119-hr2103

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2103 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 H. R. 2103

 To modify the procedures used by the United States Postal Service for 
 the closure or consolidation of any post office or any processing and 
 distribution center, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 March 14, 2025

 Ms. Budzinski (for herself, Ms. Hageman, Mr. Golden of Maine, Mr. 
 Bergman, and Mr. Pappas) introduced the following bill; which was 
 referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

 To modify the procedures used by the United States Postal Service for 
 the closure or consolidation of any post office or any processing and 
 distribution center, and for other purposes.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 This Act may be cited as the ``Protect Postal Performance Act''.

SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON CLOSURE AND CONSOLIDATIONS OF POST OFFICES.

 

Section 404
            (d) of title 39, United States Code, is amended--

    (1) in paragraph

    (4) --
        (A) by striking ``The Postal Service'' and insert 
 ``
        (A) The Postal Service''; and
        (B) by adding at the end the following:
 ``
        (B) During such 60-day period, the Postal Service 
 shall carry out a public hearing on the closure or 
 consolidation, which may be attended in-person or 
 virtually by any members of the public affected by the 
 closure or consolidation.
 ``
            (C) Not later than 7 days after such hearing, the 
 Postal Service shall publish a summary of the hearing 
 on the Postal Service's public website, and include in 
 such summary a description of any comments made or 
 otherwise submitted at such hearing and the percentage 
 of such comments that were in support or against the 
 closure or consolidation.
 ``
            (D) Notwithstanding any other provision of this 
 title, the applicable post office may not be closed or 
 consolidated until the date that is 180 days after the 
 date the summary is published under subparagraph
            (C) .''; and

    (2) by adding at the end the following:
 ``

    (7) Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, a 
 post office may not be closed or consolidated if such post 
 office--
 ``
        (A) is not located within 15 miles of any other 
 post office; or
 ``
        (B) is the closest post office for a population 
 of 15,000 individuals or more.''.

SEC. 3. POSTAL SERVICE PROCESSING AND DISTRIBUTION CENTERS; 
 TRANSPORTATION OPTIMIZATION.

    (a) In General.--Chapter 4 of title 39, United States Code, is 
amended by adding after 

section 416 the following:
``

Sec. 417. Postal Service processing and distribution centers
 ``

    (a) In General.--The United States Postal Service may not close, 
consolidate, downgrade, or take any other similar action with respect 
to any processing and distribution center in a State if such action 
would result in no such center being located in that State in any 
geographically non-contiguous region of that State inhabited by more 
than 100,000 permanent residents. In this subsection, the term 
`geographically non-contiguous region' means an area of a State that is 
physically separated from the main body of the State by a significant 
body of water or land controlled by another State.
 ``

    (b) Limitation on Changes to Mail Processing Facilities.--
 ``

    (1) In general.--Notwithstanding any other provision of 
 law, the Postal Service may not implement or otherwise carry 
 out any changes to the operations of its mail processing 
 facilities (including consolidation or partial consolidation, 
 aggregation of processing, distribution, or delivery 
 operations) until on or after the date that the Postal 
 Regulatory Commission issues an advisory opinion on the 
 proposed facility changes.
 ``

    (2) Deadline.--The Postal Regulatory Commission shall 
 issue the advisory opinion required under paragraph

    (1) not 
 later than 120 business days after the date the Postal Service 
 submits to the Commission a proposed change to any such 
 facility.
 ``

    (3) Other requirements.--The Commission shall issue an 
 advisory opinion for each processing and distribution center at 
 which the Postal Service has proposed changes, downsizing, and 
 consolidations.
 ``

    (4) Report.--If an advisory opinion by the Commission 
 under this subsection determines that a proposed change will 
 lead to slower on-time mail delivery, the Postal Service shall 
 publish a report on the Postal Service's public website on 
 practices and procedures the Postal Service will implement to 
 ensure mail delivery remains on time. No such changes may be 
 implemented or otherwise carried out for the period of 180 days 
 beginning on the date such report is so published.
 ``
            (c) Prohibiting on Carrying Out Mail Processing Facility 
Review.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Postal Service 
may not carry out the United States Postal Service Mail Processing 
Facility Review (or any successor program), and no Federal funds 
(including amounts in the Postal Service Fund under 

section 2003) may 
be obligated or expended to carry out such Review.
 ``
            (d) Limitation of the Closure of Processing and Distribution 
Centers in Regions That Are Not Meeting On-Time Delivery Benchmarks.--
During any calendar year, the Postal Service may not close, 
consolidate, or otherwise move any operations or services from any 
processing and distribution center located within any Postal Service 
district that, during anytime within the immediately preceding calendar 
year, failed to meet--
 ``

    (1) at least 93 percent on-time delivery rate for two-day 
 single first-class mail; and
 ``

    (2) at least 90.3 percent on-time delivery rate for three 
 to five-day first-class mail.
 ``

    (e) 

=== Definitions. ===
-In this section--
 ``

    (1) the term `processing and distribution center' means a 
 central mail facility that--
 ``
        (A) distributes and dispatches part or all of 
 both incoming mail and outgoing mail for a designated 
 service area;
 ``
        (B) provides instructions on the preparation of 
 collection mail, dispatch schedules, and sorting plan 
 requirements to mailers; and
 ``
            (C) is a sectional center facility, a general 
 mail facility, or a dedicated mail processing facility 
 without a station or branch; and
 ``

    (2) the term `State' means the 50 States and the District 
 of Columbia.
``

Sec. 418. Local transportation optimization and regional 
 transportation optimization changes
 ``

    (a) In General.--The Postal Service may not implement or 
otherwise carry out any local transportation optimization (in this 
section referred to as `LTO') and regional transportation optimization 
(in this section referred to as `RTO') efforts that will decrease the 
number of times mail is either picked up or dropped off for any post 
office in the country.
 ``

    (b) PRC Opinion.--The Postal Service may not proceed with 
changing drop off and pick up schedules at post offices as part of the 
LTO or RTO plans without requesting a Postal Regulatory Commission 
opinion.
 ``
            (c) Limitation.--If the Postal Regulatory Commission does not 
recommend implementing these changes in an opinion under subsection

    (b) , the Postal Service may not move forward with LTO or RTO 
optimization efforts anywhere in the United States.''.

    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections for such chapter is 
amended by adding after the item relating to 

section 416 the following:

``417. Postal Service processing and distribution centers.
``418. Local transportation optimization and regional transportation 
 optimization changes.''.
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