Prolonged post office closures focus of House bill

The U.S. Postal Service needs to do a better job providing information that helps the public find service when local post offices are temporarily closed for emergency repairs or other reasons, say lawmakers behind a new bill that mandates more transparency.

The suspension of post office operations is a longstanding issue, especially in rural communities where residents may have to drive long distances to the nearest alternative retail location to get their mail.

The Postal Service, in many cases, is dragging its feet reopening locations because it’s trying to cut back in outlying areas that cost more to serve as it faces difficult financial pressures, said a letter carrier with deep knowledge of postal policy who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his job. If a post office burns down in a wildfire, for example, management may prefer not to rebuild it.

The quasi-public agency lost $9 billion in fiscal year 2025. Stripping away pension funding requirements and other regulatory restrictions inhibiting cash flow, the Postal Service had an operating loss of $2.7 billion.

The Postal Suspension Transparency Act, introduced by the bipartisan leaders of the Congressional Postal Service Caucus in late December, would require the Postal Service to publicly post all temporary closures, alternative service available and the estimated end date of the service disruption.

“Without proper public notice, the temporary suspension of mail service at local post offices can leave people without the ability to receive essential packages and medication, respond to their mail in a timely fashion, and can harm the operations of our small businesses, non-profits, and more,” said Rep. Chris Pappas, D-New Hampshire, in a news release. “Our legislation is a simple fix that will bring transparency to the emergency suspension process and guarantee that everyone knows how they will be able to receive their mail through the duration of any temporary post office closure.”

The bill would require USPS to establish a publicly accessible and searchable website that provides the date and reason for an emergency suspension; the location and hours of operation for the nearest retail postal facility; and to the extent reasonable, an estimated date for the resumption of retail postal service.

Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Michigan, said some post offices in his state’s Upper Peninsula have remained “suspended” for years. Complaints about prolonged post office outages are common across the country.

The national mail carrier stops operating post offices when there is a natural disaster, a lease is terminated and alternative locations are not available in the community, there aren’t sufficient qualified personnel to operate the store or the facility has suffered severe damage, according to postal authorities.

A dashboard on the Postal Regulatory Commission’s website that is designed to show post offices where service has been suspended was updated on Dec. 5, but it’s unclear when it was last updated and it doesn’t include as much detail as the lawmakers would require.

Postal Service policy states that post office suspensions must be resolved by either re-opening or closing facilities permanently within 180 to 280 days. At the end of May, the Commission dashboard included 428 post offices that were suspended as of February 2025.

“When the Postal Service decides to close a post office, we follow specific requirements mandated by U.S. Code Title 39 and our own regulations. We are reviewing the legislation you mention and should it advance in the legislative process, we will consider providing technical comment if requested. The Postal Service stays in touch with customers, providing notice of various emergencies and other necessary information via its Service Alerts page,” spokeswoman Martha Johnson said in a statement.

Three years ago, the Commission opened a public inquiry to address the issue of post offices that had been under emergency suspension for an extended period. The Postal Service in 2023 questioned the “marginal utility” of maintaining a public-facing dashboard of suspended post offices, citing costs, but has created a suspension dashboard for internal use

“The Postal Service already disseminates . . . real-time Industry Alerts that identify suspended post offices and explain why they have been suspended. Furthermore, the public can access information on individual post offices, including the status of each suspended post office, on USPS.com,” the agency said in a May 3, 2023, memo to the Postal Regulatory Commission. “The Postal Service also submits yearly reports to the Commission on all suspended post offices.… Information featured on the proposed dashboard would therefore duplicate information that the Postal Service already provides, and the Postal Service questions the marginal utility of such a project, especially in light of the costs (some of them recurring) that it would entail.”

Since then, the Postal Service developed a suspension dashboard for internal use, according to the website Save the Post Office.

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