The Postal Regulatory Commission has announced its schedule for considering the Postal Service’s request for an advisory opinion on its plans to close as many as 3,650 post offices in the near future. Interested parties need to notify the PRC of their intention to intervene in the case by August 19. The first hearing to consider the USPS’s direct evidence is scheduled for September 8.

All interested persons are hereby notified that notices of intervention in this proceeding shall be due on or before August 19, 2011. Responses to discovery shall be due within 7 days.The hearing to receive the Postal Service’s direct case shall begin September 8, 2011.

Intervenor evidence must be submitted by September 16, 2011.

The hearing to receive intervenor evidence shall begin October 3, 2011.

Unless the Postal Service elects to submit surrebuttal evidence, briefs shall be due October 14, 2011, and reply briefs shall be due October 21, 2011.

If the Postal Service elects to submit surrebuttal evidence, that evidence is due by October 11, 2011.

The hearing to receive the surrebuttal evidence shall be October 17, 2011.

If surrebuttal evidence is submitted, briefs shall be due October 26, 2011, and reply briefs shall be due November 2, 2011.

Order_No_778