USPS’s EV plans face a Republican roadblock
Make Me Smart
Marketplace
4.6 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 18 August 2025
⏱️ 20 minutes
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Summary
Republicans in Congress are attempting to claw back federal funding to replace the U.S. Postal Service’s outdated mail trucks with a mostly electric fleet. We’ll break down the fight. And, parents across the country are facing a slew of economic headwinds. How does a couple with 5 kids and a modest income make it work? Plus, a mysterious comet and a rebrand at MSNBC.
Here’s everything we talked about today:
- "Republicans look to make a U-turn on federal commitment to electric vehicles for the Postal Service" from AP News
- "Senate Republicans cannot force US Postal Service to scrap EVs, parliamentarian says" from Reuters
- "What It’s Really Like to Support a Big Family on a Modest Income in America" from The Wall Street Journal
- "MSNBC to change name to MS NOW amid spinoff from NBCUniversal" from NBC News
"A mysterious comet is shooting through our solar system. Why are scientists so excited about 3I/Atlas?" from The Guardian
We love hearing from you. Leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART or email [email protected].
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I've missed this music. It's been a while. |
| 0:06.0 | Hey everyone, I'm Rima Gres. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where we make today make sense. |
| 0:11.0 | Kimberly's out on jury duty, so the one and only Nova Sappho is joining me on the show today. |
| 0:17.0 | Hey, Nova. |
| 0:18.0 | Hey, Reema, it's nice to join you for the first time we're working together. |
| 0:17.7 | And thanks everyone also for joining us. That's right. It's amazing. It's Monday, August 18th. It's going to be a very special day because it's you and I. So I'm excited. Yes. And it's going to be a classic day. We're going to do some news and smiles to start off the week. Do you want to go first Nova? |
| 0:19.8 | Sure, I'd be happy to. |
| 0:45.1 | So my, I, there's this story. I love this story. So the Postal Service is redoing its vehicles, those iconic vehicles we all know, those little trucks, |
| 0:51.2 | you know, a little boxy trucks. I found out a lot about those trucks. First |
| 0:54.8 | of all, I did not know this. They get nine miles per gallon. Nine miles per gallon. |
| 0:59.7 | That's insane. When you mentioned this in our morning meeting, I'm still thinking about it. |
| 1:04.0 | I'm like, how is that even possible? That's like, that can't be much better than driving a school bus, right? Or a tractor. I don't even know what gets nine miles per gallon at this point. |
| 1:13.6 | I don't know. |
| 1:15.6 | So yes, they're extraordinarily. |
| 1:17.6 | And we shouldn't poo these trucks because they're of a different era. |
| 1:21.6 | They came from the mid. |
| 1:22.6 | These were designed and made in the mid-1980s. |
| 1:28.4 | Reagan was president when these were put into use, and they were called the Grumman |
| 1:34.0 | Long Life Vehicle, lived up to their name. They were supposed to go up with something like |
| 1:37.8 | 25, 27 years. The Postalvers are still using them. They're so old that the mechanics at the postal servers can't find the parts for them, |
| 1:47.0 | so they have to make some of their own parts to fix the car of these things. |
| 1:52.0 | It's insane. |
... |
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