Thanks for taking the time to respond and for reaching out to Senator Tina
Smith's office. I also received a response from Representative Omar's
office in a similar vein with respect to USPS not being at liberty to
discuss the address of locations under consideration but that constituents
should provide feedback to the USPS. I'm wondering if you would be able to
get clarification on the comment from Senator Smith's office as this seems
to contradict USPS's desire for input from the community?
"They can’t give out the actual locations that they’re looking at *because
they’re in active negotiations, *and if they were public they could be
undercut or the properties could back out. But the most important factor
USPS wants the public to weigh in on is what factors do they most want to
be considered?"
My understanding is that the "notice of public comment" period is still
open? Correct? 30 days from 12/28/2020? And yet the above states that USPS
is in active negotiations? So to what end is our feedback on anything being
sought and considered if this is the case? How can we be encouraged to
engage in the process if the engagement is of no import or consequence?
And, per the response from Representative Omar's office, "We have requested
the briefing for local elected officials on the new post office location,
but so far the USPS has not provided us with a date of when that would
happen." Isn't Congress responsible for establishing post offices per
Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution? Is that not correct? If so, how
is it that our local representative (Representative Omar) is waiting on a
meeting to be informed by USPS where this location will be?
Again, thank you for taking the time to respond.
Kind regards,
Anne Thompson