Postal service in small towns and rural communities would be maintained and improved under a new bill introduced by U.S. Senator McCaskill.
McCaskill is backing the Rural Postal Act of 2015, a bill that aims to improve postal service, delivery times, and standards in rural communities that have been disproportionately affected by cuts to the United States Postal Service. The bill--sponsored by Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and also cosponsored by Jon Tester of Montana--would restore overnight delivery, return a faster First-Class mail standard, make six-day delivery permanent, and enact strict criteria the Postal Service would have to meet before closing a post office to ensure that rural communities are still able to easily access the mail system.
"Restoring critical delivery benchmarks such as overnight delivery and First-Class mail standards, would help ensure that our small towns and rural communities get the same high level of postal service that folks in urban areas enjoy," said McCaskill, who was born in Rolla, Mo. and is a senior member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. "Fighting for all Missourians' access to consistent, reliable postal service is personal for me, and it's a goal I'm not giving up on."
Specifically, McCaskill's bill would:
Improve Mail Service Standards -- The bill would make sure mail reaches its destination faster by restoring stronger service standards, and placing a two-year moratorium on the closure of additional mail processing plants.
Meet the Needs of Rural Postal Customers -- The bill would permanently preserve six-day mail delivery.
Protect Rural Post Offices -- The bill would protect rural post offices from closures, require specific procedures for reducing operating hours at rural post offices, and enable communities to formally petition the Postal Service to undo closures or reductions in hours.
McCaskill has led the charge to preserve rural post offices, preserve postal delivery standards, and enact urgently needed reforms to the Postal Service--reforms which the U.S. House of Representatives has refused to pass. She recently signed on to a request for the federal government's top watchdog to review the Postal Services' calculation of delivery times and standards, and also helped win a one-year moratorium on postal closings until the impact of those closings is fully understood.
Earlier in the year McCaskill co-hosted a bipartisan roundtable on rural postal issues to raise awareness about the numerous challenges facing rural post offices and to urge action on the part of both the U.S. Postal Service and her Congressional colleagues. McCaskill also participated in a roundtable on postal services in the digital age, in which she highlighted the need for the U.S. Postal Service to adapt to changes in technology in a way that takes into account smaller cities, towns and rural communities.
McCaskill also recently met with the President and Vice President of the Missouri Rural Letter Carriers to discuss their joint efforts to maintain delivery standards and combat the effects of mail processing facility closures.