Protecting Our Rural Post Offices Act of 2011

Mr. Speaker, in fiscal year 2011, the United States Postal Service brought in $65.7 billion in revenue but spent $70.6 billion. When counting a $5.5 billion mandatory payment to fund retiree health benefits, which they would have defaulted on already were it not for the extensions on the payment, the postal service ran a deficit of $10.6 billion.

In an attempt to cut costs, the postal service has announced that it's considering closing over 3,600 post offices, the large majority of which are rural. By the postal service's own numbers, they would only save $200 million annually if they were to close each of these post offices.

This is kind of like asking a family of four that makes $65,700 a year and adds $10,600 in credit card, and then only cuts $200 from their annual budget to get their finances under control.

Last month I visited the Grubbs and Sedgwick post offices, two of the 100 post offices that are being considered for closure in my rural district. Residents in both towns told me about the important role that their post office plays in their communities.

In order to prevent the post office from unfairly targeting rural communities, I recently introduced H.R. 3370, the Protecting our Rural Post Offices Act of 2011. The legislation would prevent the postal service from closing any post office that does not have an alternate post office within 8 miles driving.

Mr. Speaker, this week the postal service announced a new strategy to keep rural post offices open. My district in Arkansas could have lost as many as 100 post offices.

This new plan from the postal service is not perfect. The retail window at many post offices will have limited operating hours. However, access to the retail lobby and post office boxes will remain unchanged. More importantly, towns will keep their ZIP codes, and community identities will be preserved.

In November of 2011, I introduced H.R. 3370, Protecting Our Rural Post Offices Act, which prohibits the postal service from closing rural post offices that do not have an alternative office within 8 miles. Now that the postal service has announced plans to keep all post offices open, Congress can enact reforms that will ensure rural Americans no longer have to worry about access to mail services.

So many of the challenges we face in Washington are not Democrat versus Republican; rather, urban versus rural interests. In small communities across Arkansas and across the country, the post office represents the town identity and lets the world know the community exists. If post offices were to completely close and small communities no longer had their own ZIP codes, cities' identities would be lost. For my part, I will continue efforts to ensure rural Arkansas communities keep access to postal services.