Congressman Brian Higgins released the following statement regarding the approval of S. 1789, the 21st Century Postal Service Act, by the U.S. Senate: 

• Nearly 700 people are employed at the Buffalo Mail Processing Facility 
• 5,000 people in the Buffalo region are directly employed in the printing industry with many thousands more employed in supporting occupations.  Buffalo’s unique position as the gateway to the U.S. for Toronto and the golden horseshoe of Southern Ontario is critical to these companies’ viability.
• In addition WNY is home to 50 companies with more than 16,000 employees in back office operations including: HSBC, M&T Bank, First Niagara Bank, Geico, Chase, Citigroup, etc.   Companies like these rely on next day delivery.
• The Buffalo facility processed 30 million pieces of mail a week from Canada, a statistic that illustrates the strong interconnectivity between the Western New York and Southern Ontario economies. 

• This bill institutes a one-year moratorium on all post office closings and consolidations. 
• In addition it requires the USPS to maintain certain overnight delivery standards for 3 years. 
• The bill will require additional evaluation before a processing facility can be closed such as determining economic impact and providing alternative plans for closing the facility.
• This bill allows the USPS to recoup $11 billion in overpayments to its pension that will help in the short term to fund USPS operations
• Caps bonuses to postal executives
• Provides greater protections for community post offices by requiring the Postal Service to consider several factors before closing post offices, such as lack of access to broadband and internet services, transportation challenges and the age and demographic factors in the area served.