USPS delays consolidation of Hampden facility following Golden’s bipartisan legislation and advocacy

WASHINGTON — Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02) today released the following statement regarding the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) announcement that it will freeze postal facility consolidations nationwide through at least January 1, 2025, including at the Eastern Maine Processing & Distribution Facility in Hampden:

“I’ve fought tooth and nail to protect rural communities from the restructuring proposed by USPS because I know how Mainers rely on the mail to receive medicine, conduct business, and keep in touch with their loved ones,” Golden said. “This announcement is a big win for the entire state, and I’ll continue to push for a permanent stop to any plans that threaten mail service.”

USPS’ moratorium follows Golden’s introduction of bipartisan legislation to freeze Mail Processing Facility Reviews (MPFRs) nationwide and his repeated outreach to DeJoy throughout the review of the Hampden facility to express concerns about the agency’s consolidation process.

“We were very pleased to see that the Postal Service is pausing the current network changes until next year,” Scott Adams, President of the American Postal Workers Union of Maine, said. “That should give sufficient time to assess the current delayed mail issues and hopefully correct them, inclusive of returning the process to the way it was before DeJoy's changes were implemented.  There are no details to the effect this will have on the Eastern Maine P&DC, but since most changes have yet to take place, we see this as great news that should benefit Mainers and their mail service.  Again, thanks to Congressman Golden's efforts on this, as the decision clearly came about from the pressure from Congress and Postal patrons.”

In a letter today to Sen. Gary Peters, chairman of the Senate’s Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said he “need[s] more time to evaluate” the effects of MPFRs on timely mail service following outreach from lawmakers in both chambers and that he “will not advance these efforts without advising you of our plans to do so, and then only at a moderated pace of implementation.”

Mail Processing Facility Reviews were launched in 2021 to study the feasibility of relocating certain postal operations from local facilities to larger regional ones. The USPS first announced that it was reviewing consolidation of some mail processing from the Eastern Maine facility into its Scarborough site last November, and its decision to move forward with the plan follows a February public hearing thatgarnered widespread opposition from Mainers across the state.

Last month, Golden introduced bipartisan legislation to eliminate funding for the Mail Processing Facility Review process, effectively blocking the USPS’ plans to shift mail processing from Hampden to Scarborough. The Timely Mail Delivery and Postal Services Protection Act 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.  

Prior to his legislation, Golden demanded answers about what steps the agency was taking to prevent mail delays and job losses in the Second District. 

Full text of the legislation can be found here.

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