FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Nearly two dozen members of Congress, including Representative Steve Womack (AR-3), sent Postmaster General Louis DeJoy a letter opposing the United States Postal Service's (USPS) new plan to consolidate facilities across the country.
Of these facilities, USPS confirmed the Fayetteville distribution center will transition to a local processing center as a part of the Delivering for America Plan (DFA). As a result of this transition, the Fayetteville Local Processing Center will use Oklahoma City as its new Processing and Distribution Center.
USPS says the plan will "modernize" its system to reach a 95% on-time delivery.
"There will be no service impacts with the implementation of these changes," USPS said. "Mail will be processed in Oklahoma City on the day it is collected and returned to Northwest Arkansas in sufficient time for on-time delivery."
However, members of Congress say they are "skeptical" of the new plan and believe it will do the opposite.
"These proposals dismantle parts of the Postal Service’s robust network that helps distribute mail across the country and places outgoing sorting into more distant facilities," the letter said. "The result of this change is that mail will need to travel farther from its origin to its sorting, creating inefficiencies in the system, especially for local mail."
Although Fayetteville's location has not completed its transition, a facility in Virginia has officially been converted into a Regional Processing and Distribution Center.
According to the letter, the USPS Office of Inspector General reviewed the new center's performance since opening. The inspector's review said the recent changes have "contributed to a decrease in service performance for the Richmond region that continued four months after launch."
Congress members say this report should have halted USPS's new plan and caused a review, but they have continued to announce more facility conversions despite the concerns of community members.
"These consolidation proposals never have had any discernible support from local communities," the letter said. "On the contrary, we have heard strong opposition to these efforts from USPS customers, community leaders, local businesses, and postal employees. Rather than marching forward with these plans and offering short and vague statements dismissing concerns, the Postal Service should be communicating why the organization believes these changes are beneficial and what the specific impact of the changes will be to mail service."
Instead, they asked DeJoy to reconsider consolidating facilities.
"The robust nature of the Postal Service’s current network is its strength, not its weakness," the letter said. "To ensure that our constituents continue to receive reliable service, we urge you to reconsider these consolidation announcements."
Other Congress members who signed the letter: Sen. Susan Collins, Sen. Jeffrey Merkley, Sen. Joe Manchin III, Rep. Jack Bergman, Sen. Ron Wyden, Rep. Mark Alford, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Rep. Mike Ezell, Rep. Eric Sorensen, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, Sen. Angus King Jr., Rep. Nikki Budzinski, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Sen. Jacky Rosen, Rep. Chris Pappas, Sen. Peter Welch, Rep. Jared Golden, and Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester.
To read the full letter to DeJoy, click here.
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