Tester continues his fight to strengthen Montana’s rural post offices

Senator points out that USPS plan to “cut costs” actually costs more

(U.S. Senate) – Senator Jon Tester is urging the Postmaster General to abandon the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) consolidation plan that would shutter mail processing facilities across the nation and likely cost the Postal Service millions of dollars.

The USPS’s Mail Processing Network Rationalization (MPNR) plan, which began in 2012, has already closed or consolidated more than 140 mail processing facilities nationwide, including six in Montana.

“This plan has been a disaster from the beginning,” Tester said. “Not only did it hurt Montanans who use the Postal Service every day, it’s also costing them money. It’s high time for the Postal Service to finally call off this misguided plan.”

The USPS recently noted that the MPNR plan didn’t save any money in fiscal year 2015, but instead it ended up costing the Postal Service an additional $66 million.

Tester also notes that the closure of processing facilities has created a system in which, “a single piece of mail travels 180 miles round-trip before landing in a post office box a mile away. This cannot be cost-effective.”

In 2012, Tester spearheaded bipartisan legislation to give the Postal Service the flexibility it needs to restructure while protecting service in rural states like Montana. Despite earning 62 votes in the Senate, the plan was never taken up by the House.

Tester’s letter to Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan is available HERE.