Golden introduces legislation to freeze consolidation plans for Hampden mail processing facility, others across the country

WASHINGTON — Congressmen Jared Golden (ME-02) today announced he will introduce legislation to freeze consolidation of mail processing facilities by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). The legislation comes as the USPS moves forward with plans to reduce operations at dozens of sites across the country, including the Eastern Maine Processing & Distribution Facility in Hampden.

“The Postal Service’s choice to move forward with consolidation of its Hampden facility despite overwhelming opposition across the state is unacceptable to Mainers who rely on timely mail service for everything from paying bills to receiving life-saving medication,” Golden said. “The move already caused significant delivery delays across the state when trialed last year, and will exacerbate existing challenges the USPS faces in fulfilling its obligation to Maine’s rural communities. It’s time to freeze the USPS’ broken review process and keep its bureaucrats accountable to the people they serve.”

“It is offensive that the Postal Service has declared the consolidation of the Eastern Maine P&DC as ‘good news,” Scott Adams, President of the American Postal Workers Union of Maine said. “The announcement fails to address the public input regarding new delays in mail delivery, the negative impact on the public’s confidence in ballot delivery, and how ‘network modernization’ is a regression from the ability to deliver parcels, medications, bills, and more. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s ‘Delivering for America’ is truly ‘Delaying for America’ and will cause lasting negative effects on the Postal Service’s mandate to provide prompt, reliable, and efficient delivery.” 

The bill would eliminate funding for the Mail Processing Facility Review process, effectively blocking the USPS’ plans to shift mail processing from Hampden to Scarborough. It would also require any future consideration of consolidation to be reviewed by the Postal Regulatory Commission, an independent and bipartisan oversight panel composed of members appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

The Mail Processing Review Process was unveiled in 2021 to study the feasibility of relocating certain postal operations from local facilities to larger regional sites. The USPS first announced that it was reviewing consolidation of the Eastern Maine facility into its Scarborough site last November, and its decision to move forward with the plan follows a February public hearing that garnered widespread opposition from Mainers across the state.

Consolidation of the Eastern Maine facility would mean mail from the Eastern, Northern, and Western regions of the state — which is currently processed and distributed in Hampden — would instead be sent to its Scarborough facility 130 miles away.

While the USPS claims that delivery times will not be affected by these changes, significant delays already occurred when processing and distribution in the Eastern Maine facility was temporarily moved to Scarborough in early 2023. Additionally, postal workers have expressed concerns that the move would permanently relocate over a dozen jobs from Hampden to Scarborough — a change that could uproot families and harm customer service.

Golden has sent multiple letters to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to express concerns about the agency’s consolidation process since the Hampden review was announced. 

Draft text of the legislation can be found here. 

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