House Members Urge PRC To Reject Post Office Closures

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75 House Members Call for New USPS Business Model, Not Post Office Closures in Bi-Partisan Letter to PRC Chairwoman Ruth Goldway

Congressmen Gerry Connolly (D-VA) Don Young (R-AK), joined by 73 other bipartisan members of Congress, have written Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) Chairwoman Ruth Goldway to urge the PRC to reject thousands of Post Office closures in favor of reforming the Postal Service’s business model.

Instead of cutting service, the bipartisan letter drafted by Connolly and Young said Congress should remove the strictures imposed on the Postal Service by the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, such as an onerous retirement prefunding requirement and prohibition on reasonable retail activity within postal facilities.

“We have been presented with a false choice of closing post offices and slashing the workforce or letting the Postal Service go bankrupt,” Connolly said. “There are better alternatives. The Postal Service’s unparalleled retail network is a competitive advantage, but that advantage can’t be leveraged because of the 2006 law that prohibits the Postal Service from even selling many postal-related products. We need to change that law.”

In addition, the letter proposed refunding the Postal Service’s pension overpayment to avoid the Postal Service’s pending technical default.

“Too many Americans rely on dependable postal service for us to not act on this issue,” said Young. “Getting rid of burdensome regulations and cutting the red tape will allow the Postal Service to operate more like a business in the future. My hope is that Congress takes advantage of this opportunity to strengthen the Postal Service without hurting rural Americans.”

Connolly and Young emphasized that eliminating Post Offices and cutting service would undermine the Postal Service’s competitiveness and the $1 trillion private sector mailing industry.

In concluding their letter to the PRC, the Members of Congress stated:

“This Constitutional institution must be strengthened, not eviscerated, because it continues to improve quality of life for our constituents while creating more than a trillion dollars of private sector business activity. Widespread closure of post offices should be rejected in favor of more thoughtful reform that fixes the errors of the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act and finally allows the Postal Service to behave like a business and ensures the requirement to provide universal service is fulfilled.”

Connolly-Young Letter to PRC Chairwoman Ruth Goldway click here (PDF).

75 House Members Urge PRC to Reject Post Office Closures

9 thoughts on “House Members Urge PRC To Reject Post Office Closures”

  2. Way to go
    SAVE OUR NATIONAL TREASURE THE UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE
    The postal service is what binds this country together.
    The POSTAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND ENHANCEMENT ACT IN 2006 caused this crisis and now the Future of the USPS is in JEOPARDY.

    Politicians who are IN FAVOR OF DESTROYING THE UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE HAVE CONCLUDED THAT THEIR JOBS ARE SAFE AT THE BALLOT BOX.. SO THEY WILL PROCEED TO DESTROY OUR NATIONAL TREASURE..

    CITIZENS OF AMERICA:

  3. And Terry said:

    This is the end
    Beautiful friend
    This is the end
    My only friend, the end

    Of our elaborate plans, the end
    Of everything that stands, the end
    No safety or surprise, the end
    I’ll never look into your eyes…again

  4. The demand for USPS postal services has declined to the point that service yield less return to cover cost. Delivery to street addresses on Sat, is a wasted cost. Another wasted cost are officices that as a result of changing demograhics and use of E Mail many officies have no justification for the expenes necessary to provide non needed service. usps cost must be reduced to maintain some form of existence for a diminished service which has chance for a financial breakeven point as the excess services provided are not necessary due to advance communication technology in the 21st century. The Internet connects instantly. The upcomming generation communicates instantly via the INTERNET without the need for buying posttage and depositing in the postal system for a 1-2 day delivery time. Physical delivery of a message to a physical address is history as new APPS are increasing continously. The USPS and its services as presently exist are a total monatary loss.
    Congress must do its job and balance services to cost to breakeven.

  5. Once a ship has sunk bailing out pails of water doesn’t work.The fat lady has sung.Close all the post offices.The last piece of mail I got that meant anything was my divorce papers.Half a postal workers day is watching how long other postal workers breaks are and the other half is sleeping.Every postal worker I see looks like he has been hit by a gamma ray and most them can barely walk.Oh and the women there some beauties. Most of them look like they have worked on a farm their whole life. And you can always tell how long a man has worked in the post office office by the stains on his Tshirts,When you walk into a large facility you think you entered Creedmoor Mental Hospital. Anyway I have to go now. I have an important letter to mail. I have to get to the Post Office.

  6. it does make sense to actually look at the network in place as an asset and develop ways to utilize it and make money. however, that will take competent,
    visionary postal leaders and the sad fact is we just don’t have that! put a
    proven leader such as fedex’s fred smith in charge of this sinking ship and
    within several years we would be rolling in profits and the future would be bright. instead, we get business challenged bureaucrats like donahoe & company!
    skipper donahoe will sink this ship if given his slash and cut agenda.

  7. Representative Connolly and the others should learn something about economics and running a business. The USPS is loosing money every day because mail piece counts have gone down, and are not coming back, and we have not removed enough people that processed this mail. This converts to higher processing costs per piece, which is revenue lost. In this environment the USPS must close Post Offices and processing facilities too make up for this lost revenue.
    These congressmen are fooling you all by telling you there are other forms of revenue. There are no other products the USPS could sell to make up the lost revenue that is occurring now. Ask the congressmen what these products are. If you listen to these congressmen the USPS will go bankrupt and mail service will tank. The only thing these congressmen are trying to do is protect union members and the consultants that support the congressmen.

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