[Senate Report 115-329]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
Calendar No. 561
115th Congress } {
SENATE
Report
2d Session } { 115-329
_______________________________________________________________________
POST OFFICE DISCONTINUANCE ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2017
__________
R E P O R T
of the
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND
GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
to accompany
S. 1204
TO AUTHORIZE THE UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE TO
CARRY OUT EMERGENCY SUSPENSIONS OF POST OFFICES IN
ACCORDANCE WITH CERTAIN PROCEDURES, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
September 4, 2018.--Ordered to be printed
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
79-010 WASHINGTON : 2018
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin, Chairman
JOHN McCAIN, Arizona CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri
ROB PORTMAN, Ohio THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware
RAND PAUL, Kentucky HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota
JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma GARY C. PETERS, Michigan
MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire
JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota KAMALA D. HARRIS, California
STEVE DAINES, Montana DOUG JONES, Alabama
Christopher R. Hixon, Staff Director
Gabrielle D'Adamo Singer, Chief Counsel
Jennifer L. Selde, Professional Staff Member
Margaret E. Daum, Minority Staff Director
Charles A. Moskowitz, Minority Senior Legislative Counsel
Laura W. Kilbride, Chief Clerk
Calendar No. 561
115th Congress } {
SENATE
Report
2d Session } { 115-329
======================================================================
POST OFFICE DISCONTINUANCE ACCOUNTABILITY
ACT OF 2017
_______
September 4, 2018.--Ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Johnson, from the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs, submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany S. 1204]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs, to which was referred the bill (S. 1204) to authorize
the United States Postal Service to carry out emergency
suspensions of post offices in accordance with certain
procedures, and for other purposes, having considered the same,
reports favorably thereon with an amendment in the nature of a
substitute and recommends that the bill, as amended, do pass.
CONTENTS
Page
I. Purpose and Summary..............................................1
II. Background and Need for the Legislation..........................2
III. Legislative History..............................................4
IV. Section-by-Section Analysis......................................5
V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact..................................5
VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate........................6
VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the bill, as Reported............6
I. Purpose and Summary
The purpose of S. 1204, the Post Office Discontinuance
Accountability Act of 2018, is to establish procedures that the
United States Postal Service (Postal Service) must follow when
suspending operations at post offices in cases of emergencies.
II. Background and the Need for Legislation
The Postal Service is an independent government agency,
established to provide postal services to the United States
which are paid for by customers through postage rate income.\1\
In addition to receiving, transmitting, and delivering mail
throughout the United States, the Postal Service is responsible
for establishing and maintaining ``postal facilities of such
character and in such locations, that postal patrons throughout
the Nation will, consistent with reasonable economies of postal
operations, have ready access to essential postal
services.''\2\ To fulfill this responsibility, Congress
provided the Postal Service authority to determine the need for
post offices and postal facilities.\3\
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\1\39 U.S.C. Sec. Sec. 101(d), 201 (2008).
\2\39 U.S.C. Sec. 403(b)(3) (1979).
\3\39 U.S.C. Sec. 404 (a)(3) (2006).
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There are limits to this authority. Before the Postal
Service may close or consolidate a post office, it must follow
specific procedures outlined in section 404(d) of title 39,
United States Code. First, the Postal Service must consider a
number of factors regarding the closure or consolidation
including: the impact of the action on the community served by
the post office and the employees of the post office; the
ability of the Postal Service to continue to provide effective
and regular postal services to rural areas after the proposed
action; and the anticipated economic savings for the Postal
Service from the proposed action.\4\
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\4\Id.
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After this step, the Postal Service must provide written
notice of its intention to close a post office to those served
by the post office at least 60 days in advance of the action
including the findings of the above considerations.\5\ Any
individual served by the post office may then appeal the
closure or consolidation within 30 days to the Postal
Regulatory Commission (Commission) for review.\6\ The
Commission may then review the decision of the Postal Service
and either affirm the decision or return it to the Postal
Service for further consideration.\7\ The Commission has
further clarified these procedures, including how and when
affected individuals may participate in the appeal and how the
Postal Service may respond.\8\ The Postal Service also has
guidelines about how management may discontinue operations at a
post office, which are described in the Postal Service-Operated
Retail Facilities Discontinuance Guide (Handbook PO-101).\9\
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\5\Id.
