The U.S. Postal Service: Common Questions About Post Office Closures

(2) In July , the USPS declared that it might close 3, post offices, which would.
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Other proceedings might examine service complaints, proposed nationwide changes to service, proposals for new products and services, or suggestions for new rules and procedures. In any case, PRC proceedings are judicial in nature, with strict rules of procedure and practice. Proceedings are conducted to define the issues, clarify the facts and ensure due process for all parties so that fair and timely decisions are reached.

When the PRC establishes a docket it assigns it a unique identification tag that indicates the specific proceeding, the nature of the issue being examined, and the fiscal year in which the proceeding began.

The nature of the proceeding is abbreviated by a letter code. The letter code is then followed by the current year and the number of the case for that year. In view of the judicial nature of Commission proceedings and to ensure that individual and household customers are represented, an Officer of the Commission is designated to represent the interests of the general public in public proceedings that come before the Commission.

Each line has its own regulations and pricing rules that are administered by the Commission. The new postal law recognized that the Postal Service might need to raise market-dominant prices above the CPI-U price cap due to extraordinary or exceptional circumstances. Among other requirements, the Postal Service proposal must: Upon receiving an exigent rate proposal from the Postal Service, the Commission will establish a docket, provide for public comment and conduct a hearing on the record.

Interested parties may suggest relevant questions to the Commission that might be posed during the hearing. The Commission will issue its decision within 90 days of the Postal Service filing. For current postal prices please click here. If you are inquiring about price proposals that currently are pending before the Commission, please refer to the appropriate docket, which can be found among the open dockets listed on the Commission's page: Individuals may file their concerns and views in response to a Commission request for comments when a postage rate increase proposal is pending before the Commission.

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These comments will be made a part of the official record and can serve to highlight issues — such as unfair or unlawful increases - that can be addressed during the review. It should be noted, however, that the postal law sought to provide the Postal Service with increased pricing flexibility and to promote simpler, quicker and more efficient process for changing postage prices.

So long as the postal service meets its statutory requirements, the Commission does not have authority to deny or amend the price proposals. Privacy Policy Accessibility Sitemap. Frequently Asked Questions The Commission. What authority does the PRC have?

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Price changes Service standards and service performance Financial accounting and reporting Proposed nationwide changes in service Customer complaints Overall compliance with the PAEA The PRC also issues regular and special studies such as: Subpoena power Authority to direct the Postal Service to adjust rates and to take other remedial actions, and Power to levy fines in cases of deliberate noncompliance by the Postal Service with applicable postal laws The PRC also: Hears Appeals regarding Post Office Closings.

In and , the U. Approximately 4, retail facilities in rural, suburban, and urban areas could have been closed. In May , the agency apparently changed course. The agency did not, however, state whether it would continue to shutter post offices in non-rural areas, nor did it provide an estimate of how many post offices it needs to serve the public. Thus, how many post offices may be closed in the coming years remains unclear. However, the USPS differentiates among several categories of postal facilities, including post offices, post office branches and stations, community post offices, and contract postal units.

Congress long has permitted the USPS considerable discretion to decide how many post offices to erect and where to place them. Congress also requires the USPS to provide the public with access to retail postal services e.

The U.S. Postal Service: Common Questions About Post Office Closures

The USPS must notify the affected public and hold a day comment period prior to closing a post office. Sixty days after it has made a closure decision, the USPS may shut down a post office. At the time of the publication of this report, three bills in the th Congress carry provisions that address post offices and the public's access to retail postal services, including H. Colloquially, the term "post office" often is employed to refer to any place where stamps are sold and postal services are provided by USPS employees.

Both federal law and the USPS's rules prescribe a post office closure process, which takes at least days. Post offices, branches, stations, community and contract post offices all offer to the public a range of postal services. They are where many individuals go to buy stamps and ship packages. The USPS, however, administratively differentiates the types of retail postal facilities that conduct these same activities:. Each post office is managed by a postmaster; post office branches and stations are not.

