WASHINGTON D.C. (WCIA) — Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) has filed a bill he believes will protect Post Office Processing and Distribution Centers across the country from losing some of their services.
In a news release from his office, Durbin announced Wednesday he is working with Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD) and a bipartisan group of senators for a bill they named the Postal Processing Protection Act. This is after more than 50 Processing and Distribution Centers were targeted to shift to Local Processing Centers.
The bill would require a study forecasting the the consequences of downsizing or closing these facilities. A similar requirement is in place before the USPS closes any storefront post office in the country.
Durbin filed the legislation in response to the Postal Service’s 10-year Delivering for America plan, which would eliminate mail distribution operations at the Champaign, Peoria, Milan, and Springfield P&DCs.
“If I drop a piece of mail off in Springfield to make it across town, why should it have to go all the way to St. Louis and back?" Durbin said. "Eliminating mail processing centers across our state, without consideration for the impact on mail service and postal employees, will only decimate USPS. It is yet another instance of Postmaster General [Louis] DeJoy’s ‘Delivering for America’ plan disastrously missing the mark.”
The Post Office previously announced in a letter they are pausing the implementation of changes to P&DC facilities for at least the rest of the year last month. The federal agency has stated they will save money from converting P&DC facilities and no employees will be laid off.
This isn’t the first time Illinois Members of Congress have criticized USPS’s changes. Durbin led Illinois colleagues in writing a letter to U.S. Postmaster General DeJoy to urge him to reconsider the plan. Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski (D-IL) and Mary Miller (R-IL) also wrote a letter. Additionally, Budzinski filed a different bill to stop the transitions outlined in Delivering For America.
Other sponsors for the bill include U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Tina Smith (D-MN), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) and Kevin Cramer (R-ND).
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June 5, 2024 at 05:43PM
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