To establish new ZIP Codes for certain communities, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, this week we are going to be taking up legislation on H.R. 672, an act to establish new ZIP Codes for certain communities.

This measure is aimed at fixing problems in about eight communities all across the country where the post office's ZIP Code allocation system has just completely fragmented these towns and cities because of the proliferation of ZIP Codes that have occurred and been implemented in some of these towns.

It is a bipartisan bill. I am one of the bipartisan cosponsors. I represent one of those towns, which is Scotland, Connecticut, in eastern Connecticut.

Scotland, Connecticut, is a community that was established back in the 1700s. It was incorporated in the 1800s. It is a small town. The last census was 1,576 people. There are 625 residents in the town.

Mr. Speaker, it is almost hard for people to believe me when I tell them this, but it has six ZIP Codes in a community with 1,500 people. It creates havoc in terms of people doing their ordinary business through the post office.

First Selectman Dana Barrow of the town of Scotland described in a letter to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform:

``Due to the town's ZIP Code configuration, Scotland residents face daily frustration with packages being misdelivered, service providers being unable to find their properties, and digital ordering or registration systems refusing to accept their address information. But the issue goes beyond inconvenience. People have paid taxes to the wrong town and sent their children to the wrong schools. Town party committees and voluntary associations cannot effectively reach residents by mail. Public health statistics seriously understate the burden of disease in our town, and other survey data also misrepresent us. A high percentage of absentee ballot applications that we were required by law to send out . . . were returned--not because the people weren't in town, but because the USPS computer scanning system rejected their addresses. The situation is clearly damaging to us individually and as a community.''

What this bill does is it just simply says for Scotland and a number of other communities that have been identified by the community that basically we are going to unify a ZIP Code for those communities so they don't have to, again, experience what Scotland First Selectman Dana Barrow described.

Last night, the post office actually sent out a letter of opposition to the bill to all Members of the House Chamber. They actually had the nerve to say that passage of this bill would significantly degrade mail service in the affected communities.

Mr. Speaker, it is hard to imagine how the mail service for the people of the town of Scotland could be any worse than the situation that exists today where they have six ZIP Codes for a population of 1,500 people.

Luckily, we have Members of Congress like the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Diaz-Balart) who chairs the committee and who is bringing the bill out later this week. He has the common sense to understand that the post office needs to get their act together and go into a very finite and manageable number of communities and aggregate the ZIP Codes so that people, again, can get the services they rely on.

I am a strong supporter of the post office. It is in the Constitution. It is mandated we have a Postal Service in this country. People depend on it to get their medications, to get important documents, and to receive their monthly Social Security payments.

To have a dysfunctional system that is completely self-inflicted and man-made because of the organization of the post office is just unacceptable.

Mr. Speaker, again, despite the post office's somewhat hysterical, out-of-touch opposition that they announced last night, I am here on the floor to publicly call on all my colleagues to join Mr. Diaz-Balart from the Republican side, myself from the Democratic side, and a host of other cosponsors to get this modest and obviously commonsense bill passed and sent to the Senate and then to the President's desk.

Mr. Speaker, let me first start by thanking the chairman and the ranking member for their fine work.

Mr. Speaker, the ranking member already mentioned some of the issues that we are trying to solve with this bill, and there are so many other communities that this bill will help, including Miami Lakes, which I have the privilege to represent.

Mr. Speaker, this is going to be the third time if it passes--and I hope it will--that we pass this bill out of the House. This bill has a Senate companion, and, Mr. Speaker, it is a bipartisan Senate companion. I want to mention the sponsors: Senator Rick Scott, Senator Joni Ernst, and Senator Alex Padilla.

It deals with a lot of issues that we have already heard about, but it is important to note that those are not small issues for those communities. They are problematic issues.

We have heard from mayors, local elected officials, and constituents for many, many years--I think all of us that this bill is dealing with--but I am referring particularly to Miami Lakes in Miami-Dade County. Unfortunately, the Postal Service has done nothing about it.

Miami Lakes alone has gone through the USPS' boundary review process three times to no avail, which is, again, unfortunate.

While the Postal Service operates, by the way, on a fee-for-service basis and receives no direct appropriations--I want to make sure that everybody understands that--my team, my staff, has talked to the Congressional Budget Office to make sure that there is no score with this. The news is, as I just mentioned, this bill does not score.

I am confident--I sincerely hope, for the people of Miami Lakes and the folks around the country--that the third time will be the charm, that this will become law. I am confident that it will.

I started by thanking the chairman of the committee and his staff. I thank the staff, along with the chairman and the ranking member. I also thank, from my team, Vanessa Scott, who is my staffer who has worked day in and day out. I would be remiss if I didn't thank the Speaker, the majority leader, the whip, and all leadership for all they are doing to get this bill to the floor once again. I thank all the Members whose districts this will benefit for their hard work.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 672 would require the United States Postal Service to designate unique ZIP Codes for a number of communities across the country. This bill aims to address certain issues related to economic development and public safety regulations and mail delivery.

For example, Eastvale is a town in southern California that is home to 69,000 residents. It currently shares two ZIP Codes with neighboring jurisdictions.

Without a unique ZIP Code, Eastvale residents have reported mail delivery issues for delivery of legal notices, code enforcement activities, public outreach, and election mail.

Eastvale residents have also reported higher insurance rates because of errors related to another jurisdiction, disrupting their ability to obtain affordable wildfire insurance.

I appreciate the diligence of Congressman Diaz-Balart, the chair, and the committee staff, and the other Members in ensuring that each town being marked up in today's amendment version of this bill satisfies all the committee's requirements for consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no speakers. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time, and I am prepared to close.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 672 to designate single, unique ZIP Codes for communities across the United States.

H.R. 672, which includes the community of Mills, Wyoming, would resolve longstanding issues that have continually impacted a host of services, ranging from the delivery of mail to confusion for the local fire department and utilities providers, while also complicating economic development.

With mail ZIP Code designation intertwined with Casper, Wyoming, the city has struggled with timely mail delivery, loss of property tax revenue and franchise fees, and incorrect Census counts. Each of these issues poses significant challenges for Mills as it continues to grow, develop, and attract new residents across Wyoming and beyond.

Passage of this bill will go a long way to correct this oversight, not only for Mills but for communities nationwide.

The city of Mills has been a tireless advocate for this legislation, and I am immensely proud to be a cosponsor.

I thank Representative Diaz-Balart and Chairman Comer for their steadfast leadership on this critically important issue, and I support this legislation to resolve these issues for my constituents in Mills.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 672.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 672) to establish new ZIP Codes for certain communities, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this measure.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 672 designates single and unique ZIP Codes for communities across the Nation. There are currently over 41,000 ZIP Codes in the United States. In some cases, ZIP Codes are misaligned with local boundaries. H.R. 672 addresses the concerns of various localities and establishes new ZIP Codes for communities across the Nation.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Diaz-Balart), the bill's sponsor, for putting this bill together.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Diaz-Balart), the sponsor of the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Wyoming (Ms. Hageman).

Mr. Speaker, I urge passage, and I yield back the balance of my time.