Ocoee has seven zip codes. Only one of them actually says “Ocoee.”
City leaders have spent more than 15 years trying to fix that, and at the Feb. 17 commission meeting, Assistant City Manager Craig Shadrix told commissioners the effort is finally gaining traction. He said Senator Rand Paul — who chairs the Senate committee where the city’s bill is pending and who had previously blocked it — is now “championing” the legislation. The commission unanimously approved funding a second lobbying trip to Washington, sending Shadrix, Commissioner Rosemary Wilsen and Mayor Rusty Johnson to Capitol Hill on March 16 and 17.
“This is the first glimmer of hope I feel that we got,” Johnson said of an October trip that he said produced the shift in Paul’s position.
The public legislative record tells a more cautious story. Senate Bill 1455, the legislation that includes Ocoee, was introduced on April 10, 2025, read twice and referred to Paul’s Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. As of mid-February 2026, that is the only recorded action on the bill — no markup, no committee vote, no floor action. Three other zip code bills are also sitting in Paul’s committee with no recorded action.
But the city says the real movement is happening behind the scenes. Michael Rumer, Ocoee’s assistant city manager, said recent conversations between Van Scoyoc Associates — the city’s federal lobbyist — and Paul’s office indicate the senator is “attempting to hotline” both S.1455 and S. 2961 — a Senate procedure that allows legislation to pass by unanimous consent if no senator objects.
Rumer said Shadrix’s characterization at the meeting — that the October trip helped “move it out of committee” — referred to the shift in Paul’s posture, not formal committee action. Prior to the October trip, Paul had been “holding up movement” on zip code bills, Rumer said. After meeting with members of the coalition, Paul “began efforts to move the bill.”
Hotlining is not a public process and would not appear in the legislative record until completed. If Paul’s office does hotline the bill and no senator objects, it could pass the full Senate without a committee vote or floor debate — meaning the gap between the public record and the city’s account could close quickly or not at all.
Paul’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Why five digits cost Ocoee residents real money
The zip code tangle may sound bureaucratic, but residents say it hits their wallets. The city’s primary zip code is 34761, but six other codes overlap its borders — 32703, associated with Apopka; 34734 with Gotha; 32818 and 32835 with Orlando; 34786 with Windermere; and 34787 with Winter Garden.
Auto and home insurers set rates partly by zip code — a practice called territorial rating. A 2018 Consumer Federation of America study found that good drivers in lower-income zip codes pay an average of $410 more per year than neighbors living within 100 yards in an adjacent zip code. In Florida, insurers are allowed to use zip codes as a rating factor, meaning Ocoee residents assigned to Orlando or Windermere codes may be paying premiums based on those cities’ risk profiles rather than Ocoee’s.
The city is drafting a survey to document specific premium impacts, with an anticipated release the first week of March, Rumer said. The survey will ask residents to provide information about hardships created by the zip code issue, which the city plans to present to senators during the March lobbying trip. Shadrix told commissioners that senators’ offices consistently ask for citizen examples.
“The more we hear from our citizens, the more power it is,” Shadrix said. “Believe it or not, we spent a full day meeting with senator’s office after senator’s office, and the first thing out of their mouth is, ‘Do you have specific examples from citizens?'”
Beyond insurance, residents with non-Ocoee zip codes have reported difficulty accessing city services because their IDs show addresses associated with other cities. Inaccurate census data from fractured zip codes can also affect the city’s share of federal and state funding.
How Ocoee ended up with seven zip codes
As Ocoee grew through annexations over the decades, the USPS expanded surrounding cities’ zip codes into Ocoee’s territory rather than expanding Ocoee’s own code. “Instead of the US Postal Service expanding our zip code over the years, they’ve just expanded everyone else into Ocoee,” Shadrix told commissioners.
The most visible case is the Rose Hill subdivision. In 2009, residents of Rose Hill’s Phase Two and Phase Three voted to annex into Ocoee, but their 32818 zip code — tied to Orlando — didn’t change with them. The roughly 670 residents became full Ocoee citizens, receiving city police, fire and sanitation services, but their mailing addresses still said Orlando. When the city asked the Postal Service to change the zip code, USPS refused in 2010, saying it would mean shaking up carrier routes, retraining staff and tweaking software at a five-year cost of more than $56,000. The city offered to reimburse the expense; the Postal Service wouldn’t accept the money.
The Postal Service says it would cost hundreds of millions
The Postal Service is not a passive bystander in this fight. It is actively opposing every zip code bill in Congress — and it says the price tag would be enormous.
“The U.S. Postal Service strongly opposes this type of legislation and has asked Congress to hold a hearing to examine the real-world consequences if these bills became law — something that Congress has never done,” Marti Johnson, a senior public relations representative for USPS, said in a statement.
She said the bills would impose “a minimum of $800 million in upfront costs and $90 million in new costs every year” and would “significantly degrade mail service in the affected communities and cause pervasive, chaotic service disruptions in the communities affected, and some around them.”
In a Dec. 3, 2025, letter to Chairman Paul, Postmaster General David Steiner laid out the agency’s case in detail. For H.R. 672 — the House bill that includes Ocoee and seven other communities — USPS estimated that seven of the eight cities would need entirely new postal facilities, at a cost of $23 million upfront and $1 million per year. For H.R. 3095, which covers 66 communities, the estimate rises to $190 million upfront and $8 million annually.
The letter describes a technical problem at the heart of USPS’s objection. Every piece of mail in the country is routed using a system called ZIP+4 — the nine-digit code (five digits plus a four-digit extension) that narrows a delivery down from a region to a specific block or building. Each five-digit ZIP code can hold only 10,000 of these delivery point segments. Many of the communities seeking new codes are already served by ZIP codes that are at or near that limit. Creating a new five-digit code for those areas could require the Postal Service to expand to a 12-digit coding system — a change Steiner estimated would cost at least $500 million to implement across the mail processing network.
