South Dakota needs a financially stable, healthy Postal Service that provides timely, universal delivery six days a week. Our economy depends on it. More specifically, South Dakota’s rural communities and residents depend on the timely delivery of mail. It is essential to the well-being of our state’s economy and our residents’ livelihoods.
In South Dakota, the Postal Service proposes to close all area mail processing centers except the Sioux Falls center and to close more than 80 post offices as part of nationwide cost-cutting measures.
The U.S. Postal Service is proposing to close thousands of post offices and hundreds of mail processing centers around the country. Plus, the Postal Service wants to reduce its delivery standards for various classes of mail, in effect slowing the delivery of mail. And, it wants to end Saturday mail delivery. The bottom line: reducing service is not a good business model for fixing the Postal Service's problems.
Now is the time for South Dakotans to act. Show your support for maintaining six-day mail delivery and oppose the wholesale closure of area mail processing centers and post offices until the Postal Service and Congress address issues that are undermining the Postal Service's future viability. The federal government must work on a host of issues, including the mandated annual $5.5 billion accelerated pre-funding of USPS retiree health benefits. The Postal Service must understand that a "one size fits all" wholesale restructuring of its delivery system places unfair and overwhelming burdens on rural America.
