[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1501 Introduced in House (IH)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1501

   To amend title 39, United States Code, to provide that the United 
States Postal Service may not close, consolidate, or sell any historic 
  postal facility without prior congressional approval, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 19, 2015

   Ms. Lee (for herself, Ms. Kaptur, Mr. Courtney, Mr. Richmond, Mr. 
 Grijalva, Mrs. Lawrence, Ms. Fudge, Mr. Keating, Mr. Butterfield, and 
Mr. Pierluisi) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
              Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend title 39, United States Code, to provide that the United 
States Postal Service may not close, consolidate, or sell any historic 
  postal facility without prior congressional approval, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; FINDINGS.

    (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Moratorium on 
United States Postal Facilities Act''.
    (b) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) The United States Postal Service is an American 
        institution dating back to the colonial era.
            (2) The United States Postal Service is the core of a $1 
        trillion mailing industry that employs more than 8 million 
        people.
            (3) In 2013, the United States Postal Service processed 158 
        billion pieces of mail, handled 40 percent of the world's mail 
        volume, paid $3.6 billion every month in salaries and benefits, 
        employed 104,700 veterans, and managed 31,272 retail offices.
            (4) The United States Postal Service employs a Federal 
        preservation officer and a historian.
            (5) The United States Postal Service has a diverse fine 
        arts collection consisting of works of art from many different 
        sources and programs.
            (6) The United States Postal Service houses more than 1,400 
        murals and sculptures from President Roosevelt's New Deal 
        programs in its post offices around the Nation.
            (7) Most of the post office works of art were funded 
        through commissions under the Treasury Department's Section of 
        Painting and Sculpture and Section of Fine Arts.
            (8) As of December 2013, 880 postal buildings are listed on 
        the National Historic Register.

SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL REQUIRED FOR CLOSURE, CONSOLIDATION, OR 
              SALE OF HISTORIC POSTAL FACILITIES.

    (a) In General.--Section 404 of title 39, United States Code, is 
amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(f)(1) The Postal Service may not close, consolidate, sell, or 
otherwise dispose of any historic postal facility without prior written 
approval from the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the 
House of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security and 
Governmental Affairs of the Senate.
    ``(2) In this subsection, the term `historic postal facility' means 
any postal facility listed, or eligible to be listed, in the National 
Register of Historic Places.''.
    (b) Conforming Amendments.--Section 404 of title 39, United States 
Code, is further amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)(3), by inserting ``consistent with 
        the requirements of subsection (f),'' before ``to determine''; 
        and
            (2) in subsection (d)(1), by striking ``The Postal 
        Service'' and inserting ``Subject to the requirements of 
        subsection (f), the Postal Service''.
    (c) Application.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall apply 
to any historic postal facility, including any such facility that is 
listed as for sale by the United States Postal Service as of the date 
of enactment of this section.
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