Durbin again asks for new USPS audit regarding consolidations

11 months, 1 week ago

 

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) has sent a letter to Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe urging him to adhere to a provision – included in the Senate Financial Services and General Government Appropriations passed last month by the Senate Appropriations Committee – that would require the Postal Service to conduct a new audit that shows cost savings before moving forward with plans to close or consolidate facilities that were recently found to be efficient. 

The provision, originally included in the comprehensive postal reform legislation passed by the Senate in April of this year, would affect 11 mail processing facilities nationwide including the facility in Quincy.

“I urge you to adhere to the terms of that language, which has already passed the United States Senate once and is likely to pass again in the near future.  Until such time as an independent audit finds that these facilities are no longer efficient, I adamantly oppose any efforts to eliminate or reduce their operations,” Durbin wrote. 

“Workers at the facilities in Rockford and Quincy have already begun hearing rumors of how they will be impacted and when and how operations will change.  The elected representatives of those areas should be informed as those decisions are made.  With better communication, it is likely that many negative outcomes of this haphazard process can be avoided.”

Quincy Mayor John Spring said officials with the local postal workers union have told him that about 10 staffers from the Quincy sorting facility have been told they will be returning to duties that including mail routes.