\6\Id.
\7\Id.
\8\See generally 39 C.F.R. Sec. 3025 (2012).
\9\U.S. Postal Service, Handbook PO-101, Postal Service-Operated
Retail Facilities Discontinuance Guide (2012) (on file with Committee
staff).
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There is no statutory restriction on the Postal Service
temporarily suspending operations at a post office. District
managers can suspend operations at a post office under certain
circumstances, including: natural disasters; termination of a
lease or rental agreement when no suitable alternative quarters
exists in the community; severe damage to or destruction of the
office; or lack of qualified personnel to operate the office.
Suspension procedures are also laid out in Handbook PO-101 and
include instructions on how to notify Postal Service management
and affected customers, reassign employees, and provide
alternative service.
Although suspensions are supposed to be used by the Postal
Service only in emergency situations, the Commission has raised
concerns that the Postal Service may suspend or not restore
services at some post offices to avoid the closure process.\10\
Since 2009, the Commission has reported on the number of post
office suspensions in its Annual Compliance Determination (ACD)
Report, which focuses on Postal Service compliance with pricing
and service performance standards.\11\ In the fiscal year (FY)
2013 ACD, the Commission recommended that the Postal Service
``proceed expeditiously in either discontinuing offices under
suspension or reopening them,''\12\recommendation
which has been reiterated in each subsequent ACD.\13\
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\10\U.S. Postal Regulatory Comm'n, Order No. 335, 3 (Nov. 2009)
available at https://www.prc.gov/docs/65/65562/Order_No_335.pdf.
\11\See generally U.S. Postal Regulatory Comm'n, Ann. Compliance
Determination Rep. (2009-2017) available at https://www.prc.gov/prc-
reports?keys=&field_report_type_
value=Annual%20Compliance%20Reports.
\12\U.S. Postal Regulatory Comm'n, Ann. Compliance Determination
Rep., 121 (2013) available at https://www.prc.gov/docs/89/89500/
2013%20ACD%20Final%20(2).pdf.
\13\U.S. Postal Regulatory Comm'n, supra note 7.
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Despite this recommendation, post office suspensions
reached their peak at the beginning of FY 2017, with 662 retail
facilities suspended.\14\ As a result, the Commission directed
the Postal Service to provide quarterly reports on the number
of retail suspensions and establish a proposed timeline for
resolving all suspensions. By the end of FY 2017, the Postal
Service had resolved 304 post office suspensions, and has plans
to resolve all remaining 378 suspensions by the end of the
third quarter of FY 2019. As of the end of the second quarter
of FY 2018, 276 post offices remain suspended.
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\14\U.S. Postal Regulatory Comm'n, Ann. Compliance Determination
Rep., 163 (2017) available at https://www.prc.gov/sites/default/files/
reports/2017_ACD.pdf.
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While the Postal Service has made considerable progress
towards resolving post office suspensions, over ninety percent
of the remaining post offices suspensions are over two years
old and over forty percent are over five years old.\15\ The
longest suspension dates back to April 1984. The Commission has
recommended in its report on the effectiveness and efficiency
of postal laws that Congress consider a maximum time a post
office may remain in suspension status.\16\
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\15\See Postal Regulatory Comm'n, Ann. Compliance Review (2018)
available at https://www.prc.gov/dockets/document/104816.
\16\U.S. Postal Regulatory Comm'n, Section 701 Rep., Analysis of
the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006, 21 (2016)
available at https://www.prc.gov/sites/default/files/reports/
Section%20701%20rpt.pdf.
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To address the recommendation of the Commission, as well as
to ensure that the Postal Service cannot use suspensions as de
facto closures, S. 1204 establishes a process which holds the
Postal Service accountable to communities affected by post
office suspensions, while also allowing the Postal Service to
retain flexibility in emergency situations. The bill codifies
the existing internal Postal Service procedures for
suspensions, which were strengthened in 2012 to state that,
when possible, if the circumstances of a closure are known in
advance (such as in the case of an expired lease), a
discontinuance study should be initiated in advance to allow
for public input before services are suspended.\17\ This bill
strengthens this intent by explicitly stating that the Postal
Service should notify customers if a suspension is possible due
to an expiration of a lease or rental agreement for the post
office, if a new lease or rental agreement is not expected.
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\17\Id.
