Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
While Congress was able to delay the U.S. Postal Service from removing both Regional Processing and Distribution Centers out of Wyoming it appears at an online meeting last Thursday that the Postal Service is still moving forward with the plan.
During the Pre-Filing Conference to discuss the “Delivering for America Plan,” a plan to “transform the Postal Service’s processing and transportation networks,” a map for the new plans show Casper’s RPDC operations moving to Billings, Montana and Cheyenne’s operations to Denver, Colorado, leaving Wyoming without an in-state RPDC. The Cheyenne and Casper operations would transform to Local Processing Centers.
According to their new plan, which also has the Postal Service moving from air transportation to more ground transportation, shows an upgrade in some areas but they admit there is downgrades in service under the plan. (They stated that moving away from air transportation, which is largely out of their control, back to ground, which is more in their control, is one of these steps, and, of course, another is creating a network of RPDC and LPCs.)
Per the information from the online meeting, “83% of market dominant volume will be unchanged.” However, there will be 11 percent downgrade in first class mail service, 2% downgrade in marketing mail, 3% downgrade in periodicals and 9 percent downgrade in package services that includes bound printed matter, library mail and media mail.
Comments made during the meeting were with the noted delay, the U.S. Postal Service was committing a crime. Federal law states it is a crime for anyone to “knowingly and willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail.”
A gentleman from the New York Times praised their work and the modernization, sure, because it is designed for big cities not rural America like Wyoming.
Congress has been working to try and protect rural mail. Congresswoman Harriet Hageman (R-WY), along with Democratic cosponsor Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), introduced bipartisan legislation to require the United States Postal Service (USPS) to apply the same standards to sorting, distribution, or processing facilities as are used for storefront Post Offices. If the USPS decides to move forward with a closure/consolidation, this legislation will require the USPS to notify the persons served by the post office, or sorting, distribution, or processing facility, of its decision and the findings used to arrive at this decision.
The USPS also would be required to wait at least 60 more days upon notification before proceeding with the closure/consolidation, and any person served by the facility slated for such action could appeal the closure to the Postal Regulatory Commission, which would have up to 120 days to consider the appeal.
The legislation filed in June still sits in a committee and a similar bill filed in the Senate by Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota is also in committee.
Also, Congresswoman Harriet Hageman and Senator Cynthia Lummis introduced bipartisan and bicameral legislation – the Postal Operations Stay Timely and Local (POSTAL) Act, which prevents the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) from closing, consolidating, or downgrading its processing and distribution centers (P&DC) nationwide if such an action would remove the sole P&DC within a state or negatively impact mail delivery. The Senate bill is co-sponsored by Senator John Barrasso and the House bill is co-led by Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01).
“All Americans rely upon USPS to receive correspondence, bills, packages, and medication in a timely manner,” said Representative Hageman. “If fulfilled, the USPS modernization plan threatens the promise of timely, secure mail delivery by transporting the bulk of Wyoming’s mail out of state, while also forcing many USPS P&DC employees to either relocate or lose their jobs. The closure of P&DCs bring serious election integrity concerns by forcing the transport of mailed-in ballots out of state, introducing the potential for delivery of ballots after an election concludes.
“The POSTAL Act alleviates these concerns by ensuring that any P&DC realignment or modernization actions done by the USPS cannot result in a negative impact on mail delivery or close the final P&DC within a state’s borders. I’m proud to be joined by Congressman Chris Pappas of New Hampshire and Senator Lummis to introduce this bipartisan, bicameral bill.”
Since its filing in April there has been no action in the House of Representatives.
While these pieces of legislation sound great, they are not halting the U.S. Postal Service from moving forward with their plans.
The Postal Service administrators in unveiling their Delivering For America plan at last week’s meeting said the objectives are to continue to deliver 167 million addresses six days a week; become self-sustaining and “act as a going concern by setting forth a positive vision for the long-term provision of universal service to the American people and a strategy to get there.”
All of these changes may sound great to the higherups in the Postal Service but we who use the Postal Service know there are already flaws in the current system and if “improvements” means further delays for Wyoming that does not sound great.
Postal Service administrators speaking at the pre-filing conference admitted that anything outside a 50-mile radius of Regional Processing and Distribution Centers can expect another day delay in mail. Billings is 75 miles from Frannie, the nearest Wyoming post office. Cheyenne is 100 miles from the Denver RPDC.
I understand the Postal Service has been losing money and reportedly these changes are meant to save them money, but they are making the mail slower. They note that even with the one additional delay for everyone outside that 50-mile radius all first class mail will still be delivered within the one to five-day window. Except it is not getting done now.
My husband and I are probably one of the few who still pay bills by check and by mail. Last year one bill, with a first-class Forever stamp took two months to arrive at its destination. Needless to say we did get late fees assessed.
I do not believe that closing PRDCs in Wyoming is the answer. Currently Rock Springs mail goes to a PRDC in Salt Lake City. Last December I mailed a package to my friend from Rock Springs. She is the one who told me that all mail gets processed in Salt Lake City. My package went to Casper and was processed, traveled along I-80, past Rock Springs through Wyoming into Utah to Salt Lake City, processed again and headed back into Wyoming to Rock Springs.
I do not see how that is efficient or economical and that is how it will be with Wyoming mail going either to Billings or Denver first.
With all these changes, we must not blame the local Postal Service employees. They have no control over the decisions made by the administration.
They try their best and I know the employees at the local post office get frustrated along with us when there are delays.
The more delays the more people like my husband and I who use the post office will begin to go to auto pay and use it less, thus they continue to lose customers and lose money. Here at the newspaper we have seen a trend with more readers buying it on the newsstands on Wednesdays or Thursdays because they do not want to wait on the Postal Service.
So what’s next? The Postal Service says they will consider public feedback provided in last week’s meetings, but in my estimation they were mostly dismissive of the comments.
According to the PowerPoint presentation, “If the Postal Service determines to move forward (did not sound like they were considering anything else) then they file a request for an advisory opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission and interested parties may participate.”
However, it is up to you to find out about these things. We at the Northern Wyoming News will do our best to follow the process and keep you informed.
The official request will be followed by a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register where comments may be again be filed.
They did note that no changes will be made in 2024, mainly to ensure a smooth election season for states with mail-in voting.
Until there is an official filing and an official comment period, the best thing to do is contact our Congressional delegation to continue to work on the above legislation.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis
127A Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-3424
Sen. John Barrasso
307 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-6441
Rep. Harriet Hageman
1531 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2311