[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17551]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          POST OFFICE CLOSURES

  (Mr. SIRES asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. SIRES. Madam Speaker, I rise today to express my deep concern 
about the closure of post offices across this country.
  For decades, the post office has sustained and created American jobs 
in every corner of this country. Closing these vital institutions will 
not only hurt our economy, but it will devastate American families who 
rely on these jobs.
  The closing of thousands of post offices will adversely affect 
minorities who live in low-income neighborhoods; it will affect the 
elderly, who need post offices within walking distance in order to send 
letters to their families; and it will affect small business owners who 
use the U.S. Postal Service as a way to conduct business. Additionally, 
rural communities, the hardest hit by the economic downturn, will see 
the greatest number of closures, causing their communities to further 
suffer.
  It has been reported that if 10,000 of the smallest post offices were 
closed the postal service would only save 1 percent of its total yearly 
budget. Furthermore, the United States Postal Service branch closings 
would mean that approximately 5,000 postal employees would lose their 
jobs.
  If we are serious about economic recovery, we must save post offices, 
which provide jobs to thousands of Americans; and we must make the 
necessary reforms to strengthen our postal service.

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