Congressman Denny Rehberg

BILLINGS, MT - Montana’s Congressman, U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg (R) today announced the United States Postal Service has agreed to continue its airmail service in Montana.

“The Postal Service came to the right decision today, allowing Montanans to get the same quality, speedy service that everyone else gets from their postal carriers,” Rehberg said. “Continuing this service is a victory for rural Montana.”

USPS officials today informed Rehberg of their decision to leave, unchanged, Montana’s airmail delivery, following a meeting Friday [Dec. 13] with a member of Rehberg’s staff. In that meeting, USPS officials heard Rehberg’s concerns over their proposal to discontinue airmail delivery in Montana.

Earlier this year, the USPS announced it would terminate its so-called ASYS-R regional airmail contract in May 2003 and instead use trucks for rural mail delivery – a move that Rehberg said would slow delivery, create delays during inclement weather and cost jobs and infrastructure investments for regional airlines. Postal Service officials called the move necessary as part of a directive to trim $5 billion from its budget by 2006. Fighting the move, Rehberg insisted rural areas would not be afforded the same service as urban areas, while being charged the same postal rates.

Rehberg, in a September 5 letter signed by nine other Congressmen, urged the USPS to reconsider its plans to terminate the contract. “We feel strongly that this proposal is unjust and would severely and negatively impact our constituents – America’s rural communities.”

Today’s decision means the USPS will continue contracting with private regional airlines to ensure timely delivery of mail to rural Montanans. Service includes delivery to airmail delivery to Billings, Butte, Great Falls, Helena, Havre, Missoula, Wolf Point, Bozeman, and Kalispell.

Letter:

September 5, 2002

Paul E. Vogel
Vice President, Network Operations Management
United States Postal Service
475 L’Enfant Plaza, SW / Room 701
Washington, DC 20260-7100

Dear Mr. Vogel:

We are writing to express our concern with the US Postal Service’s proposal to eliminate the ASYS-R contract. These important contracts allow regional air carriers throughout the nation to support and maintain efficient and cost effective mail service to rural communities. Eliminating these contracts would erode mail service to our rural constituents, jeopardize critical jobs in local communities and devastate small, rural and regional air carriers.

The mission of the US Postal Service is to provide reliable mail delivery to every household in America. We believe the elimination of the ASYS-R contract would only serve to undermine this critical mission. Such action would jeopardize the long-held standard of 3-day mail service which is the backbone of commerce and communications in America’s rural communities and by eliminating the ASYS-R contracts the USPS may in fact create a two-tiered system that provides first-class mail service to urban customers while relegating rural communities to the status of second-class customers. A resulting drop in service to rural customers would further diminish Postal Service revenues.

We believe the current ASYS-R contract is sound and reasonable. It preserves quality mail service for rural America. We urge the US Postal Service to reconsider its plans to eliminate the ASYS-R contract. We feel strongly that this proposal is unjust and would severely and negatively impact our constituents - America’s rural communities.

Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Denny Rehberg
Member of Congress
Montana

BILLINGS, MT - Montana’s Congressman, U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) hailed today’s decision by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick to initiate a formal complaint with the World Trade Organization against the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB). Rehberg, who in January urged the Bush Administration to “take strong action” against the CWB, called today’s decision “a necessary step to counter the unjust and unreasonable trade practices” of the Canadian Wheat Board.

“U.S. farmers and producers operating within our free market system cannot fairly compete with a Canadian monopoly whose special privileges and loopholes allow Canada to undercut the price of U.S. wheat, both in the United States and around the world,” Rehberg, a Member of the House Agriculture Committee, contended.

“I am pleased the U.S. Trade Representative has listened to the pleas of Montana’s wheat producers to act against these practices that undermine the global trading system at the expense of American jobs and economic security,” Rehberg said.

In January, Rehberg joined a group of Senators and Congressmen on a letter urging the President to “take strong action on behalf of America’s wheat farmers” and “discipline the anti-competitive practices of the CWB.”

“A North Dakota State University study concluded that these unfair imports cost U.S. farmers $100 million annually in lost sales and lower prices,” Rehberg and his colleagues said in their January 25, 2002, letter.

BILLINGS, MT - Montana’s Congressman, U.S. Representative Denny Rehberg (R), today pledged to “continue fighting” for more Amtrak service in Montana.

“We’re going to do everything we can to keep Amtrak together, to get it the funding that is necessary,” Rehberg said. “At the same time we’re going to call upon Amtrak to continue to improve their management style. We’ve got a lot of things that we’ve pointed out within our Transportation Committee that I’m a member of, and we’re going see that Amtrak has a future.”

“In addition to securing and maintaining the Northern line, I also want to continue to push to try and expand Amtrak service through the southern part of the state where we used to have a line that was dropped a couple of years ago. The more service we receive on Amtrak, the better for the people of the state of Montana. We need that service and we’re going to continue fighting for it.”

Rehberg, a Member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, also defended Montana’s Essential Air Service (EAS), calling it “absolutely critical.”

“People of eastern Montana and the rural areas of western Montana deserve every bit as much opportunity to have access to air travel as anyone else,” Rehberg said. “That’s why we heavily subsidize from the federal level our highway construction, that’s why we were involved in railroads in the past, and that’s why we deal with issues such as Amtrak.”

“Montana is one of those states where we have large geographical areas but not a lot of population. While I’m a conservative Republican and we do everything we can to balance the budget and we try and make the dollars go as far as possible, there are certain things that we subsidize that are absolutely critical. One of those is essential air service. It’s absolutely critical for the people of eastern Montana to have essential air service as well, so we’re going to continue to see that that is adequately funded.”

BILLINGS, MT - Montana’s Congressman, U.S. Representative Denny Rehberg (R), today issued the following statement concerning a recent decision by the United States Postal Service (USPS) to halt regional air mail service through private carriers and transport the mail by truck:

“The United States Postal Service wants to charge us more for less service. I’m going to do everything I can to keep that from happening. Rural states like Montana end up being the losers, because we have a large geographical area and not a lot of population. I find over and over on issues back in Washington DC, it’s not east versus west, it’s really urban versus rural. I just don’t get what the Postal Service is doing. I hope to be in a position in the new session of Congress in which I have something to say about it, and we’re just going to fight it every step of the way so that Montanans get the same quality, speedy service that everyone else gets from their postal carriers.”

The Postal Service says it’s decision to end the contract service, known as Air Systems-Regional (ASYS-R), will save $25 million, and is necessary as part of a directive to trim $5 billion from it’s budget by 2006. However, Representative Rehberg says the move essentially means rural areas will not be afforded the same service as urban areas, while being charged the same postal rates.

Rehberg and nine other Congressmen have sent a letter* to USPS officials urging the agency to reconsider its decision, which is to be implemented by May 2003. This past June, The Postal Service raised rates an average of 7.9% overall, although the cost of a first-class stamp remained at $0.37 cents.