WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senator Jay Rockefeller today issued the following statement on the U.S. Postal Service’s decision to reduce hours at 13,000 post offices nationwide, and almost 500 in West Virginia.

“On its face, this move looks like an improvement over the previous proposal to flat out close 150 post offices in West Virginia,” said Rockefeller.  “But I continue to be very concerned about the Postal Service’s constantly shifting plans and lack of information about how its proposals will impact jobs and services in our state.  This new plan will potentially impact far more West Virginians and it fails to take into account the many other options for reducing costs besides cutting postal jobs and services in rural areas like West Virginia.

“The Postal Service must fix its worsening finances, but it doesn’t have do that at the expense of our state’s jobs and services.  We need to take responsible steps forward and I intend to have a very candid conversation about this with the Postmaster General during our meeting tomorrow.”

On May 7, Rockefeller sent a letter to the Postmaster General urging the Postal Service to reconsider closing 150 post offices and consolidating mail processing centers in West Virginia as these actions unfairly target jobs and postal services in West Virginia, as well as other rural states.  He also asked the Postmaster General to extend the current moratorium on any post office closings and mail processing center consolidations in the state.  Click here to view the letter.

On March 20, Rockefeller, Manchin, and five other Senators sent a strongly worded letter to the Postmaster General pressing for details about how the Postal Service is spending its money and identified ways to save billions of dollars and raise new revenue before pushing ahead with drastic cuts to post offices and other facilities.  Click here to view the letter.