Senate Measure May Save Stamford Mail Plant

STAMFORD, Conn. — Stamford’s mail processing center may not be closing now that the U.S. Senate has passed a postal reform bill [April 25], Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s, I-Conn., said in a press release.

Closing of the Stamford plant was a part of a Postal Service plan to cut $20 billion in annual costs to restore financial stability, the release said. The bill Senate bill, passed April 25, would save the Postal Service some $19.5 billion annually, the release said.

“It is too soon to celebrate, but if the provision in the Senate postal reform bill on minimum delivery standards remains intact, Connecticut communities will experience no loss of postal services or delayed mail delivery,” Lieberman, the sponsor of the bill, said in the release.

“This bipartisan legislation is a good first step, but only a first step, to preserving the processing plants in Stamford and Wallingford that are central to maintaining that standard of service,” U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in the release.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahue said in a release that the Postal Service release would have preferred to go with its own plan to regain stability, and not have the Senate interfere. “The Postal Service does not seek to be a burden to the American taxpayer, and we believe such an outcome is entirely avoidable,” he said in the release.

The Postal Service is funded by the sales of postage, products and other services, not taxes, the release said. The postal service feels the use of electronic mail services makes it unnecessary to keep underused locations open, the release said.

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