Johnson and Thune see upside for rural areas

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The mail processing facility at Huron and a series of small rural post offices slated for closure are likely to get a reprieve under a bill passed by the U.S. Senate on Wednesday.

The bill passed in the Democratic-led Senate, but the Republican-led U.S. House has a group of competing proposals at odds with the Senate’s bill.

Under the Senate-passed bill, the Huron mail processing facility would likely remain open due to a requirement to maintain overnight mail delivery between nearby communities, said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.

“It would be virtually impossible to get same-day delivery if you were running everything through Sioux Falls,” Thune said. “This does buy some time on the closure of processing facilities.”

Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., said the bill isn’t perfect, but it would help rural communities, if it were to become law, by delaying closures of rural post offices and continuing overnight mail delivery.

“It does address the need to put the postal service on a more stable fiscal path without putting services in rural communities in jeopardy,” Johnson said. “These changes will save jobs and protect the interests of rural states like South Dakota. Now that the Senate has acted and prevented drastic cuts in service, the House of Representatives should pass this bipartisan bill.”

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