Beyond cost, the letter warns of operational disruption. Changing ZIP codes would require relocating postal employees, rebidding highway contract routes under collective bargaining agreements, and retraining carriers. Neighboring communities that share the affected ZIP codes would also see their mail service disrupted during the transition.
USPS is proposing an alternative. In the letter, Steiner described a “Preferred Last Line” option that would allow communities like Ocoee to use their city name on mailing addresses — so mail could be addressed to “Ocoee, FL” instead of “Orlando, FL” — without changing the underlying ZIP code number. The Postal Service says this would address the identity issue at minimal cost.
But it would not address Ocoee’s core complaint: that insurance companies, census systems and other third parties use ZIP codes, not city names, to determine rates and allocate resources. The city’s argument is that as long as the ZIP code says Orlando, residents will keep paying Orlando rates.
Other states have tried a different approach to the same problem — regulating insurers rather than changing zip codes. California’s Proposition 103, passed by voters in 1988, requires auto insurers to base premiums primarily on driving record, annual mileage and years of experience rather than zip code. A 2018 Consumer Federation of America analysis found the law has saved California drivers $154 billion on auto insurance premiums over 30 years — a figure the California Department of Insurance also cited. Michigan took a similar step in 2019, passing a law that banned insurers from using zip codes, credit scores and other non-driving factors to set auto insurance rates. That law took effect in July 2020. But a 2024 investigation by The Markup found that insurers switched to geographic territories smaller than zip codes, producing similar pricing patterns in predominantly Black neighborhoods.
Florida has no such restrictions. The state allows insurers to use zip codes as a primary rating factor, meaning Ocoee’s legislative approach — changing the zip code itself — may be the only path available to its residents under current state law.
Where the legislation actually stands
Four federal bills address zip code designations this session. Ocoee appears in only two — and Rumer said that’s by design.
S.1455 — introduced by Senator Rick Scott with cosponsors Joni Ernst and Alex Padilla on April 10, 2025. This is the bill Ocoee’s delegation is lobbying for. It covers 14 communities nationwide, including Cooper City, Miami Lakes, Ocoee and the Village of Estero in Florida. S.1455 is the Senate companion to the passed H.R. 672, Rumer said. Referred to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. No further public action recorded.
H.R. 672 — introduced by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart on Jan. 23, 2025. It lists eight communities, with Ocoee at No. 5. It cleared the House Oversight Committee on a 42-to-1 vote on May 21, 2025, and passed the full House by voice vote on July 21. It was referred to Paul’s committee on July 22. No further action.
H.R. 3095 — sponsored by Rep. Lauren Boebert. The largest House bill this session, covering 66 communities. It passed the House 278 to 121 on July 21, 2025 — the same day as H.R. 672. It does not include Ocoee. Also referred to Paul’s committee on July 22 with no further action.
S. 2961 — introduced on Oct. 1, 2025, by Senators Jim Banks, Michael Bennet, Markwayne Mullin and John Hickenlooper. It covers 69 communities across 17 states, the most of any bill this session. It does not include Ocoee. Rumer described it as a “near companion” to the House bills. Referred to Paul’s committee with no further action.
Rumer said the smaller bills — S.1455 and H.R. 672 — specifically include communities that have completed the USPS appeal process and been denied. The larger bills include many jurisdictions earlier in that process. That distinction could matter: some members of Congress have discussed amending the legislation to require a completed USPS appeal before a community can be considered for a zip code change. If that amendment passes, Ocoee would already qualify under the smaller bills.
In total, four zip code bills — two passed by the House, two originating in the Senate — are all pending in the same committee under the same chairman. Paul’s office is attempting to hotline both S.1455 and S. 2961, according to Rumer. If any version passes and is signed into law, USPS would have 270 days to create and implement the new codes.
The coalition
Ocoee is part of a coalition of municipalities that have completed the USPS appeal process and been denied. Five cities have participated directly with the federal lobbyist: Ocoee, East Vale in California, Burr Ridge in Illinois, Frederick and the Town of Severance in Colorado, and Castle Pines in Colorado.
The broader coalition includes 17 cities across eight states: Centennial City in California; Caledonia and Fennville in Michigan; Canyon Lakes in California; Carmel in Indiana; Cherryhills Village in Colorado; Coconut Creek and the Village of Estero in Florida; Fairview and Fate in Texas; and Franklin in Wisconsin, according to Rumer.
What comes next
The March 16–17 lobbying trip will be funded from the city’s contingency budget, which Shadrix said has more than $107,000 available. The commission approved the expenditure unanimously. The October trip cost $4,882 for three attendees, according to Rumer.
The city pays Van Scoyoc Associates $1,000 per month — $12,000 per year — as part of the coalition’s shared lobbying arrangement. That is a fraction of what the city previously spent: Ocoee retained Alcalde & Fay for two years at $60,000 per year “with little to no results,” Rumer said.
“This is the furthest the zip code legislation has made toward passage so far,” Rumer said.
The citizen survey is expected to launch the first week of March at ocoee.org. Shadrix urged residents to participate.
The city’s path forward faces a fundamental tension: the Postmaster General is asking Paul to hold a hearing before moving any zip code bills, while the city’s own account says Paul is trying to skip the committee process entirely by hotlining the legislation to a floor vote. Both things may be true — but they cannot both succeed.
Johnson, who has been involved in the zip code effort for years, said the October trip was encouraging but acknowledged the long history of frustration.
“After all these years of this, this is the first glimmer of hope I feel that we got when we were there in October,” Johnson said. “It was very reassuring to have so many other cities with us.”