Office of Rep. Brian Higgins (D-NY) News Release

Congressman Stephen F. Lynch (MA-9) is joining Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-27) in asking the U.S. Postmaster General to remove the Buffalo Mail Processing facility from the list of those slated for closure. Congressman Lynch is a member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, where he serves as Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service and Labor Policy.

“Congressman Lynch understands the struggles of hard-working communities and the devastating economic impact closing the Buffalo facility would have on families and businesses in Western New York,” said Higgins. “We are thankful to add the Congressman’s name to the hundreds of others locally who are fighting to keep the William Street plant open.”

“The Buffalo Processing and Distribution Center plays a key role in western New York’s economy and its closure could have serious economic ramifications for the entire region,” Congressman Stephen F. Lynch said. “Based on the U.S. Postal Service’s own criteria for closing facilities, it makes no sense that the Buffalo facility should be closed. I join with my colleague, Congressman Brian Higgins, in asking that it be removed from consideration for closure.”

Prior to serving in Congress, Lynch worked as an ironworker for 18 years at sites across the country and was eventually elected president of his local union. Congressman Lynch is the son of a postal clerk.

Below is a copy of the letter sent jointly by Congressmembers Higgins and Lynch:

January 26, 2012

The Honorable Patrick R. Donahoe
Postmaster General
475 L’Enfant Plaza SW
Washington D.C. 20260-3500

Dear Postmaster General Donahoe,

We write in strong opposition to the potential closing of the Buffalo Processing and Distribution Center (Buffalo P&DC) and respectfully urge you to remove this site from the United States Postal Service’s list of Area Mail Processing facilities that could be subject to consolidation. Importantly, the Buffalo P&DC plays a vital economic, service, and community role in the Western New York region and its continued operation is essential to the economic vitality of the City of Buffalo and its surrounding areas, all of which depend on this facility as an invaluable source of employment, commercial stimulus, and exceptional delivery standards.

In examining the consolidation and closure of any mail processing or retail facility, we believe that USPS must consider all relevant factors prior to reaching a determination that a site will subject to such action. In particular, due diligence requires that the Postal Service afford maximum consideration to the overall impact of a decision on local residents, postal employees, businesses, and the affected community at-large. Included among the variety of factors that must be taken into account is the economic importance of the facility to the continued vitality of the region. In this regard, the Buffalo PD&C is essential to maintaining economic growth in the City of Buffalo and the greater Western New York area.

Specifically, in September of 2011, the United States Postal Service (USPS) recognized the Buffalo Niagara region as a gold medal award winner for its practices that “create business growth opportunities for the Postal Service.” Given that the Buffalo P&DC currently employs over 700 postal employees and generates significant regional economic activity in terms of labor income and tax revenue, the presence of this facility has been a critical factor behind such economic growth. In addition, with the recent announcement by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, in his State of the State address, that $1 billion will be invested in the Buffalo area for economic development, it is clear that the continued operation of the Buffalo P&DC will be essential as the Western New York region undertakes efforts to enhance economic, business, and employment opportunities in the area. Moreover, this important facility is located in the second-largest city in the State of New York and as such, is integral to USPS’s commitment to providing exceptional delivery to a significant customer base that not only consists of the greater Buffalo residential and business population but also customers in surrounding areas.

Regrettably, a recent Area Mail Processing Feasibility Study for the Buffalo PD&C and an advisory opinion issued by the Postal Regulatory Commission N2001-1 on the USPS’s Retail Access Optimization Initiative indicate that the USPS has not considered several relevant factors before placing the facility on its consolidation study list.

Ruth Goldway, the Chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission stated in respect to the PRC opinion from December of 2011 that “The Commission was unanimous in expressing its concern that the Postal Service’s plan did not and could not, because of a lack of data and analysis, determine the facilities most likely to serve the greatest number, reduce the greatest costs, or enhance the potential for growth or stability of the system.” This advisory opinion in regards to retail locations illustrates a need for greater analysis and data collection by the USPS in their review processes.

In addition, the Area Mail Processing Feasibility Study that was released on December 20, 2011 contained one page of data on the savings to the USPS that closing the Buffalo PD&C would realize. That data was subsequently updated and proven to be contradictory to the original statements of the USPS in terms of total positions impacted, savings in management, transportation, and maintenance, all while providing no data on the economic impact on the community. International commerce and trade are never mentioned in the report though over 30 million pieces of mail from Canada are processed at the facility every week.

