WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Representatives Nikki Budzinski (D-IL-13) and Jack Bergman (R-MI-01) introduced the Protect Postal Performance Act – bipartisan legislation to halt plans to consolidate U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Processing and Distribution Centers (P&DCs) if they are located in underperforming postal districts. Facilities in Champaign and Springfield have been recommended for downsizing despite the region’s dismal on-time-delivery rates. 

“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 Congresswoman 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.”

“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 Congressman Bergman. 

Congresswoman Budzinski and Congresswoman Mary Miller (R-IL-15) have sent two letters to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy raising serious concerns about USPS plans to downsize the Champaign and Springfield Processing and Distribution Centers. The plans could mean worse delivery rates and the relocation of dozens of jobs to the Chicago and St. Louis areas. Budzinski also joined a letter with Senator Durbin, Senator Duckworth and other members of the Illinois delegation with concerns about what the USPS plans could mean for mail delivery across the state.

Budzinski’s Protect Postal Performance Act would bar the USPS from considering facility downsizing in regions that aren’t meeting the USPS delivery targets of 90.3% on-time delivery for three to five-day first-class mail and 93% on-time delivery for two-day first-class mail. Downstate Illinois currently experiences a 64.2% on-time delivery rate for three-to-five-day delivery options and an 84.7% on-time delivery rate for two-day mail. 

Full text of the Protect Postal Performance Act can be found here.

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