Budzinski, colleagues oppose Postal Services changes that could delay rural delivery

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Lawmakers are calling on the U.S. Postal Service to reconsider service changes that could add a day to delivery times in rural areas.

Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield, and Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, led 18 other members of Congress in penning a bipartisan letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

“We are writing to express our extreme concern with the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) August 22, 2024, announcement that you will be adjusting mail delivery times, resulting in additional delays for our constituents who live in rural areas and areas that are more than 50 miles from a USPS processing center,” lawmakers wrote.

The Postal Service’s announcement stated that it was proposing a number of changes to “boost service reliability, cost efficiency, and overall productivity” that would result in savings of $30 billion to the agency over the next 10 years.

The plan includes consolidating delivery and collection for post offices “far from regional hubs,” with both activities primarily taking place in the morning.

“This consolidation will provide flexibility in our transportation scheduling, bring a significant amount of mail volume into USPS plants sooner to begin processing earlier, and reduce local transportation costs, carbon emissions, and truck trips through American neighborhoods,” postal officials said.

DeJoy told The Washington Post in August that the changes would result in improved delivery times for customers within 50 miles of the agency’s largest processing facilities.

“But the agency cannot afford to maintain the same model for deliveries into far-flung areas, (DeJoy) said,” The Post reported. “That could add an additional day to current delivery timetables, though mail would still be delivered in five days or less across the country.”

The Postal Service said that after seeking feedback via a webinar in September, it would then file a request for an advisory opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission. Upon receiving a response, the Postal Service plans to “consider the Commission’s opinion and finalize its decision.”

According to The Washington Post, the Postal Service’s board would need to approve the changes, which the agency says would not go into effect until 2025.

Additionally, postal officials said that the proposed changes will not expand “existing day ranges of service standards” and will result in shorter ranges for some products.

“While some end-to-end products may experience an additional day, the efficiency of the new network is expected to advance much of this volume,” the agency said. “Additionally, no First-Class Mail will be delivered later than 5 days within the continental United States.”

However, Budzinski and her fellow lawmakers were skeptical of these claims.

“While we understand that our constituents, regardless of proximity to larger postal facilities, would still be under the existing one-to-five day service standards, USPS has already been failing to meet these delivery standards for many of our constituents,” lawmakers wrote in their letter to DeJoy. “Adding up to 24 hours of additional delays for rural residents will only exacerbate the existing on-time delivery problems our constituents are facing.”

According to an agency performance report, the Postal Service’s “National Three-To-Five Day performance” was 69.9 percent on time during the second quarter of Fiscal Year 2024.

In addition to asking the Postal Service to rethink its plan, legislators also asked for a list of counties, towns and ZIP codes that would “face longer wait times as a result of this plan.”

“We request a response in writing by October 18, 2024,” the coalition said.

There are some indications that Champaign-Urbana could be among the affected communities.

When asked whether the proposed consolidation of pick-up and drop-off services would affect the Champaign-Urbana area and surrounding rural areas, USPS Spokesman Tim Norman provided copies of an FAQ document about the previous facility review of the Mattis Avenue post office and a release on the agency’s final decision that was issued in April.

The agency announced at that time that it was moving forward with plans to transfer outgoing-mail processing operations at Champaign’s Processing and Distribution Center on Mattis Avenue to facilities in the Chicago suburbs of Bedford Park and Forest Park.

DeJoy later agreed to pause “the movement of processing operations” associated with facility reviews until 2025, with the Mattis Avenue facility included in the freeze. However, he indicated that this was likely to be only a temporary hold amid planning, rather than an about-face.

The plan for the local post office is expected to result in the loss of about 100 local jobs and includes converting the facility into a “Local Processing Center.”

According to the USPS Office of Inspector General, LPCs will “sort letters and flats to individual mail carrier routes in the regional area” and provide some package sorting.

One the other hand, Regional Processing and Distribution Centers are larger processing facilities that will “sort all mail and packages that are being sent to other regions, as well as sort packages for delivery in the regional area.”

“These will be the hubs for the Postal Service’s long-distance transportation,” the Office of Inspector General said.

Save the Post Office, a watchdog website run by retired Professor Steve Hutkins, posted a summary of information that was allegedly provided by USPS during a webinar on the changes in early September.

Hutkins’ report included a map showing areas where end-of-day collections would likely be eliminated due to being over 50 miles away from an RPDC. Based on the map, Champaign-Urbana would be among the areas affected.

However, Hutkins noted that, according to a presentation provided by USPS, there could be some exceptions to the 50-mile rule.