{"id":38055,"date":"2025-06-20T09:35:43","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T14:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=38055"},"modified":"2025-06-20T09:35:43","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T14:35:43","slug":"franklin-diaz-balart-introduce-usps-transparency-and-accountability-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2025\/06\/20\/franklin-diaz-balart-introduce-usps-transparency-and-accountability-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Franklin, Diaz-Balart Introduce USPS Transparency and Accountability Act"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>6\/18\/25 &#8211; Last week, U.S. Representatives Scott Franklin (FL-18) and Mario Diaz-Balart (FL-26) introduced the Post Office Closure Accountability Act to improve transparency in how the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) handles post office closures.<\/p>\n<p>The Post Office Closure Accountability Act would require USPS to notify communities, local officials and Members of Congress of any post office closure, including those classified as \u201ctemporary suspensions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Under current law, USPS is only required to report permanent closures through the Section 404(d) process. However, the agency has increasingly used the \u201ctemporary suspension\u201d designation to bypass these requirements, leaving communities uncertain about the future of vital local postal services.<\/p>\n<p>This bill closes that loophole by ensuring affected communities receive timely and transparent updates, helping restore public trust in one of our most relied-upon federal services.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe U.S. Postal Service must be accountable and transparent to the people it serves,\u201d said Congressman Scott Franklin. \u201cOur constituents depend on timely mail delivery. It\u2019s particularly important when it involves critical items like prescriptions, legal paperwork or financial documents. If a post office shuts down, whether permanently or temporarily, people deserve fair notice so they can plan accordingly. This bill closes a loophole and helps restore confidence in one of our most relied-upon public services.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am proud to cosponsor this bill to ensure that the USPS remains accountable to the customers it serves and that mail delivery remains timely,\u201d said Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart. \u201cThis legislation is a direct response to the lack of communication and transparency we\u2019ve all experienced from USPS. Families, small businesses, veterans, first responders, and seniors should be notified in advance before a post office shuts down its operations. Individuals expecting important and time-sensitive mail, such as U.S. passports, life-saving medication, legal and financial documents, must be given the opportunity to make preparations ahead of time so that they can continue to receive their mail without interruption.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/franklin.house.gov\/UploadedFiles\/Post_Office_Closure_Accountability_Act.pdf\">here <\/a>for the full bill text.<\/p>\n<p><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><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>6\/18\/25 &#8211; Last week, U.S. Representatives Scott Franklin (FL-18) and Mario Diaz-Balart (FL-26) introduced the Post Office Closure Accountability Act to improve transparency in how the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) handles post office closures. The Post Office Closure Accountability Act would require USPS to notify communities, local officials and Members of Congress of any post [&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-38055","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\/38055","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=38055"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38056,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38055\/revisions\/38056"}],"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=38055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}