HR 2103119th CongressIn Committee

Protect Postal Performance Act

Introduced: Mar 14, 2025

Standard Summary

Comprehensive overview in 1-2 paragraphs

The Protect Postal Performance Act would substantially increase oversight, public participation, and protection of service levels for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) when closing or consolidating post offices and processing/distribution centers, and when undertaking local and regional transportation planning. The bill creates new requirements for public hearings and post-hearing disclosure, imposes distance-and-population protections to prevent certain closures, and introduces mandatory advisory opinions from the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) before significant processing-center or transportation changes. It also ties changes to on-time delivery benchmarks and would pause certain reviews if performance concerns are found. In short, the bill aims to slow and scrutinize network changes to protect service continuity, particularly in communities and regions with vulnerable or high-demand mail service needs.

Key Points

1Public input and delay for post office closures/consolidations
2- Adds a 60-day public hearing requirement (in-person or virtual) for closures/consolidations.
3- Requires the USPS to publish a summary of the hearing within 7 days, including comments and the share in support vs. opposition.
4- Prohibits closure/consolidation until 180 days after the hearing summary is published.
5Geographic and population protections for post offices
6- Post offices cannot be closed or consolidated if they are not within 15 miles of another post office.
7- Post offices cannot be closed or consolidated if they are the closest post office for a population of 15,000 or more.
8Section 417: Processing and distribution centers (P&DCs) oversight
9- USPS cannot close, consolidate, or downgrade a processing/distribution center if doing so would leave a state with no such center in any geographically non-contiguous region containing at least 100,000 residents.
10- Requires the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) to issue an advisory opinion before implementing changes to processing/distribution facilities, within 120 business days of a proposed change.
11- If the PRC finds that a proposed change would slow on-time delivery, USPS must publish a public report detailing practices to maintain timely delivery, and no changes may be implemented for 180 days after that report.
12- Prohibits carrying out targeted reviews of processing facilities (e.g., the Mail Processing Facility Review) using federal funds.
13Section 418: Local and regional transportation optimization
14- USPS may not implement LTO (local) or RTO (regional) transportation changes that reduce the number of pickups or drop-offs at any post office.
15- Requires PRC opinion before changing drop-off and pick-up schedules; if the PRC does not recommend the changes, USPS cannot proceed with LTO/RTO changes.
16Performance-based safeguards
17- The bill adds a ceiling for closures in districts that failed to meet specific on-time delivery benchmarks in the prior year:
18- at least 93% on-time for two-day single first-class mail
19- at least 90.3% on-time for three-to-five-day first-class mail
20Definitions and scope
21- Clarifies what qualifies as a processing and distribution center and who is considered a State for purposes of these rules.
22- Establishes the 50 states and D.C. as the relevant geographic scope.

Impact Areas

Primary group/area affected- USPS customers, especially in rural or isolated communities, and residents served by small or unique post offices that might be affected by closures or consolidations.- USPS workforce and operations staff, due to added procedural steps, hearings, and potential delays in network changes.Secondary group/area affected- State and local governments concerned with postal service coverage and emergency planning, as well as communities that rely on timely mail service for business, healthcare, and daily life.- The Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC), which would have expanded authority and required timelines to issue advisory opinions.Additional impacts- Administrative burden and potential delays in USPS modernization or efficiency initiatives due to mandatory hearings, public reporting, and formal advisory processes.- Potentially greater stability of local mail service in many communities, but the risk of slower changes to optimize networks if they are needed for efficiency.- Public accountability in decisions that affect mail delivery timeliness and access to postal services.

Generated by gpt-5-nano on Nov 19, 2025