WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Mark Pocan (WI-02) led 26 colleagues in a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy urging him to permanently suspend his Delivering for America plan, including by halting any further consolidation of processing centers and the planned national implementation of the Local Transportation Optimization initiative, which disproportionately impacts rural residents.
“We frequently hear from our constituents about problems they are experiencing with the Postal Service, including delays in delivery for everyday necessities including prescription medication, social security checks, business documents, bills, and other important pieces of mail,” the Members wrote. “These challenges stem from your Delivering for America plan which includes the consolidation of processing facilities and the rollout of the Local Transportation Optimization (LTO) plan, which will cause further delivery delays for rural residents and others living 25-50 miles from a processing center. This change in delivery standards will have widespread negative consequences, but rural communities in particular will be most affected.”
“Unfortunately, we’ve already seen that our rural communities are among the hardest hit by your cost-saving initiatives,” the Members continued. “Your plans to implement these reduced delivery standards at 180 additional processing centers over the coming months will only exacerbate the delays that our rural constituents are already experiencing, many of whom rely on the Postal Service for basic needs.”
A full copy of the letter can be found here.
The list of signers includes: Pocan, Mark; Bush, Cori; Casten, Sean; Chu, Judy; Cleaver, Emanuel; Cohen, Steve; Costa, Jim; Deluzio, Christopher; Gonzalez, Vicente; Grijalva, Raúl; Huffman, Jared; Jayapal, Pramila; Kennedy, Timothy; Larsen, Rick; Lee, Barbara; McCollum, Betty; Mfume, Kweisi; Moore, Gwen; Pingree, Chellie; Porter, Katie; Ramirez, Delia; Schakowsky, Janice; Thanedar, Shri; Tlaib, Rashida; Vargas, Juan; Watson Coleman, Bonnie; Wild, Susan
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