Postal Service must disclose emergency closures online within a year
H.R. 6811 — Postal Suspension Transparency Act · Filed by Chris Pappas (D-NH) · 5 cosponsors · Introduced Dec 17, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill requires the U.S. Postal Service to create and maintain a public website showing which post offices are temporarily closed due to emergencies, along with details like closure dates, reasons, alternative services, and estimated reopening dates. Citizens can search by address or ZIP code to find the nearest open facility and available alternatives like curbside delivery.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is a transparency requirement—mandating public disclosure of information about postal service disruptions. It creates no new regulatory authority, no subsidies, and no exemptions; it simply requires the Postal Service to publish data it already collects.
What the text implies
- The website may expose patterns of chronic underinvestment or operational fragility in specific regions, potentially creating political pressure for postal service funding or restructuring.
- Bulk-download and open-data provisions enable third-party developers and advocacy groups to build independent tracking tools, multiplying the transparency effect beyond the official website.
- The one-year implementation deadline is tight for a federal agency; delays or incomplete rollout could become a compliance issue and further public accountability pressure.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens gain transparency and practical information about postal service disruptions that directly affect their ability to access mail services. The bill imposes no new costs on the public and creates no restrictions on citizen rights—it only mandates disclosure of information the Postal Service already possesses about its own operational status.
Named in the bill
U.S. Postal Service, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, 39 USC Chapter 36, Postal Service Handbook PO-101
Where it stands
5 cosponsors: 3 Republicans, 2 Democrats.
- Dec 17, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Dec 17, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $28,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 16 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Chris Pappas, the sponsor, reported $1,125,432 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- National Association of Postal Supervisors — $28,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 2, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,381 characters) on Aug 19, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 2, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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