April 12, 2013
The Honorable Patrick R. Donahoe
Postmaster General
475 L'Enfant Plaza, SW
Washington, D.C. 20260
Dear Postmaster General Donahoe:
As members of the Arizona delegation we are writing to oppose the recent announcement to accelerate the closure of the Tucson Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC) from 2014 to 2013. To this end, we would like to request a meeting with you the week of April 15th or soon thereafter to discuss the impact the consolidation proposal will have on Tucson and the State of Arizona.
The closure of the Tucson P&DC would leave one of the nation's fastest growing populations with only one processing facility. By any measure, this represents an unwise deployment of scarce resources. With the recently announced plan to accelerate the timeframe to 2013, we are seeking answers to the following questions:
What are the factors you considered to justify moving the closure of the Tucson P&DC from 2014 to 2013?
What impact would Congressional action on a Postal Reform bill have on the decision to accelerate the timeframe?
What impact will this have on the workforce and what plans do you have in place for the employees?
The business community in Southern Arizona would be disproportionately impacted by this decision. What plans do you have in place to ensure they will not lose bulk mailing discounts?
We are concerned that the decision to close the Tucson Processing & Distribution Center has been made on an arbitrary basis without consideration of complete factors and criteria on its impact on the State as a whole. Furthermore, your effort to continue to pursue closure outside of a strategy for comprehensive legislative reform poses many real and varied threats to our local economy and quality of life. We look forward to meeting in person in order to discuss the issues in greater detail.
Sincerely,
Raúl M. Grijalva
Member of Congress
Ron Barber
Member of Congress
Ed Pastor
Member of Congress
Kyrsten Sinema
Member of Congress
Ann Kirkpatrick
Member of Congress