Branches and stations instead have managers who are under the direction of postmasters. Herein, the term "USPS retail postal facilities" will encompass all five of the aforementioned postal facilities—post offices, post office branches, post office stations, community post offices, and contract postal units. Figure 1 presents data on the number of facilities from FY through FY Over time, the USPS has altered the terms used to refer to some of these facilities. Hence, Figure 1 and Table 1 present the retail postal facilities data as compiled into three categories: Figure 1 and Table 1 indicate that the total number of USPS retail postal facilities has declined steadily.

The number of POs has dropped It is unclear how many retail postal facilities the USPS intends to close in the coming years. This uncertainty is the product of shifting USPS plans in recent years. The agency also has not stated how many post offices it needs to serve the public. At the time, the USPS said that some of these retail facilities could be closed or replaced by "village post offices.

As proposed, a village post office would not provide other services, such as passport registration, money orders, and non-uniform parcel shipping. Currently, the USPS has more than 64, third-party postal retail locations.

Post office closures: What happens if a town has no post office?

According to the data used to create Figure 1 , the number of retail postal facilities has decreased by 1, between FY and FY Previously, postal services had been provided by the U. Members were involved in many aspects of the USPOD's operations, including the selection of managers e.

Under this configuration, the Post Office had operational difficulties and developed a reputation for incompetence and corruption. Postal Service, an "independent establishment of the executive branch" 39 U.

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Congress assigned the USPS the "general duty" to "maintain an efficient system of collection, sorting, and delivery of the mail nationwide" 39 U. In order to carry out this obligation, the law gives the USPS the "specific powers" to. This "public service obligation," as it often is termed, is located in the PRA's chapters on "postal policy" 39 U.

Additionally, Congress has underscored the USPS's duty to serve less densely populated areas by including a provision in annual appropriation laws that reads, "none of the funds provided in this Act shall be used to consolidate or close small rural and other small post offices in [this] fiscal year. Federal postal law sets forth the basic rules by which the USPS may proceed to close a post office. The USPS must "provide adequate notice of its intention to close or consolidate such post office at least 60 days prior to the proposed date of such closing or consolidation to persons served by such post office to ensure that such persons will have an opportunity to present their views" 39 U.

If the USPS decides to move forward with the closure, it must notify the persons served by the post office of its decision and the findings used to arrive at this decision. The USPS must wait at least 60 more days before proceeding with the closure, and any person served by the post office slated for closure may appeal the closure to the PRC, which has up to days to consider the appeal.

It may close a retail facility 60 days after it makes its closure announcement. The PRC may fault the USPS's decision to close a post office only if the PRC finds the decision to be " A arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with the law; B without observance of procedure required by law; or C unsupported by substantial evidence on the record" 39 U. The USPS long has had a separate "emergency suspension" process that it may employ to immediately cease service at a retail facility without following the aforementioned closure process.

Post office closures: What happens if a town has no post office? - leondumoulin.nl

As noted in the previous section of this report, a member of the public may appeal a post office closure to the PRC. The current USPS's post office closure regulations continue the USPS's long-standing position that it will participate in appeals only if the facility closed is a post office as opposed to a post office branch or station. Federal statute also provides another instance in which the PRC may play a role in the closure process.

In making its various post office closure announcements, the USPS did not indicate whether any employees would lose their positions. One media report quoted the USPS as saying 4, employees would be affected by the closures, but did not clarify how many would lose their positions. The USPS's May announcement concerning its rural post office preservation effort provided no estimate of the number of possible job eliminations. Approximately 21, postmasters may be offered retirement and early retirement incentives, although it is unclear how many will accept the USPS's offer.

At the time of the publication of this report, three bills with post office closure related provisions had been introduced into the th Congress— H. The property disposition changes proposed by H. Senator Bernard Sanders introduced S. In the th Congress, more than two dozen bills carried provisions related to the USPS's post offices and retail service to the public.