Press Releases

Following months of evasive rhetoric from the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) concerning its ill-defined “modernization” plan for the Iron Mountain Processing and Distribution Center in Kingsford, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has committed to pausing all facility reviews of processing centers facing consolidation – including the Kingsford facility – until after January 1, 2025.

Rep. Jack Bergman noted, "The decision today by Postmaster DeJoy to 'delay' changes to the Iron Mountain Processing Center is welcomed news in the short term, but a major cause for concern going forward.

"DeJoy showed today what we have been saying all along – the proposed changes to the Iron Mountain Processing Facility in Kingsford are not founded in reality. The move to 'postpone' ending next-day mail in the U.P. and other rural areas until after the 2024 election seems likely to be nothing short of a political stunt at the expense of rural America."

On April 17, Reps. Bergman (R-MI-01) and Budzinski (D-IL-13) introduced the Protect Postal Performance Act – bipartisan legislation to prohibit USPS from downsizing mail 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.

Recently, Rep. Bergman sent several letters to Postmaster General DeJoy – outlining his deep concerns with USPS’s plan to reduce mail processing operations at Kingsford, and demanding the agency terminate its misguided review of the facility.

Rep. Bergman followed up on these letters in person at the April 1, 2024, public input meeting hosted by USPS, where over one hundred postal workers, business owners, and community members came out to speak out against USPS’s proposed changes to the Kingsford facility.

On April 5, Rep. Bergman sent another letter, once again calling on Postmaster General DeJoy to heed the concerns of the Yoopers in attendance and drop its proposed changes.