Jack Bergman

WASHINGTON DC – This week, Rep. Jack Bergman helped secure the inclusion of key bipartisan priorities to protect rural mail service in the Fiscal Year 2026 Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) report, which recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives.

The language, which Rep. Bergman secured alongside fellow Congressional Postal Service Caucus co-chairs Representatives Nikki Budzinski (IL-13) and Chris Pappas (NH-01), Jared Golden (ME-02), and Harriet Hageman (WY-AL), seeks to address USPS plans to reduce the frequency that mail is picked up from rural post offices, consolidate processing facilities, and close local post offices.

“For many families in Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, reliable mail service isn’t a convenience – it’s a necessity,” Bergman said in a press release on Thursday, “Seniors depend on the mail for prescriptions, workers rely on it for paychecks and important documents, and small businesses count on it to reach their customers. These bipartisan provisions push back against proposals that would make mail delivery slower and less reliable for rural communities.”

Specifically, the FSGG report includes language that:

– Calls on the U.S. Postal Service to reevaluate its Regional Transportation Optimization plan to ensure rural Americans do not face additional delays caused by reduced mail pickups at post offices located more than 50 miles from processing centers.

– Recommends halting the consolidation or realignment of processing and logistics facilities that serve postal districts failing to meet established on-time delivery standards for First-Class mail.

– Urges the Postal Service to pause any plans to close post offices that serve more than 15,000 people or where no alternative post office exists within 15 miles.