Editor's note: The above video about the potential closure of Redmond's USPS mail processing facility originally aired on Jan. 31, 2022.
REDMOND, Wash. — The United States Postal Service (USPS) has scrapped plans to close a mail distribution facility in Redmond that processes about 1 million pieces of mail every day.
USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy had considered closing the facility in Redmond and consolidating it with a facility in Tukwila.
The move would have impacted 17 cities from North Bend to Everett encompassing nearly 1 million people in King and Snohomish counties. Some employees would have had to commute more than 50 miles if the consolidation went through, according to sources inside the facility.
Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (WA-01) fought the decision and sent a letter to DeJoy in January asking him to "suspend plans to move the Redmond center."
DelBene said the USPS was using decade-old data that doesn't take into account the region's growing population.
"For example, the population of Kirkland, which is served by this facility, has almost doubled in the last decade," DelBene said in January.
DelBene celebrated the news Wednesday and said, "now is the time to invest in expanding postal capacity, not curbing it.”
"The planned consolidation of the Redmond facility would have further delayed mail delivery to nearly 1 million residents in King and Snohomish counties by routing mail through Tukwila," DelBene said in a statement. "We delivered for our communities today by finally putting an end to this planned consolidation."
The postal service lost nearly $5 billion last year.
The USPS announced a plan last year to close 18 facilities across the country in an effort to make the agency more efficient.