[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 19]
[House]
[Pages 26991-26992]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 POST OFFICE COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP ACT

  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I came to Congress to help the Federal 
Government be a better partner with local communities, to make them 
liveable, to make our families safe, healthy and economically secure. 
The simplest way to achieve that objective does not require new laws, 
regulations, fees or massive outlays of Federal dollars driving us even 
deeper into debt.
  The simplest way is simply for the Federal Government to merely obey 
the rules that it sets for others. One of the best illustrations of 
this principle has been realized in massive grass roots support across 
America for the postal service to obey the rules in locating its 
facilities.
  We have had support from the National Association of Home Builders, 
the Sierra Club, the Trust for Historic Preservation, realtors, 
landscape architects, the American Planning Association. Good 
government organizations across the country have joined with local 
officials, mayors and Governors, to understand that the over 37,000 
postal facilities are not just remote outposts of Federal activities. 
They can, often are and always should be the centers of community 
activity.
  As a local official, I had my own experiences where the postal 
service was sadly indifferent to the impacts of its operations on local 
communities. When putting in a new facility they refused, for example, 
to pave the sidewalks, to integrate the facility into the local fabric 
and make them accessible to citizens. I had experiences where the 
postal service would not work with us to promote orderly traffic flow.
  In Florida there was a post office where they were going to put in a 
parking lot by paving a flood plain. If a private developer had tried 
to do that, people would have demanded that they be put in jail.
  These experiences from around the country were the inspiration for 
the Post Office Community Partnership Act on which we have been working 
the last several Congresses. The bill outlines minimum community 
involvement that the United States Postal Service must pursue to 
significantly change any post office. More important, the bill requires 
the postal service to fully comply with local zoning, planning and 
other land use laws, to play by the same rules as everyone else.
  In the past, we have had a majority of the House cosponsor this 
legislation. Once it even passed the Senate, but so far it has been the 
victim of politics of postal reform. In recent sessions, all of the 
major efforts of more comprehensive legislation have included some 
variation of this bill as an enticement for passage.
  The pressure from our legislation has, in fact, encouraged the postal 
service to make significant progress, and I have been encouraged by 
meetings I have had with members of the Board of Governors, the Postal 
Rate Commissioners, and recent Postmaster

[[Page 26992]]

Generals. They have made progress. Outstanding examples exist from 
coast to coast.
  In Fairview, Oregon, in my district, working with the developers in 
the community, the post office was the first civic building in a new 
development, enacted as an anchor for what has developed into a retail 
street. By centrally locating the post office as the developers 
proposed, the residents can easily walk or drive to the post office 
from anywhere in this village.
  In Castine, Maine, the postal service first proposed moving the 
oldest operating post office in the country, an historic landmark, from 
its downtown location out to the suburbs. After a public outcry, the 
postal service and the town worked together to find a way to expand the 
existing location and keep the post office in its historic downtown 
location.
  It is time, however, to make this relationship something that every 
community can count on. It should not be the exception. It should not 
require luck or extraordinary political action. There should be no 
variation in the commitment of the post office to be part of each and 
every community.
  The recent report from the President's Commission on Postal Service 
is going to prompt more discussion and analysis of operations. If the 
recommendations are implemented from the Commission to streamline the 
postal service, it will result in closure of rural and innercity of 
post offices. Additionally, opportunities for public response and 
hearings will be cut, and the role will shrink to giving written 
complaints to the regulatory board after the decisions are made.
  Now is the time to act. I urge my colleagues to sponsor the Post 
Office Community Partnership Act to guarantee that the postal service 
is a better partner and to set the tone for the Federal Government to 
lead by example in the livability of our communities, so that our 
families are safer, healthier and more economically secure.

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