Montana’s post offices and mail sorting facilities targeted for potential closure will remain open until at least mid-May, Sens. Jon Tester and Max Baucus announced Tuesday.

“Today’s announcement is a win for Montana, and credit belongs to the thousands of Montanans who raised their concerns about the importance of postal service and the jobs it supports in rural America,” Tester said in a news release.

The five-month moratorium is intended to give Congress more time to pass a long-term solution to stabilize the Postal Service, which has been losing billions of dollars a year and tapped out a $15 billion line of credit with U.S. Treasury.

Sorting facilities in Kalispell and Missoula are among 252 slated for possible closure nationwide as the financially struggling Postal Service looks for billions of dollars of annual cost savings.

The two sorting facilities would be consolidated in Spokane, ending the overnight delivery of local first-class mail in Western Montana.

The proposal drew strong outcry in both Montana cities during recent public hearings.

Post offices in Elmo, Olney and Stryker are among 85 in Montana and 3,700 nationwide that are being reviewed by the Postal Service for possible closure.

Tester is a member of the Senate committee that oversees the Postal Service.

He said Congress needs more time to fix a 2006 law that requires the Postal Service to pre-fund 75 years of future retiree health benefits over six years.

That law is costing the Postal Service about $5.5 billion a year and making it harder for the Postal Service, which has also seen steep decreases in mail volumes, to run in the black.