We applaud the decision by USPS to place a 5-month moratorium on the consolidation and closure of mail facilities through May 15, 2012. However, given the economic detriment, employee displacement, and disruption of service to the Buffalo Region that would result from the consolidation of the Buffalo P&DC, we again urge you to remove the facility from your list of potential consolidation sites. In the intervening time, we also ask that the consolidation study undertaken by USPS in relation to the Buffalo PD&C includes a review of all relevant data and analytical tools in order to ensure maximum input from postal stakeholders and residents in the Western New York community.

Sincerely,

From the National Association of Postal Supervisors:

Senate Could Take Up Postal Measure Soon

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has told his Democratic colleagues that he intends to schedule floor time in February for the consideration of comprehensive postal reform legislation.  The Senate returns next week from its month-long holiday recess to begin the new session. The House returned this week.

According to Senate staff, Reid’s scheduling plan looks to Senate action on postal reform before mid-February.  It envisions postal reform as the second item of business in the new session, following Senate action on internet piracy legislation. Reid intends to bring the internet legislation to the floor next week, but growing controversy over the legislation is generating significant opposition, potentially scrambling Reid’s scheduling plans.

Meanwhile, the bipartisan team of Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) are readying a postal legislative package for floor action.  Their bill, S. 1789, was approved as amended on November 9 by the Senate Commitee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.  A number of other Senators are likely to offer further amendments when the bill comes to the floor.

Also, action on the payroll tax holiday legislation, which the Congress extended for only two months in December, will also occupy Senate (and House) floor time in February.  Because differing versions were approved by the two chambers, Senate and House conferees will begin to meet next week to start to hammer out the differences.  The current extension expires on February 29.  A crucial part of the House-approved approach toward financing the payroll tax holiday, which NAPS opposes, would increase the FERS and CSRS retirement contributions of current postal and federal employees by 1.5 percent over the next three years.  It also would extend the two-year federal employee pay freeze by an additional year.

Growing Critism of USPS Plant Consolidation on Capitol Hill

In other developments, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), became one of the  latest members of Congress to go on record against the proposed closure of up to 252 of about 461 mail processing facilities.  The USPS plant consolidation plan, which would eliminate nearly 30,000 jobs, has unleashed a flood of criticism from Washington lawmakers.

“This plan has profoundly negative implications for timely and  reliable mail service in northern, western and eastern Maine, a  geographically vast and rural area of our state,” Snowe said in a news  release after visiting an eastern Maine processing and distribution  facility that employs 183 people and is slated for consolidation with  another plant.  She described herself as “unpersuaded” by the merits of the USPS plant consolidation plan, and believes it would “disproportionately slow down mail  delivery to rural areas of Maine.”

Sentiments like these prompted the Postal Service last month to impose a moratorium on  closings of all processing plants and post offices until mid-May,  although closure and consolidation studies will proceed.  The Postal Service is also pursuing a change in service standards that will drop  overnight delivery of first-class mail.  NAPS opposes the proposed change in service standards and has intervened in the Postal Regulatory Commission’s review of the change.  NAPS also favors “right-sizing” of the postal plant network, rather than closure of as significant a number of plants as USPS plans in order to save costs.

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Bruce Moyer

Legislative Counsel to NAPS

From the US Postal Service:

The U.S. Postal Service today asked the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) to expedite consideration of the Postal Service’s plan to make its operations more efficient, reduce costs and ensure the long-term affordability of mail.

The request filed with the PRC calls on the Commission to issue its non-binding advisory opinion on planned Postal Service network and service standard changes by mid-April 2012. The current moratorium on the closing of any Post Office or mail processing facility expires on May 15, 2012. The Postal Service voluntarily agreed to the moratorium in response to congressional requests in the hope it would help facilitate the enactment of comprehensive postal legislation.

The Postal Service had laid out a carefully designed plan to return to profitability while meeting the changing needs of its customers. The plan includes reducing the number of mail processing facilities from 460 today to fewer than 200 by 2013 and revising mail delivery service standards. The network changes will provide more predictable and reliable service and is part of a broader effort to stabilize the Postal Service finances and continue to provide affordable, universal service for generations to come.

The PRC issued a schedule last week that guarantees the Commission will not issue its non-binding advisory opinion until July 10, 2012, at the earliest. The Postal Service would like to move forward with its planned network and service standard changes with the benefit of the PRC’s advisory opinion, which it would need to have well before May 15.

The Postal Service believes that more than four months, from Dec. 5, 2011 to mid-April 2012, is adequate time for the PRC to evaluate and comment on these proposed operational changes.

The request filed with the PRC is available at www.prc.gov.

Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-27) wants answers from the United States Postal Service and he’s going to the top. Frustrated by the lack of data to justify closings and drastic job cuts in Western New York, the Congressman is asking the U.S. Postmaster General for a meeting to discuss the issue.

