ATLANTA — U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia introduced a new bill to boost oversight of the U.S. Postal Service’s decision-making process.
The bill is called the Postal Service Transparency and Review Act, which Clyde introduced in Congress on Thursday.
According to a statement from the representative’s office, the legislation proposes ways to deal with “the lack of sufficient oversight of significant changes to postal services following the USPS’s decision to transition and consolidate local Processing % Distribution Centers across North Georgia,” which moved the work the centers did to the Regional Processing & Distribution Center in Palmetto, Ga.
Clyde’s office said the agency’s poor planning and mishandling of the transition had led to extensive disruptions in mail delivery across the region.
Channel 2 Action News has covered issues related to the Palmetto mail facility for months, including efforts by lawmakers in both chambers of Congress and across both sides of the political aisle, to hold the agency’s leadership accountable for the issues at hand.
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“The U.S. Postal Service’s botched transition and consolidation operation in North Georgia highlights the dire need for oversight reform,” Clyde said in a statement. “If the USPS had fulfilled its legal obligation to seek an advisory opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission, I believe Georgians would not have been forced to bear the loss of revenue, immense pain, and hardships brought on by mail delays caused by the disastrous transition. I’m hopeful that by strengthening oversight of the Postal Service’s decision-making processes, my legislation will ultimately prevent large-scale postal service changes from negatively impacting Americans in the future.”
As far as the specifics of what Clyde’s bill is supposed to do, his office said the Postal Transparency and Review Act would:
- Require the USPS to submit significant proposed changes to the PRC for review no later than 180 days prior to the proposed effective date of such changes.
- Expand the submission requirement to include changes that impact service not only at the national level but also at the postal district level, which typically align with state boundaries.
- Authorize the PRC to suspend any changes if the Postal Service fails to seek the required advisory opinion under the amended requirements.
- Mandate that any postal operations changes suspended by the PRC be reverted to their previous state before the implementation of the suspended changes until an advisory opinion is published.
- Allow Congress to intervene and disapprove of changes through a fast-tracked joint resolution pursuant to the Congressional Review Act after receiving the PRC’s advisory opinion.
Along with Clyde, Reps. Rick Allen, Buddy Carter, Brian Jack, Barry Loudermilk, Rich McCormick and Austin Scott are original co-sponsors of the bill.
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