State, federal officials ask USPS to keep mail sorting in Reno
Federal and state officials from Nevada are joining a growing call against a proposal by the U.S. Postal Service that would repurpose a Reno mail-processing facility over concerns it would disrupt the timeliness of parcel deliveries and unnecessarily send Nevadans’ mail to California.
In a letter Wednesday to U.S. Postmaster General Louis Dejoy, a bipartisan trio from Nevada’s congressional delegation expressed “serious concern” about the agency’s plan to turn the Reno Processing and Distribution Center into a so-called local processing center.
The conversion is projected to save the USPS up to $4.2 million annually, according to an initial review of the proposal dated Feb. 6.
But such a retooling would leave the processing and distribution center in Sacramento, Calif., as the next closest center to service mail to Northern Nevada addresses.
Among the chief concerns the lawmakers highlighted in their letter to Dejoy — who was appointed in 2020 by then-president Donald Trump — was how the change could impede on-time mail service for those who rely on the Postal Service for commerce as well as on-time delivery of prescription medications and Social Security benefits in some of the most rural pockets of the state.
“Diverting their mail outside the state and back again raises serious concerns,” wrote Democratic U.S. Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto, along with U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei, a Republican, adding that the change could disproportionately delay prescription drug deliveries for veterans and seniors. “USPS is also how many Nevadans conduct commerce, pay their bills, vote in federal and state elections, and respond to time-sensitive matters,” they wrote
Rod Spurgeon, a USPS spokesperson, told the Sun in an email the service had received the letter and would respond directly to the lawmakers. Spurgeon also noted USPS was still reviewing public feedback and that a timeframe hadn’t been made regard
ing the implementation of the plan, if it were to be finalized.
“We’re reviewing all comments from the local community before making any decision,” Spurgeon said, adding that under the plan “incoming mail destined for the Reno Local Processing Center (LPC) coverage area from around the country will aggregate in Sacramento, then be transported to Reno. Once at the Reno LPC, mail will be processed into carrier route sequence — essentially preparing it for delivery by the carrier.”
The USPS standard for receiving and delivering local mail around Reno is between two and three days, Spurgeon said, which the lawmakers said in their letter the Postal Service already struggled to meet. Sacramento is roughly 164 miles from Reno but is separated by the Sierra Nevada. Winter weather and traffic crashes along Interstate 80 through those mountains can make for “often difficult road conditions,” a major challenge to the on-time delivery standard. Blizzard warnings for the Sierra are in effect through Saturday, with up to 10 feet of snow forecast.
The USPS initial findings say the Reno plant could see up to $8 million in new investments as part of a larger 10-year, $40 billion modernization strategy. Retooling the Reno plant as a local processing center would allow it to be outfitted with new sorting equipment and allow the branch to offer “expanded and streamlined” package processing and distribution capabilities, as well as packaging services currently offered to the public.
Further, the proposed move has sparked concern by election officials and political activists who say sending the mail by way of California could have an impact on the state’s elections, which are conducted primarily through mail voting.
In a separate letter to Dejoy, Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar said he opposed the move for “operational and logistical” reasons and worried that mail-ballots submitted from central and northern parts of the state on Election Day might not be postmarked in time to be counted. Nevada conducts all of its elections by mail ballots.
“This has the potential to disenfranchise thousands of Nevada voters and would unquestionably impact the results of Nevada’s elections,” wrote Aguilar, a Democrat.
By taking Nevada’s mail ballots to California for processing before being returned to the state, the USPS would be removing those ballots from their original legal jurisdiction, which has the possibility to impede courts, investigators and “information gathering into any irregularities in the mail voting process,” Aguilar added.
“Elections are a matter of complete state responsibility and your proposed action would remove the opportunity for us to manage our elections.”
Elizabeth Ray, communications director for Gov. Joe Lombardo, a Republican, said in a message to the Sun that the governor’s office is “concerned about the implications of the USPS proposal and has encouraged impacted state agencies to detail their concerns about the proposal to USPS.”
Ray, however, did not answer whether Lombardo’s office has been in contact with the Postal Service.
In a post Wednesday to X (formerly Twitter), Sigal Chattah, a Nevada committeewoman to the Republican National Committee, called on the governor to do as much and said the USPS proposal amounted to “a direct attempt to interfere with the 2024 election.”
“Are we SERIOUSLY gonna let Nevada ballots go through California? What a coincidence — during a presidential year, when Trump is the presumptive nominee,” Chattah said in a separate post.
Other conservatives in the Nevada political sphere have urged Lombardo to take executive action, though it’s unclear whether such a move would be legal. Stephanie Phillips, a real estate agent running in the Republican primary to challenge Rosen in November, on X also echoed calls for Lombardo to take action.
“Stop this insanity,” she posted.
U.S. Senate hopeful Sam Brown, who according to a recent Emerson College poll is the leading Republican field to challenge Rosen, called on fellow GOP voters statewide to share their concerns over the proposal ahead of Wednesday’s deadline for public comment.
“We are encouraging all Nevada Republicans to voice their concerns about this terrible move that puts thousands of ballots at risk of being thrown out,” Brown wrote.
Washoe County officials have also asked the USPS not to move forward with the plan, according to the Reno Gazette Journal.