Press Releases

This week, Representative Jack Bergman (R-MI-01) and Representative Nikki Budzinski (D-IL-13) introduced the Protect Postal Performance Act – bipartisan legislation to halt the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) consolidation plans for Processing and Distribution Centers (P&DC) located in underperforming postal districts.

“Bureaucrats in the U.S. Postal Service seem to have this misperception that they understand the delivery needs of the Upper Peninsula’s rural communities more than the people actually living there. My constituents rely on the Postal Service for the timely delivery of bills, payments, prescriptions, and other necessities, and they deserve a functional mail service, absent of manufactured delays caused by bureaucratic ineptitude. I thank my colleague, Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski, for co-leading this critical bill – the Protect Postal Performance Act – to halt the Postal Service’s ill-conceived consolidation plans in areas where the agency is already underperforming,” said Rep. Jack Bergman. 

“Postmaster DeJoy has no business reducing mail processing capacity in areas that are already short staffed and struggling to receive mail on time. Today, I introduced bipartisan legislation that will halt these plans in Champaign and Springfield, and in underserviced areas across the country,” said Rep. Budzinski. “I’m grateful to Congressman Jack Bergman for joining me in this important effort to protect local USPS jobs and push back on a misguided effort that could further impact poor postal delivery rates in our communities.”

Rep. Bergman has sent numerous letters to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy raising serious concerns about USPS’ plans to downsize the mail processing facility in Kingsford. The plans could mean worse delivery rates and the relocation of several jobs.

Bergman’s Protect Postal Performance Act would bar the USPS from downsizing processing facilities in regions that are failing to meet the USPS delivery targets of 90.3 percent on-time delivery for three-to-five-day first-class mail and 93 percent on-time delivery for two-day first-class mail. Northern Michigan and the UP currently experience a 75.2 percent on-time delivery rate for three-to-five-day mail and a 91.2 percent on-time delivery rate for two-day mail.

Read the full text of the bill here.