“I attended the public hearing and the arguments made by some of the hundreds of businesses and customers in the room were much more compelling than anything I have seen or heard from the Postal Service,” said Congressman Higgins. “It seems that we are facing a ‘decide first, justify later’ approach which is not only unfair for communities like Western New York but bad business for the future of the U.S. Postal Service. I look forward to the opportunity to share our community’s story with the Postmaster.”

Below is the text of Congressman Higgins’ letter:

January 12, 2012

Patrick R. Donahoe
Postmaster General
475 L’Enfant Plaza SW
Washington D.C. 20260-3500

Dear Postmaster Donahoe,

I write to request a meeting with you to discuss several pressing concerns. Having participated at the January 4 public meeting regarding the targeted closing of the William Street Processing and Distribution Center in Buffalo, NY, I must bring directly to your attention that the data and analysis submitted by the USPS is inadequate, insulting and far from a compelling justification for the closing of a major postal operation in the second largest city in New York State.

The USPS provided my office with one page that listed anticipated savings without any link to primary source data, criteria used or any justification for the findings. This is unacceptable. The families and businesses that will be irrevocably impacted from this action deserve better that. My office has been actively engaged in this issue, including the fight for the retail operation in Lackawanna, NY, and continues to observe a flawed process devoid of real analysis and a rationalization of the true economic impact on my community. The USPS must not operate under a decide first justify later mentality. Western New York deserves better.

I have communicated with your office on a number of these objections and have found the responses lacking in substance and analysis that make a strong business case justifying these closures. My community of Western New York would be severely impacted by the proposed closure of the Buffalo PD&C. The economic impact of this facility is far reaching and provides a much needed business and growth climate to attract more investment.

My hope is our conversation will lead to a better understanding of the importance of maintaining this postal facility. I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Brian Higgins
Member of Congress

Office of Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-ME) News Release

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) this evening expressed her strenuous opposition to the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) controversial proposal to consolidate the Eastern Maine Processing and Distribution Facility’s mail processing operations from Hampden into its Southern Maine Processing and Distribution Center in Scarborough, under the guise of cost-saving. Participating at a public meeting tonight in Brewer, Senator Snowe called on the Postal Service to reevaluate its plan based on the damaging impact the agency’s actions could have on mail delivery throughout rural areas in western, northern, and eastern Maine.

Senator Snowe said:

"This plan has profoundly negative implications for timely and reliable mail service in northern, western and eastern Maine, a geographically vast and rural area of our state. To this point, Mainers have been given inadequate explanation and information by the Postal Service, and I am still not persuaded that this proposal will achieve the $7.6 million in savings the agency claims; rather, I am convinced it would disproportionately slow down mail delivery to rural areas of Maine, including for our seniors and small businesses. As such, I expressed my opposition to the agency’s proposal as currently structured at tonight’s public meeting, and I urge the Postal Service to reconsider its plan."

BACKGROUND: In her efforts to lead the charge against the USPS’s consolidation proposal, Senator Snowe visited the Eastern Maine Processing and Distribution facility in Hampden on December 20, 2011 to meet with the plant’s manager and employees. During the visit, Senator Snowe expressed her opposition to the plan, and questioned the ability of the Postal Service to save money by shifting jobs from Hampden to Scarborough. She also questioned the logic of having mail travel, for example, from Fort Fairfield down to Scarborough, only to arrive back at its recipient in Madawaska several days later than is presently the case.

The Hampden facility employs 183 people at present. The general public can comment on the USPS proposal until January 26, 2012, by sending their comments to: Consumer & Industry Manager, Northern New England District, 151 Forest Ave., Suite 7026, Portland, Maine 04101-7024.

Washington, DC – (Thursday, January 5, 2012) –Today, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson acknowledged her support for the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) Report on the Postal Service’s Retail Access Optimization Initiative (RAOI). The report outlined significant miscalculations in the USPS’s methodology for indentifying over 3,600 post offices and other retail branches for possible closure.

The Dallas Processing and Distribution Center and four retail branches in the 30th Congressional District are being considered for closure or relocation under the existing RAOI. Several smaller branches in the District have already closed or have been consolidated.

“These recent findings by the Commission align with my initial criticisms,” said Congresswoman Johnson. “Aside from the obvious job implications for tens of thousands of hard-working Americans, this attempt to reduce costs would only drastically cut services for businesses and individuals that rely heavily on the Postal Service, but not actually resolve the agency’s problem of avoiding insolvency.”

Congresswoman Johnson has met with USPS leadership in Dallas and Washington, DC since 2009 to avert any postal closures in the 30th Congressional District. Citing the same concerns as the PRC panel, Congresswoman Johnson has been vocal in her opposition to the method which the post offices were being selected. The USPS has since announced a moratorium on any post office closures until May 15, 2012.

