[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2126-2127]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




MAKING THE POSTAL SERVICE A PARTNER IN ASSURING LIVABILITY OF AMERICA'S 
                              COMMUNITIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pease). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, one of the most exciting issues that has 
arisen in this new year has been that of livable communities. It 
received prominence in the President's State of the Union address. Just 
this last week, on Friday, it was the feature article in the National 
Journal. The Saturday New York Times front page political memo had 
again an issue about livable communities. It is in large part an 
expression of how government can be a partner with citizens, with the 
business community, to try and really achieve what it is that Americans 
deeply care about because, at heart, Americans care when their children 
go out the door in the morning that they are safe, they want that 
family to be economically secure, they want them to be healthy 
physically and in terms of their environment.
  One example of that partnership that can make a difference for 
livable communities is the impact that the local post office has on 
small and medium sized communities particularly around the country. The 
post office is a symbol of how we connect to one another. The mail 
collection and distribution is vitally important in terms of community 
dynamic. Time and time again we find that post office on Main Street is 
an anchor for that Main Street business activity; it is a source of 
pride for people in the local communities; often it is a historic 
structure.
  Unfortunately, when it comes to the location of that service, 
historic post offices around the country are being in some cases 
removed from those historic downtown locations. In some cases they are 
being, the post office simply has not been the type of neighbor that 
our communities deserve, and it is sadly not unknown for the postal 
service to not play by the same rules that the Federal Government 
imposes on others.
  I have a series of examples in my office where these historic 
outposts have abandoned historic downtown locations to be located in a 
strip mall at the edge of town, perhaps without any paved sidewalks. 
Many communities in, for example, Portland, Oregon, where I am from, 
there is a lot of work to try and plan for the future to be able to 
promote a more livable community, and in fact the Oregon planning model 
is heralded by some as the most advanced in the United States. But 
despite the notoriety, despite the outreach, the Postal Service, for 
instance, was completely clueless to the work that we have been doing 
in our community to plan facilities for the next 50 years. It does not 
have to be that way.
  I am introducing legislation this week that would require the Post 
Office to obey local land use and planning laws, to have them work with 
the local communities before they make decisions that can have such a 
wrenching affect on the fabric of community. I find it ironic that in 
case after case the Post Office gives the public more input into what 
version of the Elvis stamp it is going to produce than decisions that 
really can be life and death for small town America.
  We also have a provision in this bill that makes some minor technical 
adjustments over what we had in the previous session of Congress 
because we have been listening to people in the Postal Service and we 
want to give them necessary flexibility. We do not want it to be a 
straightjacket, but we do want it to be a model of how America can and 
should work.
  I would hope that, as we are promoting livable communities around the 
country, that the Federal Government will lead by example, by acting

[[Page 2127]]

the way we want other actors and actresses to behave to promote more 
livable communities. I would earnestly request that my colleagues join 
me in sponsoring this legislation to make the Postal Service a full 
partner in assuring the liveability of America's communities.

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