Smith, Members of Congress Write to Boehner, Pelosi On Postal Reform

Washington, DC – Today Congressman Adrian Smith (R-NE) released the following statement after he and sixteen Members of Congress sent a letter to Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi regarding the Postal Service targeting rural postal facilities as a means of addressing its massive budget shortfall:

“There is no question the Postal Service must take decisive action to remain solvent, but it should not do so by arbitrarily cutting rural mail service. Closing rural facilities, for instance, will greatly disrupt service for millions of Americans while achieving only a minimal amount of budgetary savings. As Congress works to produce legislation before the moratorium ends on May 15th, it is vital any proposal preserves universal service while fixing the Postal Service’s bottom line.”

The U.S. Postal Service faces a $238 billion shortfall over the next decade. According to the Postal Regulatory Commission, closing all 10,000 small and rural post offices would save only seven-tenths of one percent of the Postal Service’s operating budget.

The letter, led by Congressional Rural Caucus co-chairman Rep. Adrian Smith (NE-03), was signed by Reps. Denny Rehberg (MT-AL), Cynthia Lummis (WY-AL), Rick Berg (ND-AL), Mark Amodei (NV-02), Rick Crawford (AR-01), David McKinley (WV-01), Renee Ellmers (NC-01), Sam Graves (MO-06), Reid Ribble (WI-08), Alan Nunnelee (MS-01), Steve Pearce (NM-02), Francisco Canseco (TX-23), Cory Gardner (CO-04), Don Young (AK-AL), Kristi Noem (SD-AL), and Tim Huelskamp (KS-01).

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