Congress moves to protect small and rural post offices from closure

By Harry Glenn

The House Appropriations Committee approved legislation June 17th that would prevent the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) from consolidating or closing small and rural post offices.

The provision is included in the Fiscal Year 2017 Financial Services Appropriations Bill, the legislation that includes funding and oversight for USPS. The full House will consider the legislation later this year.

This provision was included in similar legislation last year and was signed into law last December. Because it is a part of an annual appropriations bill, it must be approved by Congress one year at a time.

This is an important development for AUSPL members as it demonstrates broad Congressional support for the network of small and rural post offices, most of which are leased and owned by our members.

AUSPL President Morgan Wolaver and Vice President Gary Phillips visited Capitol Hill June 23 to continue meeting with key members of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations who would first consider any postal reform legislation that would come before Congress. The members they met with were from largely rural districts with large numbers of leased facilities. All were supportive of maintaining the network of small leased post offices.

Included in this round of meetings was a visit with the legislative staff of the Speaker of the House John Boehner (OH). The staff was very knowledgeable on postal issues and clearly understood the value of the lease program to USPS and to the Speaker’s rural constituents.

The final Congressional visit of this quick trip was with U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei (NV), who was a featured speaker at our annual conference in Reno. Congressman Amodei has been a strong supporter of AUSPL and as we heard in May, recognizes the importance leased facilities play in ensuring that universal postal service is available to his constituents. He serves on the Appropriations Subcommittee that included the prohibition of closures in the annual appropriations and has pledged his support for AUSPL’s legislative agenda.

In recognition of his hard work in our behalf, and the time he spent with our members in May, the Board decided to make Congressman Amodei the recipient of the first check from our newly established AUSPL Political Action Committee (PAC). The creation of this is one more way in which our association can be active in the federal legislative and political process. You will be receiving more information shortly about how you can contribute to the PAC.

Overall, the members of the Board on this last visit continued to find strong support for protecting our leased facilities, especially among members who represent rural districts. They did find that the pace of developing postal reform legislation had slowed from their previous visits in May, due in large part to other legislative priorities with hard deadlines, including trade legislation, an extension of federal highway programs, and the annual appropriations process.

As a reminder, it is still important that each of you take the time to contact your members of the House and Senate and share with them our core message which is to:

• Reiterate the important and cost-effective role leased facilities play in USPS operations.
• The fact that the rent paid for these leased facilities makes up less than 1 percent of the postal budget.
• That most of the leased facilities are in rural areas, that these facilities are part of the social fabric of these small communities, and without these facilities, USPS would find it impossible to meet its mission to provide universal service.
• That the Post Service should find innovative ways to make better use of these small and rural facilities to provide greater service to their communities and generate additional revenue for USPS.
• And that the Postal Service is required to consult with Congress, community leaders and the residents of any community in which they may consider the closure of facilities to explain and justify their plans.

Click here to identify your members of the House and here to identify your United States Senators. Identify your members of Congress not only from your home of record, but also the areas in which you own postal facilities. Then contact your members of Congress in writing, by e-mail or request a meeting with them when they are back home in their district and state offices. Congress will not be in session during the entire month of August, so that is a good time to request a meeting. Please share any replies or the notes of any meetings with Sandra Lindsay sandra@auspl.com at our AUSPL offices.