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While S. 1204 is not intended to limit the ability of the
Postal Service to react to emergency situations, the bill seeks
to prevent indefinite suspensions by requiring that after one
year of suspension, a post office may be considered eligible
for the closure appeal process described in section 404(d) of
title 39, United States Code. However, the Postal Service may
continue the suspension if it can demonstrate a need to
continue the suspension and if the Postal Service is complying
with the internal procedures which have been codified by this
bill. The section also will not apply to the post offices for
which the Commission and the Postal Service already have an
established process for resolving the suspension, as outlined
in the FY 2017 ACD.\18\
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\18\U.S. Postal Regulatory Comm'n, Ann. Compliance Determination
Rep., 165 (2018) available at https://www.prc.gov/sites/default/files/
reports/2017_ACD.pdf.
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To improve the accountability to the affected community,
particularly in the case of suspensions lasting longer than one
year, S. 1204 requires the Postal Service to conduct a
community meeting to present a plan of action to explain the
suspension and present a plan of action to restore service.
According to the existing guidelines which are codified by this
bill, if a continued suspension is necessary the Postal Service
should have already given notice to customers about the
suspension and established an internal plan of action to
restore service.\19\ This new requirement for the meeting
aligns with Commission recommendations that Congress limit the
length of suspension, by ensuring that in those extreme cases
where suspensions longer than a year may be warranted, the
affected community is well-informed of the Postal Service
plans.
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\19\ U.S. Postal Service, supra note 5, at Sec. Sec. 613.3, 618.
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Finally, S. 1204 gives the Postal Service flexibility to
change its internal procedures for post offices suspensions,
provided it consults with the Commission before making changes.
The current procedures are designed to inform affected
customers and employees, while restoring service or permanently
closing the post office as quickly as possible. While the
Postal Service may need to alter the guidelines or regulations
for suspensions to improve operations, the Commission should be
involved in any change so as to protect those affected by
suspensions. It is the intention of the Committee that the
Postal Service should make available to the public a written
copy of the suspension procedures.
III. Legislative History
Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) introduced S. 1204, the
Post Office Discontinuance Accountability Act of 2017, on May
23, 2017, with Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS). The bill was
referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs.
The Committee considered S. 1204 at a business meeting on
June 13, 2018. During the business meeting, a modified
substitute amendment was offered by Chairman Ron Johnson and
Ranking Member McCaskill and accepted by unanimous consent. The
amendment codifies the existing Postal Service procedures for
post office suspensions, while adding the requirement that the
Postal Service provide updates to communities affected by
suspensions after one year. The amendment also allows the
Postal Service to change their suspension procedures with input
from the Commission.
The bill, as amended, was ordered reported favorably by
voice vote en bloc. Senators present for the vote were Johnson,
Portman, Lankford, Enzi, McCaskill, Carper, Peters, Hassan,
Harris, and Jones.
IV. Section-by-Section Analysis of the Bill, as Reported
Section 1. Short title
This section designates the short title of the bill as the
``Post Office Discontinuance Accountability Act of 2018.''
Sec. 2. Emergency suspensions of post offices
Section 2 adds a new subparagraph following section 404(d)
of title 39, United States Code, to codify Postal Services
procedures for emergency suspensions of post offices.
New subparagraph (7)(A) requires the Postal Service to
follow established procedures to temporarily suspend operations
at post offices. Specifically, the Postal Service must follow
existing procedures as described in Postal Service Handbook PO-
101.
New subparagraph (7)(B) requires the Postal Service to
notify affected customers of a post office with an expired
lease or rental agreement if it does not reasonably expect to
reach a new lease or rental agreement for the post office.
New subparagraph (7)(C) states that after a post office has
been suspended for more than one year, postal customers may
appeal to the Commission and force the Postal Service through
the closure procedures for the post office. The Postal Service
is exempt from this requirement if there is a demonstrated need
for suspension and the Postal Service is following the
procedures in Handbook PO-101, or if the Commission has already
established procedures for resolving the suspension.
New subparagraph (7)(D) states that if the Postal Service
demonstrates the need to continue the suspension, it must
conduct a community meeting to explain the suspension, gather
customer opinions, and present a plan of action to return
service. The Postal Service must also periodically update the
community if service is not restored according to the plan
presented in the meeting.
