Press Releases

(Washington, DC) – U.S. Congressman Ed Case (HI-01) today announced that the post office that has served the Mānoa community for decades will remain open following a letter he sent to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to reconsider the decision to close the facility at the end of this month.

“This is certainly good news, not just for the 24,000 residents in the community I was privileged to represent for so many years in our State House, but for delivery of government services where people live and work wherever possible,” said Case. “I applaud our local, regional and national USPS for taking a second look, recognizing local realities and making it work.”

Case said the United States Postal Service (USPS) reached an agreement with the operator of the Mānoa Contract Postal Unit (CPU) that will allow him to continue operations at the Mānoa Marketplace.

The USPS had initially called for the closure because the agency had denied the operator’s request to account for increased costs including but not limited to the landlord’s proposal to raise lease rents on the operator. The operator concluded then that it could not continue with a financially viable operation.

In his letter to the Postmaster General, Case, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, pointed to the concern that “because of Hawaii’s unique circumstances including very high land prices and cost of goods and services, many federal cost-benefit analysis formulas are not appropriate for Hawai‘i.”  In the past, Case has requested various studies from the General Services Administration to ensure that its leasing equations account for these higher costs. 

Contract postal units are supplier-owned or suppler-leased sites operated by private vendors under contract to the USPS to provide postal products to the public at USPS prices.

Attachment: Case letter to the Postmaster General dated September 17, 2021

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