Political Quotes

“I appreciate the work that has been done on this amendment. I know there is a lot of interest on both sides of the aisle because of the concern about rural post offices. This establishes, again, some standards. It effectively asks the Postal Service before it considers closing a rural post office for 1 year after enactment of this legislation that it explore every other opportunity to continue to provide service other than closing the post office. The one clear authority given in the modified amendment is to close a rural post office when there is no significant community opposition, which is to say, when the Postal Service has convinced the people of the community that they have a good alternative to the current post office. So I think we have reasoned together. I hope this enables our colleagues who may have been thinking of more absolute prohibitions to closing post offices to step back from that. This is a rational, fair approach. I support the modification and the amendment. I urge that the amendment be adopted by voice vote. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there further debate? If not, the question is on agreeing to the amendment. The amendment (No. 2031), as modified, was agreed to.”