postal Service is a major
component of this nation’s critical infrastructure and is one of
the foundations of our quality of life,” Lieberman said.
“Businesses and individuals that depend on it comprise a
significant portion of our Gross Domestic Product.
It is too important to too many people to allow these
problems or anxieties with the mail system to fester.
We hope that we will move forward together to find a way to
better protect America’s postal workers and the people of this
country who depend on their work just about everyday of our lives.
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