LAS VEGAS– The USPS revealed on Tuesday it will follow through with its strategy to reroute Reno-area mail processing to Sacramento, a relocation that drew bipartisan ire from Nevada legislators while raising concerns about the rate at which mail tallies can be processed in a populated part of a vital swing state.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has actually cast the irreversible step as an expense conserving relocation, however federal, state and regional legislators have actually grumbled about an absence of openness at the same time that might slow mail throughout the area.
Under the strategy, all mail from the Reno location will go through Sacramento before reaching its location– even from one side of the city to the other.
Democratic Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, the state’s leading election authorities, formerly stated moving operations might slow the processing of mail tallies, and “has the prospective to disenfranchise countless Nevada citizens and would undoubtedly affect the outcomes of Nevada’s elections.”
In the Tuesday declaration, the USPS stated “business case” supported moving the procedures to California, since the majority of the mail processed in Reno is predestined somewhere else. The Reno center will remain open as a location that prepares mail before it’s sent. USPS will invest $13.4 million in the center, primarily for remodellings, per the company.
“This prepare for the Reno center will assist USPS attain the core objectives of our Delivering for America strategy: monetary sustainability for our company and enhanced service dependability for our consumers,” representative Rod Spurgeon stated in an emailed declaration.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen, who opposes the restructuring, formerly informed press reporters that USPS authorities showed their tentative strategy was to start the rerouting in January, after the 2024 election. In a declaration Tuesday to The Associated Press, Spurgeon stated there is no set date for application.
Legislators have actually revealed issues that mail service can be captured in traffic hold-ups even in the very best of weather condition by the hour-long big salami drive over the Sierra Nevada, which lies in between Reno and Sacramento. The location is likewise understood for severe blizzards throughout much of the year, consisting of one in March that discarded as much as 10 feet of snow and supplied ammunition for critics of the relocation.
Northern Nevada’s congressional delegation– that includes Rosen, Democratic U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei– sent out a letter to USPS opposing the relocation and have actually long spoken up versus it.
Other opposition originated from Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo and the Washoe County Commission, that includes Reno.
In a declaration following the statement, Rosen stated she was “annoyed that out-of-touch Washington bureaucrats believe they understand what’s finest for our state.”
“Let me be definitely clear: this battle is not over,” she stated in the declaration. “As a member of the committee with jurisdiction over the Postal Service, I will continue to battle versus this inexpedient choice and check out all offered choices to avoid it from being executed.”
Lombardo stated his administration,