Designating Single, Unique Zip Codes

Floor Speech

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Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of a bill that the House will be voting on this week, H.R. 8753, which directs the U.S. Postal Service to designate a single, unique ZIP Code for certain communities.

H.R. 8753 will provide long overdue relief to 45 mostly small towns in 13 States from Connecticut to California by fixing a chaotic situation where the residents' ZIP Codes are hopelessly carved up in a hodgepodge that results in lost mail, delayed mail, and wrong deliveries.

One of the towns included in H.R. 8753's list is the small town of Scotland, Connecticut, located in the heart of eastern Connecticut, which I have the great privilege to represent.

Scotland is the quintessential historic New England small town with a population of 1,576 people. It may be small, but its history is rich.

One of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Samuel Huntington, was born in his family's home located in Scotland, and today it is the significant part of the Rochambeau National History Trail which was the route that the American Continental Army under the leadership of George Washington and John Baptiste Rochambeau marched in 1781 from Newport, Rhode Island, to Yorktown, Virginia, where the Battle of Yorktown took place and the small army of colonists defeated the greatest military power of the British Empire.

Today, in 2024, it is a town that the U.S. Postal Service has assigned five, that is right, five ZIP Codes that caused endless aggravation and harm to the towns' residents. Delivery of Social Security notices, checks, Medicare information, prescription medication, notices from banks, employers, absentee ballots and absentee ballot applications are all disrupted day in and day out.

Town leaders in my office have tried, along with Senator Chris Murphy, to get this ridiculous almost Monty Pythonesque absurdity resolved for many years with the Postal Service, to know avail.

This week's action by the House will mandate that USPS address this problem once and for all by designating a single, unique ZIP Code for these 45 small towns.

Mr. Speaker, this vote has been a long time in coming. I recognize the town's first selectman, Mr. Dana Barrow, and his predecessor, Mr. Gary Greenberg, who have diligently raised this issue, along with the town postmasters, with the Postal Service for many years laying out the real-life consequences of fragmenting this small community and essentially disconnecting it to the vital services that the residents require.

This week the House can help Scotland, as well as 44 other similarly situated towns, by passing H.R. 8753. The bill was reported out of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee unanimously and has strong, bipartisan support.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleague to support this measure, send it to the Senate for swift passage and to the President's desk. The hardworking, taxpaying citizens of these towns deserve to get the same level of postal service as every other community.

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