Murphy, Barrasso Lead Bipartisan Letter to Advance Zip Code Reform in Congress

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) led a bipartisan group of senators in a letter to U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs leadership, urging them to bring legislation before the committee to modernize the United States Postal Service (USPS) process of assigning zip codes. USPS’ broken zip code process is creating major disruptions and inconveniences for small and rural communities across the country, including lost mail, confusion over school zoning, and persistent problems with voter registration. Earlier this year, Murphy introduced a bill mandating the USPS assign Scotland, Connecticut - a community of 1,500 people that is presently forced to navigate six zip codes - a single, unique zip code. “We write you today to encourage the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs to take up zip code legislation that addresses a number of communities in our states. As you know, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has a process to issue unique zip codes for communities, but that process is broken,” the senators wrote. The senators emphasized there is growing momentum in Congress for a bill to provide lasting zip code reform to communities throughout the United States: “There are several bills that have been introduced in the House of Representatives and Senate that would direct USPS to issue unique zip codes. We believe these bills can be merged without removing any communities into a consolidated zip code bill to efficiently achieve this objective.” The letter was also signed by U.S. Senators John Curtis (R-Utah), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), and John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.). A full transcript of the letter is available below. A copy of the letter is available here . Chairman Paul and Ranking Member Peters: We write you today to encourage the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs to take up zip code legislation that addresses a number of communities in our states. As you know, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has a process to issue unique zip codes for communities, but that process is broken. There are several bills that have been introduced in the House of Representatives and Senate that would direct USPS to issue unique zip codes. We believe these bills can be merged without removing any communities into a consolidated zip code bill to efficiently achieve this objective. Thank you for your consideration and attention to these zip code bills. We standby to assist the Committee in this effort.