FYI - Mailing during the shutdown

[18'er]

I spoke with my Senator's office (last nomination to complete-just received last LOR) this morning and the service academy coordinator told me that all Senate mail, whether addressed to Washington DC or the local office, is routed through the "Secure Mail Processing Facility" in DC. That facility is shut down at the present time. She suggested I FedEx or UPS my packet to the local office and it would be delivered.

She did say that they would still honor the postmark date of mailed items that might be delayed through the shutdown of the Secure Mail Facility in DC.

 

[soccmomer]

OK, we just mailed out 2 packets on 9/30, 1 to a local office and one to a NYC office (we are in NY). I sent them certified mail so I could confirm delivery. The local one was delivered there yesterday (not routed through DC), and the NYC packet also did not go through DC, and says "out for delivery". So we will see if it gets delivered or not. Glad ours did not go through DC!

 

[soccmomer]

OK, update. USPS said office closed so they left a slip. Went to that Senator's website and it says that the offices are closed for "non-essential" functions: phones will not be answered, e-mails will not be answered, mail will be held at the sorting facility (in this case NYC) for delivery once the gov opens back up. Interesting that both of the Senators for NY have that same type of message, yet our Congressman does not AND someone was in his local office yesterday to sign for the packet.

 

[pointguard]

PA US Senator's working,

and updating their Websites with 'Received' as things are delivered and/or mailed directly to them. So glad........

 

[soccmomer]

One of our Senators sent an auto e-mail every time something was received by them (very specific instructions on exactly how each recommender was to e-mail their letter, etc), but no way to check on-line to see if the packet is complete(we just kept track of the e-mails). The other to MOC's only receive things by snail-mail, and there is also no way to check status on line, which is why we sent them certified mail.