PARCEL Act

[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4254 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 4254

   To limit the closure or consolidation of any United States Postal 
  Service processing and distribution center in States, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 2, 2024

  Mr. Tester introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To limit the closure or consolidation of any United States Postal 
  Service processing and distribution center in States, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Protecting Access to Rural Carriers 
for Every Location Act'' or the ``PARCEL Act''.

SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON CLOSING OR CONSOLIDATING POSTAL SERVICE 
              PROCESSING AND DISTRIBUTION CENTERS IN STATES.

    (a) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Processing and distribution center.--The term 
        ``processing and distribution center'' means a central mail 
        facility that--
                    (A) distributes and dispatches part or all of both 
                incoming mail and outgoing mail for a designated 
                service area;
                    (B) provides instructions on the preparation of 
                collection mail, dispatch schedules, and sorting plan 
                requirements to mailers; and
                    (C) is a sectional center facility, a general mail 
                facility, or a dedicated mail processing facility 
                without a station or branch.
            (2) State.--The term ``State'' means a State or the 
        District of Columbia.
    (b) Prohibition.--The United States Postal Service may not close, 
consolidate, downgrade, or take any other similar action with respect 
to a processing and distribution center in a State if such action would 
result in--
            (1) the processing operations of the processing and 
        distribution center being relocated outside the boundaries of 
        the State; or
            (2) degradation of local mail delivery.
    (c) Limitation.--The United States Postal Service may not move 
forward on any decision to close, consolidate, downgrade, or take any 
other similar action with respect to a processing and distribution 
center in a State unless the United States Postal Service--
            (1) completes a review of the anticipated impact of 
        geographical considerations, including mountain passes, on mail 
        delivery following such action, and adequately addresses any 
        issues raised by the review; and
            (2) publishes a public input summary that reflects 
        favorably on the decision.
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