The full report on the Postal Regulatory Commission can be found here.

Congressman Don Manzullo (R-Egan) tonight asked U.S. Postal Service officials to keep open its postal consolidation study and work with him to find alternatives to closing the Rockford sorting center, which would eliminate 200 local jobs and delay mail service to residents and business owners in eight northern Illinois counties.

Manzullo, who addressed USPS officials at tonight’s public comment session on its proposed move of Rockford sorting operations to Madison, Wisconsin, said the Rockford sorting center continues to be one of the most efficient in the nation and should not be closed. He again asked the USPS for information it has been withholding that would help local officials present alternatives to closing Rockford.

“We all know the U.S. Postal Service is facing very troubling times, but it makes no sense to close the most efficient sorting center in the nation, send the jobs from Rockford to Wisconsin, and delay mail delivery to residents and business owners in eight northern Illinois counties,” Manzullo said. “I am asking the USPS to keep the Rockford study open, and continue to work with us to get the data we need to find alternatives to putting 200 more people out of work and delaying mail service in northern Illinois.”

At the meeting, Manzullo presented USPS officials with resolutions of support approved on very short notice by 17 communities in northern Illinois. The closure of the Rockford sorting center would delay mail delivery to the eight counties served by zip codes beginning with 610 and 611. Those counties include Boone, Winnebago, Stephenson, JoDaviess, Carroll, Whiteside, Lee, and Ogle.

In a letter to Postmaster General Pat Donahoe earlier this year, Manzullo explained how he worked with Rockford postal officials during the last consolidation study in 2006 to present alternative information that convinced the Postal Service to abandon its plan to move Rockford mail processing operations to the Chicago suburbs. Local officials again need to see the USPS data comparing operations in Rockford with Madison so they can correct it if necessary.

Manzullo has been working with U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) to seek alternatives to closing the Rockford sorting center. Manzullo, Durbin and Kirk met with Postmaster General Pat Donahoe on Nov. 1 to share their concerns with the potential move of operations to Wisconsin and the damage it would cause to northern Illinois.

The Postal Service Center closure meeting in Springfield MO was a very eye opening success but not for the officials from the Postal Service.

Many locals from Small business owners, to Chamber of Commerce representatives, to Congressmen and Senator representatives, even live animal shippers voiced their concerns and the fact they will feel direct impacts against their businesses.

Read more: USPS Center Closure Meeting | Occupy 417.

From the Queen City Reporter, the newsletter of APWU Local 888 in Springfield MO:

Hubris. That pretty much describes the U.S. Postal Services attitude during the January 4th, public input meeting concerning the closure of the mail processing center in Springfield Missouri. For those unfamiliar with the word, Webster defines it as such:

Hubris means extreme haughtiness, pride or arrogance. Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one’s own competence or capabilities, especially when the person exhibiting it is in a position of power

From the booking of a much too small venue, (approx. 100+ were turned away) to the defective microphone those trying to have their objections heard were required to use, the postal service stacked the deck in its favor. One has to wonder if those in charge were either incompetent or their real agenda is to dismantle the postal service on the way to privatization.

While those that were turned away huddled around cell phones and hung on the tidbits of information that were texted out, those seated, listened (or would have like too) to a presentation by postal service regional director Gail Hendrix. Seems that technical difficulties rendered her presentation un-viewable in parts. Quite a shame since interest had been piqued by a radio and print advertising blitz sponsored by the Local 888 of the American Postal Workers Union.

Those in attendance represented business, public and political interests. Notably absent were major mailer “Bass Pro” and Springfield Mayor Jim O’Neal, who failed seize this opportunity. The Honorable Billy Long, Representative for the 7th District made an appearance and asked, “What do we have to do to make it possible to keep the plant open?” Hendrix was unable to respond. The “Occupy Springfield” movement who had conducted a mock funeral, complete with a casket, the day before at the information picket at the main post office were represented. About a dozen members performed, “mic checks” and added a sense of the unknown to the proceedings. Between them and someone outside banging on the building’s walls trying to get in, Springfield’s finest were called in to ensure order was maintained.

Many postal employees volunteered to give up their seats inside so that members of the public and business community such as West Plains Quill publisher Frank Martin could get in. Martin’s message was clear. ”Having a two- to three-day delivery schedule could kill the Quill.” Six thousand of his subscribers rely on next day delivery of their daily newspaper. One has to wonder just how many people with stories like Martin’s were unable to get in and be heard. Not everyone inside wishing to speak got the opportunity either as the meeting was called to a close near the two hour mark.

Rep Long summed the meeting up by saying, “Sounds to me pretty much like a done deal, they’ve decided what they want.”