{"id":36338,"date":"2024-09-20T09:44:46","date_gmt":"2024-09-20T14:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=36338"},"modified":"2024-09-20T09:44:46","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T14:44:46","slug":"u-s-rep-mike-bost-r-il-introduced-the-upending-secret-postal-shutdowns-usps-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2024\/09\/20\/u-s-rep-mike-bost-r-il-introduced-the-upending-secret-postal-shutdowns-usps-act\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL) Introduced the Upending Secret Postal Shutdowns (USPS) Act"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><b>WASHINGTON, D.C. <\/b>\u2013 9\/19\/24 &#8211; U.S. Rep. Mike Bost (IL-12) today introduced the Upending Secret Postal Shutdowns (USPS) Act to\u00a0prohibit the U.S. Postal Service from shutting down a post office under the guise of an &#8220;emergency suspension&#8221; without first notifying impacted communities and providing a full justification for the closure.\u00a0Under current law, postal operations can be suspended due to emergencies ranging from staffing shortages to natural disasters, with a loose expectation that service be restored within 280 days.\u00a0Bost\u2019s bill would\u00a0set strict periodic deadlines for public notifications, require community input, and mandate annual reports to Congress on long-term postal shutdowns.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cCommunities rely on the Postal Service for the timely delivery of letters, prescriptions, bills, and other mail,\u201d\u00a0said Bost.\u00a0\u201cWhen a post office closes, especially in a rural area, it hurts the people who depend on it most. My legislation will help clear up the confusion and uncertainty that comes with a postal closure by improving transparency and setting aggressive timelines for communicating with the public about when service will be restored. This is an issue I hear a lot about from my constituents; we can\u2019t rest until we improve postal services in Southern Illinois and across the United States.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Bost reported that his congressional office has received over 250 complaints over the last two years from constituents in nearly every county of his district regarding post office closures and delays. He recently visited USPS\u2019s regional distribution center in St. Louis and met with postal officials in Washington, D.C., to share his constituents concerns and urge an immediate resolution.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>You can read the USPS Act&#8217;s bill text\u00a0<a id=\"LPlnk968173\" title=\"https:\/\/bost.house.gov\/_cache\/files\/1\/6\/1636e562-060e-46d4-9c51-83578e840668\/FE1A0660FFDE282CA1FED42FF788023C.bost---usps-act-text.pdf\" href=\"https:\/\/bost.house.gov\/_cache\/files\/1\/6\/1636e562-060e-46d4-9c51-83578e840668\/FE1A0660FFDE282CA1FED42FF788023C.bost---usps-act-text.pdf\">here<\/a>.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PEN-NEWS.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-29060 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PEN-NEWS-300x176.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"176\" srcset=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PEN-NEWS-300x176.jpg 300w, https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PEN-NEWS.jpg 478w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 9\/19\/24 &#8211; U.S. Rep. Mike Bost (IL-12) today introduced the Upending Secret Postal Shutdowns (USPS) Act to\u00a0prohibit the U.S. Postal Service from shutting down a post office under the guise of an &#8220;emergency suspension&#8221; without first notifying impacted communities and providing a full justification for the closure.\u00a0Under current law, postal operations can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36338"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36339,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36338\/revisions\/36339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}