Both of Missouri’s U.S. Senators, Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo., introduced amendments last week to postal reform legislation currently going through both houses of Congress.
McCaskill’s amendment aims to prevent rural post offices from being closed under the pressure of reducing the U.S. Postal Service budget. Under this plan, the USPS could not close rural post offices at any time in the next two years, while other reforms are enacted to alleviate the service’s budget.
The amendment would also protect rural post offices from closing unless the USPS can provide seniors and persons with disabilities with a substantially similar service. The amendment would ensure the community would not be negatively impacted by the closing, and that the area served by the office in question has broadband internet service and is within 10 miles driving distance of another USPS post office.
“Targeting rural post offices for closure is callous, unnecessary, and irresponsible and doesn’t solve the fiscal problems facing the Postal Service,” McCaskill said in a news release. “Our post offices are more than just brick and mortar—they’re the lifeblood for towns across our state and a source of good jobs in areas hard-hit by the economic downturn.”
According to a speech McCaskill delivered on the Senate floor last Tuesday, 167 communities in Missouri have what are considered rural post offices or mail distributing facilities.
The overall reform legislation includes measures to overhaul the USPS’s budget, including addressing the current requirement that the USPS pre-fund retiree benefits.
Blunt, along with Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., introduced an amendment that would grant rural communities faced with post office closures an advocate in the decision making process.
“As the U.S. Postal Service continues to face serious fiscal problems, we need to consider all possible options before closing post offices and processing centers,” Blunt said in a news release. “And rural communities and small towns in Missouri and across the country that rely on the Postal Service every day deserve to have their voices heard throughout the process.”
McCaskill’s spokesman John LaBombard said the expenses used to run rural post offices constitute only around one percent of the total USPS budget.
“Closing these rural post offices would achieve about one percent of the savings the USPS needs,” LaBombard said. “(McCaskill) is fighting to protect rural communities from losing their post offices—closures which wouldn’t come anywhere near solving the Postal Service’s challenges, but would devastate these small towns.”
The Congressional Budget Office estimates the current legislation would save the USPS about $28 billion in off-budget savings and about $8 billion in on-budget costs in the next 10 years, according to their cost estimate released last month.
