{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://balint.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=364", "Sanders, Welch, Balint Demand Postmaster General DeJoy Provides a Date for the Opening of the Montpelier Post Office Following Flooding", "2024-10-01", "2024", "2024-10", "Democrat", "House", "VT", "Becca Balint", "B001318", "balint.house.gov", "balint", "https://balint.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=27", "scraper", "Montpelier, VT\u2014U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and U.S. Representative Becca Balint (VT-At Large) on Tuesday sent a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy urging immediate action to reopen the Montpelier Post Office, which has been closed for 449 days following devastating flooding across the state in July 2023. The Vermont Delegation demanded a written response providing a date by which the Postal Service will reopen a fully operational retail post office downtown, in Vermont\u2019s Capital City.\n\n\u201cWe write with disappointment and alarm that USPS has yet to restore retail postal services for the people of Montpelier, Vermont,\u201d said Sanders, Welch, and Balint. \u201cAs you know, it has been more than 440 days since Montpelier\u2019s post office was destroyed by catastrophic flooding\u2026USPS has an internal benchmark of restoring retail service within 180 days of a natural disaster. Yet 14 months after the flood, Montpelier still does not have a fully functioning post office. It is the only state capital in the country without one.\u201d\n\nThe Delegation continued: \u201cIn April 2024, nine months after the flood, USPS announced that it had signed a lease for a temporary retail post office located in downtown Montpelier, estimating completion and opening of the office by mid-summer. Today, that retail space consists of an empty, unstaffed room with a bank of PO boxes affixed to one wall.\u201d\n\n\u201cTo make matters worse, in the many months since the flood, USPS has been uncommunicative and unresponsive to requests from impacted residents, community organizations, and the congressional delegation for information about plans for restoring service. USPS\u2019s failure to restore retail service to Montpelier is not an anomaly; it is emblematic of a multi-faceted failure of USPS management to meet its obligations to rural customers.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe understand that USPS has faced many challenges in restoring services following the multiple floods that hit Vermont in 2023 and 2024; however, your continued failure to restore service to Montpelier over a year later has undermined Vermonters\u2019 confidence in the Postal Service. Transparency and urgent action by USPS are now needed to restore it,\u201d the lawmakers concluded.\n\nYesterday, Vermont Attorney General Charity R. Clark also called on Postmaster General DeJoy and the USPS District Management to provide a detailed timeline to restore service in Montpelier and stated, her \u201coffice is cognizant of the legal obligations on the Postal Service when it wishes to relocate, close, or consolidate a post office, whether temporarily as the result of a natural disaster like our July 2023 flood, or permanently. [Attorney General Clark is] not aware that the USPS has followed any of these regulatory requirements or timelines with regards to the Montpelier post office.\u201d\n\nRead the full letter below or here:\n\nDear Postmaster General DeJoy:\n\nWe write with disappointment and alarm that USPS has yet to restore retail postal services for the people of Montpelier, Vermont. As you know, it has been more than 440 days since Montpelier\u2019s post office was destroyed by catastrophic flooding. We respectfully demand a written response providing the date by which the Postal Service will have a fully functioning retail post office open in Montpelier.\n\nUSPS has an internal benchmark of restoring retail service within 180 days of a natural disaster. Yet 14 months after the flood, Montpelier still does not have a fully functioning post office. It is the only state capital in the country without one.\n\nIn October 2023, four months after the flood, we wrote to your office about the decision to temporarily relocate the post office to a pair of parked, inoperable mail trucks. Not only did these trucks lack power, bathrooms, and protection from the elements, they were stationed in several locations that were either unsafe or difficult to access without transportation. Following significant public outcry over working conditions and community accessibility, USPS relocated postal services to another temporary location\u2014albeit with insufficient public notice and even further from the Montpelier service area.\n\nIn April 2024, nine months after the flood, USPS announced that it had signed a lease for a temporary retail post office located in downtown Montpelier, estimating completion and opening of the office by mid-summer. Today, that retail space consists of an empty, unstaffed room with a bank of PO boxes affixed to one wall.\n\nTo make matters worse, in the many months since the flood, USPS has been uncommunicative and unresponsive to requests from impacted residents, community organizations, and the congressional delegation for information about plans for restoring service. USPS\u2019s failure to restore retail service to Montpelier is not an anomaly; it is emblematic of a multi-faceted failure of USPS management to meet its obligations to rural customers. Since 2021, postal delivery service in many rural American communities has seriously declined as a result of the Delivering for America Plan. And just last month, USPS announced plans to further slow delivery services to rural areas beginning in 2025.\n\nWe understand that USPS has faced many challenges in restoring services following the multiple floods that hit Vermont in 2023 and 2024; however, your continued failure to restore service to Montpelier over a year later has undermined Vermonters\u2019 confidence in the Postal Service. Transparency and urgent action by USPS are now needed to restore it.\n\nWe look forward to your response to this important matter by October 15, 2024.\n\nSincerely,\n\nSenator Bernie Sanders\n\nSenator Peter Welch\n\nRepresentative Becca Balint\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:57:20Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://balint.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=364"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.6558408495038748, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}