Postal Service to study if rural mail is being delivered on time

The Financial Services and General Government appropriation bill for 2016 includes language directing the U.S. Postal Service "to expand the methodology to report mail delivery performance to specifically include mail delivery from rural towns to other rural towns; from rural towns to urban areas; and from urban areas to rural towns," reports the National Newspaper Association.

The campaign was spearheaded by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who told NNA, “Rural mail delivery has been increasingly strained in recent years, especially with additional mail processing center closures in my state. Many rural Missourians have experienced delayed mail, and it is a problem that needs to be addressed . . . this is a constructive step forward to address the ongoing challenges facing rural mail service.”

Language specifies that the Senate Appropriations Committee "requests this methodology within 60 days of enactment of the Act, with a subsequent report on the data gathered using this methodology to be provided to the Committee no later than March 1, 2016," reports NNA. While the bill still has to pass the House and Senate, NNA chief executive officer Tonda Rush said "she believed the study would begin even without the final passage of the legislation."