New subparagraph (7)(E) requires the Postal Service to
consult with the Postal Regulatory Commission if it makes any
changes to the suspension procedures in Postal Service Handbook
PO-101.
Finally, new subparagraph (7)(F) clarifies that any
reference in the bill to the Postal Service Handbook PO-101 is
referring to the document titled ``Postal Service-Operated
Retail Facilities Discontinuance Guide'' published in October
2012 or any appropriate successor to that document.
V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact
Pursuant to the requirements of paragraph 11(b) of rule
XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee has
considered the regulatory impact of this bill and determined
that the bill will have no regulatory impact within the meaning
of the rules. The Committee agrees with the Congressional
Budget Office's statement that the bill contains no
intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the
Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would impose no costs
on state, local, or tribal governments.
VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate
U.S. Congress,
Congressional Budget Office,
Washington, DC, July 9, 2018.
Hon. Ron Johnson, Chairman,
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 1204, the Post
Office Discontinuance Accountability Act of 2018.
If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Mark
Grabowicz.
Sincerely,
Keith Hall,
Director.
Enclosure.
S. 1204--Post Office Discontinuance Accountability Act of 2018
S. 1204 would set conditions and procedures for the
temporary closing of post offices, including required
notifications to the public by the Postal Service. The agency
is currently following procedures that are very similar to
those that would be required by the bill; thus, CBO estimates
that implementing S. 1204 would have no effect on spending by
the Postal Service.
Enacting S. 1204 would not affect direct spending or
revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.
CBO estimates that enacting S. 1204 would not increase net
direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four
consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2029.
S. 1204 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Mark Grabowicz.
The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy
Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.
VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported
In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, changes in existing law made by
the bill, as reported, are shown as follows: (existing law
proposed to be omitted is enclosed in brackets, new matter is
printed in italic, and existing law in which no change is
proposed is shown in roman):
UNITED STATES CODE
* * * * * * *
TITLE 39--POSTAL SERVICE
* * * * * * *
PART 1--GENERAL
* * * * * * *
CHAPTER 4--GENERAL AUTHORITY
* * * * * * *
SEC. 404. SPECIFIC POWERS.
(a) * * *
(b) * * *
(c) * * *
(d) * * *
(1) * * *
* * * * * * *
(7)(A) The Postal Service may temporarily suspend
operations at a post office if the Postal Service
follows the procedures set forth in subchapter 61 of
Postal Service Handbook PO-101.
(B) If the lease or rental agreement for a post
office expires, and the Postal Service does not
reasonably expect to reach a new lease or rental
agreement, the Postal Service shall notify the affected
customers of the possible suspension of the post office
in accordance with section 613.3 of Postal Service
Handbook PO-101.
(C) If a post office has been suspended for not less
than 1 year, any person served by the post office may
file and appeal with Postal Regulatory Commission. On
review, the Commission may consider the suspension to
be an action that is subject to the procedures required
under paragraphs (1) through (6) unless--
(i) the Postal Service demonstrates that--
(I) the need for a suspension under
sub-chapter 61 of Postal Service
Handbook PO-101 continues to exist; and
(II) the Postal Service is complying
with the applicable procedures under
subchapter 61 of Postal Service
Handbook PO-101; or
(ii) the Commission has already established a
process for resolving the suspension of the
post office.
(D) If the Postal Service demonstrates the need for a
continued suspension under subparagraph (C)(i), the
Postal Service shall--
(i) conduct a community meeting to--
(I) explain the circumstances of the
suspension and obtain customer opinion
about alternate service in a manner
similar to the community meeting
described in part 714 of Postal Service
Handbook PO-101; and
(II) present the plan of action to
restore service required under part 618
of Postal Service Handbook PO-101; and
(ii) periodically update the affected
community if service is not restored in
accordance with the plan described in clause
(i)(II) of this subparagraph.
(E) The Postal Service shall consult with the Postal
Regulatory Commission in making any changes to
suspension procedures in Postal Service Handbook PO-
101.
(F) In this paragraph--
(i) the term ``Postal Service Handbook PO-
101'' means the document titled ``Postal
Service-Operated Retail Facilities
Discontinuance Guide'' (Handbook PO-101),
published by the Postal Service in October
2012, or any appropriate successor to that
document; and
(ii) a reference to a provision of Postal
Service Handbook PO-101 shall be deemed to
include any appropriate successor to that
provision.
[all]