Huffman backs legislation to end postal facilities’ closure

March 02, 2016

Legislation to end the closure and consolidation of mail-processing facilities — including Eureka’s — has been introduced by a bipartisan group of congressmen, including Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael.

U.S. Postal Service officials have developed plans to consolidate operations, affecting dozens of mail-processing centers. Lawmakers have called on the Postal Service to postpone the changes.

Postal officials call the consolidation plans their “network rationalization” program, which already has consolidated mail-processing facilities and taken other steps to reduce costs, including the elimination of routes, the reduction of hours at post offices and their workforce.

The closure of the Eureka facility would result in mail traveling to Medford, Oregon, to be sorted and trucked back to Eureka for delivery. Critics have complained that the consolidation will affect operations at the mail-processing facilities that are due to absorb operations from other centers.

On Tuesday, Huffman and Reps. David McKinley, R-W.Va., Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., and Evan Jenkins, R-W.Va., introduced the Stop Postal Closures Act of 2016 — bipartisan legislation to end what they call the misguided closure such facilities across the country.

Mail processing plants are the central sorting hubs, the lawmakers said, and their elimination can mean mail has to travel further before delivery. Facility closures have delayed the mail, broken overnight deadlines and reduced frequency of deliveries. The closures are particularly taxing on seniors, veterans and rural communities who depend on timely deliveries for prescriptions and other services, the lawmakers said.

While postal officials temporarily halted the closures, they could begin again as soon as the spring.

“We all want a modern, efficient Postal Service, but continuing to reduce service standards and close facilities is not the way to deliver for the American people,” Huffman said in a statement.

The legislation would:

— Put a moratorium on closures and consolidations.

— Establish a framework that any future closures must be approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission.

— Creates a list of criteria and data that postal officials must analyze during the closure process.

— Requires a robust public notification and comment period.

— Reinstate the July 1, 2012, mail delivery standards of the 1-3 day delivery, which was eliminated at the start of 2015.

— Empower the commission to set annual performance benchmarks.

A call to the Postal Service’s media relations office asking about how such legislation might change the agency’s modernization plans was not returned.


Source: by Steven Moore