Lawmakers push for vote to limit post office closures

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

By Emily Stephenson

WASHINGTON | Thu May 3, 2012 8:57pm EDT

(Reuters) - A bipartisan group of lawmakers is trying to drum up support in the House of Representatives to vote on a Senate-passed bill that would make it tougher for the Postal Service to close some facilities, in part by targeting representatives who may lose postal facilities and jobs in their districts.

The group hopes representatives who are concerned about the planned closures of post offices or mail processing sites under the Postal Service's own cost-cutting plan will join them in pressing House leadership to hold a vote on the Senate bill.

The new push comes as the Postal Service intends on May 15 to lift its months-long moratorium on postal closings. The closures would eliminate middle-class jobs at a time when the United States is still struggling with high unemployment.

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Democratic Representative Peter Welch said he and Republican Michael Grimm will begin when Congress returns from recess next week by talking with House members from states with Republican senators who voted for the Senate bill last week.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/04/us-usa-postal-house-idUSBRE84300H20120504

[Iliyah]

1. I really do despise

goppers, severely.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. 4 POs are slated for closure in my very rural area.

People in the small towns who are slated to lose their POs will have to get to the county seat PO.
These little towns are 30-40 miles apart, and LOTS of folks living in them do not have access to reliable
transportation.
Our "official" unemployment rate is 24% in the county.

Mark this as one more visible sign of the on-going collapse.

[freshwest]

3. Do the folks see any connection between the GOP and this, or is it still all Obama's fault?

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. the folks affected are mostly poor and black.

Poverty has long been a fact of life in the small towns of the south.