Budzinski files bill preventing changes to Central Illinois USPS centers

WASHINGTON D.C. (WCIA) — The United States Postal Service has announced plans earlier this year to downsize in Central Illinois, but an Illinois member of Congress has filed a bill that would halt that idea.

USPS has proposed changing nearly 60 Processing and Distribution Centers across the nation to just processing centers, including ones in Champaign and Springfield.

Rep. Nikki Budzinski filed a bill that would make it illegal for the USPS to close any P&DC in markets underperforming on their delivery deadline goals.

Nationwide delivery targets for first-class mail include a 90.3% on-time rate for three to five-day deliveries and 93% on-time rate for two-day mail. The USPS estimates mail is delivered in the downstate Illinois region on time 84.7% for times for items supposed to be delivered in two days and 64.2% of the time for items scheduled to be delivered in three to five days.

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The Illinois congresswoman called USPS’s proposal “misguided”.

“Postmaster DeJoy has no business reducing mail processing capacity in areas that are already short staffed and struggling to receive mail on time,” Congresswoman Budzinski said Wednesday. “Today, I introduced bipartisan legislation that will halt these plans in Champaign and Springfield, and in underserviced areas across the country.”

Budzinski filed the bill with Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI). The congressman said the downsizing would have a negative impact on the rural communities of Upper Peninsula Michigan.

“My constituents rely on the Postal Service for the timely delivery of bills, payments, prescriptions, and other necessities, and they deserve a functional mail service, absent of manufactured delays caused by bureaucratic ineptitude,” Bergman said. “I thank my colleague, Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski, for co-leading this critical bill – the Protect Postal Performance Act – to halt the Postal Service’s ill-conceived consolidation plans in areas where the agency is already underperforming.”

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Several politicians representing Illinois at the state and federal level have publicly asked USPS to not downsize the central Illinois delivery locations.

The proposed changes to relocate some services in Champaign and Springfield are a part of USPS’s “Delivering For America” 10-year strategic plan.

“While it may be determined that moving some mail processing operations from the Champaign P&DC is a good business decision, it is highly likely under those circumstances that the Champaign facility will be modernized and repurposed as a Local Processing Center, a Sorting & Delivery Center, or both, consistent with the broader network redesign outlined in the DFA Plan,” a Notice of Intent to review Champaign P&DC’s services issued in January reads. “Any such repurposing will result in a revitalized, modernized, and upgraded facility with improved employee amenities and a better working environment.”

Springfield P&DC’s was issued a nearly identical Notice of Intent on the same day.

No final decision has been made regarding the facilities. USPS has decided to proceed on their proposed changes for Peoria’s and the Quad Cities’ Processing and Distribution Centers into Processing Centers.

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