The trades agreed there is a gap for financially underserved people, but disagreed with the Democrats' proposed solution.

“We agree that there is a problem with the number of unbanked and underbanked,” CUNA Chief Advocacy Officer Ryan Donovan said.

Donovan asserted the answer is to expand access to credit unions rather than allow the post office to offer banking services. He said a network of credit unions that serve postal employees already exists and noted that network could be expanded.

“The credit union should be providing the service, not the post office,” he said.

NAFCU officials agreed.

“We would be pleased if we could serve a larger percentage of the underserved,” Carrie Hunt, NAFCU's executive vice president of government affairs and general counsel, said.

Donovan also downplayed the significance of the platform document, stating it will not be important to anyone after the DNC adjourns.

“Party platforms are not policy-making documents,” Donovan said.

The Republican Party platform does not contain the postal service expansion.

While it's very unlikely such a proposal will be enacted this year, the idea of allowing the post office to offer banking services has a life beyond the Democratic platform. In January 2014, the USPS Office of Inspector General issued a report stating the postal service was in a good position to offer basic banking services to an underserved population.

“To be clear, the Postal Service should not aim to take customers away from mainstream banks and credit unions,” the report said. “To the contrary, the mainstream financial services community would be a beneficiary of a successful suite of postal financial services and products for three key reasons: Partnerships, payments and new customers.”

In addition, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has said the USPS could replace payday lenders by providing a ready source of credit for people who have taken out the high-interest loans when they needed the money.

Warren's proposal cited the OIG report.

“With nearly 60% of post office branches in ZIP codes where there are either one or no bank branches, postal banking could fill the void banks have left by closing branches nationwide,” she wrote in a U.S. News & World Report op-ed.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and the American Postal Workers Union have also supported the efforts. While the two senators viewed the proposal as a way to reach people who need banking services, the labor union saw it as a way for the financially troubled organization to diversify.

In addition, consumer and labor groups have formed a coalition known as the Campaign for Postal Banking.

That group cited figures that showed many nations around the world offer banking services through post offices. In addition, in the past, the U.S. had a postal banking program that allowed customers to open a savings account. President William Howard Taft started it in 1911, but it ended in 1967.

Credit unions aren't the only opponents of Warren's plan. Citizens Against Government Waste, an interest group that fights for less federal spending, gave her a “Porker of the Month Award,” a dubious prize given to someone the group believes is pushing for wasteful spending.

“Banking and non-banking services are currently well-served by private-sector business with expertise in those areas,” the group's president, Tom Schatz, said. “If the USPS wants to get into banking or any other business, then it should give up its government privileges and move toward a fully competitive model.”

Donovan said when CUNA officials met with Warren after she floated the idea, the two sides agreed an underserved population exists that needs easy access to financial services.

The USPS OIG outlined the types of financial services post offices could offer. For instance, it said, post offices could offer payment services including electronic money orders, bill payments and e-commerce payments.

Post offices could also offer a branded, reloadable card called the Postal Card, the OIG said, adding it could partner with a financial institution on the service to include an interest-bearing savings feature.

But the postal service is not in a good position to offer such services, NAFCU President/CEO Dan Berger said in a letter to then-Democratic National Committee Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) earlier this month.

Berger said because the Postal Service is in such a poor financial condition, it would be under intense financial pressure to turn a profit from such services. He said credit unions are in a good position to expand their services but are prohibited from doing so.

“Credit unions are well-equipped to offer the underbanked full-service financial products, but are often limited by outdated laws and overregulation,” Berger wrote.

Berger said the problem could be solved by the enactment of H.R. 5541, The Financial Services for the Underserved Act of 2016, introduced last month by Reps. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) and Donald Norcross (D-N.J.).

He asked the Democrats to delete the postal plan from their platform and take the approach outlined in H.R. 5541.

That legislation would also allow credit unions to expand their membership in underserved areas.

The Democrats kept the postal proposal in the party's platform.

H.R. 5541 has been referred to the House Financial Services Committee. However, given the controversial nature of the bill, coupled with a shorter Congress session scheduled for this fall, it is unlikely that such legislation will pass this year.