Montana Senators Agree: No Missoula Post Office Changes

They don't always see eye-to-eye, especially during a heated elected year.

But Montana's two U.S. senators agree that mail processing operations shouldn't be moved out of Missoula without a lot further analysis. And even with the U.S. Postal Service delaying a switch of those operations to Spokane, both are pledging to keep an eye on the agency.

While news that the U.S.P.S. is going to delay a plan to shift mail processing out of Missoula is generating a sense of relief by the plans' opponents, neither U-S Senator Jon Tester or Senator Steve Daines, are signaling their concerns have been satisfied.

RELATED: USPS Details Plans for Mail Processing Shift

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Concerns remain

Tester is still worried about a long-term slide in Montana mail service.

"Postmaster DeJoy is putting us in a situation where you just can't meet the postal deadlines that are out there," Tester complains. "It used to take a couple of days to mail a letter 10,12 years ago they shut down a bunch of these mail and processing centers and other parts of the state. Now it's three to four days. This is the 21st century. We've got to be better than that."

Bi-partisan action supported

Both Tester and Daines had supported bi-partisan legislation that would have blocked the operations transfer here, and elsewhere.

"Maybe we should still do it," Tester told me last week. "I mean, because the truth is, is if we if we keep the pressure on, then he will know that this is a bad decision for rural America. It's a bad decision for Montana."

Daines tells me anything that further delays mail delivery times is intolerable.

"So many Montanans rely on the United States Postal Service for critical communication, prescription medicines, bills, paychecks, and more, which is why any sort of delay or disruption in service really hurts our communities," Daines stressed when we talked just before the delay was announced. "We cannot leave Montanans high and dry without USPS services. So that's a fight we've got going on right now. And we'll continue till we get to the bottom of this."

Losing out on upgrades?

I asked Tester if he was worried the delay, and the opposition, might ruin chances for the Missoula post office to receive the additional upgrades that were part of the plan…

"We're going to continue to watch moving forward and if they're doing upgrades, Missoula should be in line just like everybody else to get those upgrades."