Wyoming’s delegation in Washington D.C. recently introduced a bill to keep some of the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) processing and distribution centers running across the country. That’s despite recent efforts to consolidate to cut costs.
The POSTAL Act would prevent the USPS from closing, consolidating or downgrading those centers, if that change would leave a state without any center at all. That’s been a hot topic in Wyoming and other rural states, in response to the agency’s “Delivering for America” plan.
Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyoming) explained more about the POSTAL Act in a video posted to her social media accounts.
“ The Postal Act is designed to make sure that we are able to retain a processing and distribution center in Wyoming, so that our mail is not going to be processed in Denver and Billings,” she said.
The 10-year plan is focused on cutting costs and modernizing operations, as the agency attempts to dig itself out of a deficit. In 2024, it reported a net loss of $9.5 billion, with $1.8 billion of that being what the agency refers to as “controllable loss.”
Part of that plan includes making changes to the two processing and distribution centers in Wyoming, which are in Cheyenne and Casper. Those two locations wouldn’t close but would stop distributing mail.
But the agency delayed some of the plan’s rollout in May of 2024, including changes to centers in Wyoming. USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy stated that the pause would lift at the start of 2025, but the agency has not yet formally announced that those wheels have started turning again.
An analysis from the Postal Regulatory Commission published this January argued that the Delivering for America plan could significantly delay mail delivery to more rural places. The USPS issued a formal response on Feb. 20.
“While there are many elements of the Advisory Opinion with which we could not agree, we found some areas of common ground that we can and will adopt in our ongoing effort to ensure that the American people and businesses will have a well-functioning and financially sustainable Postal Service that will provide high-quality service to our customers for decades to come, and still within the day ranges of our current service standards,” wrote DeJoy in the letter to the Postal Regulatory Commission.
On Feb. 18, DeJoy announced that he is stepping down after leading the agency since 2020.
Hageman introduced the POSTAL Act in the House with New Hampshire Democrat Chris Pappas. Wyoming senators Cynthia Lummis and John Barrasso did the same in the Senate with New Hampshire Democratic senators Maragaret Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen.
Wyoming’s D.C. delegation introduced similar bills in previous sessions, which did not pass.
Another bill called the INFORM Act would require more transparency from the USPS when it makes changes. Hageman explained in her video on social media.
“ What the INFORM Act does is it requires them to post those changes on the windows or actually in the post offices within the state of Wyoming and elsewhere around the country,” she said.
The INFORM Act is co-sponsored by Maine Democrat Jared Golden.
“USPS is slow to respond to questions from the public, routinely refuses to share information, and gives short notice of new proposals or public comment deadlines,” Golden said in a press release on Hageman’s website. “Mainers, through great effort, have nonetheless successfully fought off closures and consolidation, but it shouldn’t be this hard. I am happy to work with Rep. Hageman on the INFORM Act, to bring greater transparency and give the public more opportunities to speak up and be heard.”
