Peters hails pause in planned USPS changes to postal facilities, including in Michigan

US Postal Service worker Lou Martini goes about his daily delivery route during the coronavirus pandemic on April 15, 2020 in Kings Park, New York. Martini, who has been a postal worker for over 30 years, takes as much caution as he can while delivering the mail during the COVID-19 outbreak. A mask, gloves, hand sanitizer and the spraying down of some packages are a few of the precautions Martini incorporates into his daily routine as one of the nation's 'essential workers'. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images

A plan to move some of the operations out of an Upper Peninsula postal facility are on hold, as are similar changes across the country.

The decision to pause changes planned for the Iron Mountain Processing Center was announced in a letter received by Michigan Democratic U.S. Sen. Gary Peters from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

“In response to the concerns you and your colleagues have expressed, I will commit to pause any implementation of these moves at least until after January 1, 2025,” wrote DeJoy. “Even then, we will not advance these efforts without advising you of our plans to do so, and then only at a moderated pace of implementation.” 

Peters, who’s from Bloomfield Township and chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has repeatedly called on DeJoy to stop implementation of changes to the United States Postal Service (USPS) mail delivery network, that would include moving a portion of mail processing operations at the Iron Mountain facility to Green Bay, Wis. Peters said DeJoy also committed to pausing similar changes at facilities across the United States. 

Peters led a bipartisan group of more than two dozen senators who sent a letter to DeJoy on May 8 calling for a halt to the facility and transportation changes in the USPS network plan until they could be studied to ensure they would not harm mail delivery service. Peters, who says he spoke directly with DeJoy on the matter, was highly critical of the proposals following an oversight hearing he convened in April on the matter. 

“I’m glad I was able to secure this pause on changes to the Iron Mountain Processing and Distribution Center, which will help ensure that residents and businesses across the Upper Peninsula that depend on the Postal Service for reliable mail delivery will continue to be able to count on that service,” he said. “I appreciate Postmaster General DeJoy’s efforts to work with me on this issue. However, I still have concerns about additional changes, including to local transportation trips, that impact Michiganders. I urge the Postal Service to pause and reverse local transportation changes in addition to facility changes, until we have more information about their effects. I will continue to push for a comprehensive study by the Postal Regulatory Commission to ensure any changes implemented do not impact mail delivery. It’s absolutely critical that we understand the full scope of these changes, as well as their impact on service and communities, before moving forward.”

Despite the pause, DeJoy indicated in his letter that the proposed changes would ultimately not affect service delivery.

“We do not see these planned actions as at all consequential to service; rather, they are important elements of achieving a network that can provide greater service reliability in a cost-effective manner,” wrote DeJoy. “The career workforce will not see layoffs, new equipment will be installed, the facilities will not close, deferred maintenance will be performed, and working conditions will be substantially improved.”

Regardless, Peters says he will continue to push for the Postal Service Board of Governors to request an advisory opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission that will comprehensively study the potential impacts of the changes.

In 2022, Peters authored and led passage of a bipartisan overhaul of the Postal Service,  which created nearly $50 billion in savings by eliminating a requirement that the Postal Service pre-fund retiree health benefits for all current and retired employees for 75 years in the future — a mandate with which no other government entity must comply — while also requiring future Postal Service retirees to enroll in Medicare. 

The law made the first major reforms to the Postal Service in more than 15 years, including requiring six-day delivery. 

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