[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2103 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2103
To modify the procedures used by the United States Postal Service for
the closure or consolidation of any post office or any processing and
distribution center, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 14, 2025
Ms. Budzinski (for herself, Ms. Hageman, Mr. Golden of Maine, Mr.
Bergman, and Mr. Pappas) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To modify the procedures used by the United States Postal Service for
the closure or consolidation of any post office or any processing and
distribution center, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Protect Postal Performance Act''.
SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON CLOSURE AND CONSOLIDATIONS OF POST OFFICES.
Section 404(d) of title 39, United States Code, is amended--
(1) in paragraph (4)--
(A) by striking ``The Postal Service'' and insert
``(A) The Postal Service''; and
(B) by adding at the end the following:
``(B) During such 60-day period, the Postal Service
shall carry out a public hearing on the closure or
consolidation, which may be attended in-person or
virtually by any members of the public affected by the
closure or consolidation.
``(C) Not later than 7 days after such hearing, the
Postal Service shall publish a summary of the hearing
on the Postal Service's public website, and include in
such summary a description of any comments made or
otherwise submitted at such hearing and the percentage
of such comments that were in support or against the
closure or consolidation.
``(D) Notwithstanding any other provision of this
title, the applicable post office may not be closed or
consolidated until the date that is 180 days after the
date the summary is published under subparagraph
(C).''; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
``(7) Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, a
post office may not be closed or consolidated if such post
office--
``(A) is not located within 15 miles of any other
post office; or
``(B) is the closest post office for a population
of 15,000 individuals or more.''.
SEC. 3. POSTAL SERVICE PROCESSING AND DISTRIBUTION CENTERS;
TRANSPORTATION OPTIMIZATION.
(a) In General.--Chapter 4 of title 39, United States Code, is
amended by adding after section 416 the following:
``Sec. 417. Postal Service processing and distribution centers
``(a) In General.--The United States Postal Service may not close,
consolidate, downgrade, or take any other similar action with respect
to any processing and distribution center in a State if such action
would result in no such center being located in that State in any
geographically non-contiguous region of that State inhabited by more
than 100,000 permanent residents. In this subsection, the term
`geographically non-contiguous region' means an area of a State that is
physically separated from the main body of the State by a significant
body of water or land controlled by another State.
``(b) Limitation on Changes to Mail Processing Facilities.--
``(1) In general.--Notwithstanding any other provision of
law, the Postal Service may not implement or otherwise carry
out any changes to the operations of its mail processing
facilities (including consolidation or partial consolidation,
aggregation of processing, distribution, or delivery
operations) until on or after the date that the Postal
Regulatory Commission issues an advisory opinion on the
proposed facility changes.
``(2) Deadline.--The Postal Regulatory Commission shall
issue the advisory opinion required under paragraph (1) not
later than 120 business days after the date the Postal Service
submits to the Commission a proposed change to any such
facility.
``(3) Other requirements.--The Commission shall issue an
advisory opinion for each processing and distribution center at
which the Postal Service has proposed changes, downsizing, and
consolidations.
``(4) Report.--If an advisory opinion by the Commission
under this subsection determines that a proposed change will
lead to slower on-time mail delivery, the Postal Service shall
publish a report on the Postal Service's public website on
practices and procedures the Postal Service will implement to
ensure mail delivery remains on time. No such changes may be
implemented or otherwise carried out for the period of 180 days
beginning on the date such report is so published.
``(c) Prohibiting on Carrying Out Mail Processing Facility
Review.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Postal Service
may not carry out the United States Postal Service Mail Processing
Facility Review (or any successor program), and no Federal funds
(including amounts in the Postal Service Fund under section 2003) may
be obligated or expended to carry out such Review.
``(d) Limitation of the Closure of Processing and Distribution
Centers in Regions That Are Not Meeting On-Time Delivery Benchmarks.--
During any calendar year, the Postal Service may not close,
consolidate, or otherwise move any operations or services from any
processing and distribution center located within any Postal Service
district that, during anytime within the immediately preceding calendar
year, failed to meet--
``(1) at least 93 percent on-time delivery rate for two-day
single first-class mail; and
``(2) at least 90.3 percent on-time delivery rate for three
to five-day first-class mail.
``(e) Definitions.--In this section--
``(1) the term `processing and distribution center' means a
central mail facility that--
``(A) distributes and dispatches part or all of
both incoming mail and outgoing mail for a designated
service area;
``(B) provides instructions on the preparation of
collection mail, dispatch schedules, and sorting plan
requirements to mailers; and
``(C) is a sectional center facility, a general
mail facility, or a dedicated mail processing facility
without a station or branch; and
``(2) the term `State' means the 50 States and the District
of Columbia.
``Sec. 418. Local transportation optimization and regional
transportation optimization changes
``(a) In General.--The Postal Service may not implement or
otherwise carry out any local transportation optimization (in this
section referred to as `LTO') and regional transportation optimization
(in this section referred to as `RTO') efforts that will decrease the
number of times mail is either picked up or dropped off for any post
office in the country.
``(b) PRC Opinion.--The Postal Service may not proceed with
changing drop off and pick up schedules at post offices as part of the
LTO or RTO plans without requesting a Postal Regulatory Commission
opinion.
``(c) Limitation.--If the Postal Regulatory Commission does not
recommend implementing these changes in an opinion under subsection
(b), the Postal Service may not move forward with LTO or RTO
optimization efforts anywhere in the United States.''.
(b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections for such chapter is
amended by adding after the item relating to section 416 the following:
``417. Postal Service processing and distribution centers.
``418. Local transportation optimization and regional transportation
optimization changes.''.
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