HR1473-119

What This Bill Does

This bill expands the requirements that the United States Postal Service (USPS) must follow when closing facilities. Currently, USPS must meet certain requirements before closing a post office. This bill extends those same requirements to processing centers, shipping facilities, delivery centers, distribution facilities, and other facilities that support post offices.

Who Benefits and How

Postal workers and communities that rely on USPS facilities benefit from this bill. By requiring USPS to follow stricter procedures before closing any facility (not just post offices), workers gain more job security and communities get stronger protections against losing postal services. Communities served by processing and distribution centers will have more notice and opportunity to respond before facilities are closed.

Who Bears the Burden and How

The USPS bears the administrative burden of this bill. The agency must now apply closure procedures to a much wider range of facilities, which means more paperwork, public notice requirements, and approval processes before consolidating or closing processing centers, distribution facilities, and other support facilities. This could slow down USPS's ability to restructure operations or reduce costs through facility closures.

Key Provisions

• Expands facility closure requirements from just "post offices" to include "acceptance, processing, shipping, delivery, distribution, or other facility that is owned or operated by the Postal Service that supports 1 or more post offices"
• Applies existing Section 404(d) requirements (public notice, community impact analysis, etc.) to all types of postal facilities
• Prevents USPS from bypassing closure requirements by targeting processing or distribution facilities instead of post offices themselves