Members of Congress demand Postal Service halt consolidations, warning of worsening mail delivery [Video]

Members of Congress have told the U.S. Postal Service they oppose plans to consolidate mail processing centers, warning that the proposals could lead to deteriorating mail delivery.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Tuesday wrote to U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, criticizing the Postal Service’s recent announcement of consolidations and its intent to review other ways to change operations.

“Customers rely on the Postal Service for a variety of important services, including their medication, newspapers and financial documents,” they wrote. “Sending mail farther for sorting is unlikely to improve service.”

The lawmakers said an inspector general review of a new processing center in Richmond, Virginia, “noted that challenges associated with changes to the facility contributed to a decrease in service performance in the region” for four months after its opening.

The Postal Service announcedlast week it plans to convert the Hampden facility into a local processing center and relocate mail processing to the Southern Maine Processing and Distribution Center in …