Protecting our Rural Post Offices

According to Congressman Joe Baca, "The Postal Service's unmatched ability to reach every household and business in America six days a week is a vital part of the nation's infrastructure." I agree and also think a small town post office can often serve as the backbone of a community.

In an effort to save money, the Postal Service had proposed closing thousands of post offices predominantly located in rural areas. The backlash from our rural communities was enormous. The USPS has backed off its plan to close these facilities and instead wants to reduce hours at most of them.

First of all, I am pleased that USPS heard the voices across rural America that spoke out against proposed closings. There were 3700 post offices nationwide studied for closure and those will be included in this new plan. In total, USPS will look at 13,000 locations for reduced hours.

Closing a post office in a small town is not the same as closing one in an urban community. The daily service is sometimes the only lifeline that many residents have for checks or prescriptions.

Throughout this process, I'm asking the postal service to listen closely to a community's feedback through public meetings and surveys. USPS should make customer convenience a priority by keeping facilities open during peak hours and closely examine potential service reductions in areas seeing population growth. They also must ensure the data used to determine any changes is up-to-date and accurate.

It's important that those affected by these changes get treated fairly, no matter where they live.

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