Straight Talk with Sam
Too many times when the Postal Service is confronted with their poor service standards, their response is that they don’t have the authority or ability make changes. Frankly, that’s a cop out, but I view it as a request—change the law so we can do better. Fair enough.
It’s the reason I introduced the Pony Up Act. They don’t have a mechanism to make customers whole when they cost them money in late fees. Sometimes those fees add up to thousands of dollars when tax payments don’t get to their destination on time, or sometimes at all. It’s not right.
While they don’t yet have a way to “pony up” for late fees, they need to pony up and get the mail where it needs to go, on time. It’s the reason I recently called for the Inspector General to investigate the St. Louis Processing and Distribution Center. They can’t fix a problem they don’t seem to realize they have. The rest of us realize it though. The rest of us are living it.
This week I set out to fix another problem. You might have noticed postage rates continuing to rise, in spite of the fact that service is so bad and getting worse. Last year, I called for the USPS to halt their increases. They actually listened for a bit, but we’re about to see another price hike this summer.
At a certain point, folks aren’t gonna bother to use the mail. Why would you if the costs are astronomical and the service is abysmal? I’d sure like to avoid that as rural folks depend on the mail. It’s hardly dependable though.
That’s why I introduced the USPS SERVES US Act. The bill gives the Postal Regulatory Commission some actual power, instead of just making suggestions. They know what they should do, but they say they don’t have the authority to do it. So when they know a rate increase is a bad idea or they determine that service is failing, they can only say that, not step in and make changes.
This changes all that. My bill would give the Postal Regulatory Commission the ability to do more than just give an opinion. It would reduce the USPS’s ability to increase rates if their service is failing.
The US Postal Service is one of the only federal agencies that can trace its roots all the way back to the Constitution and beyond. It’s one of the few things the federal government should do—and should do well. Sadly, they’ve forgotten that the Postal Service is supposed to be a SERVICE that SERVES US, not just a heartless bureaucratic machine that keeps raising rates and failing to deliver.
I’m going to keep working to change that, to ensure the USPS Serves US because that’s the only way we’re going to get the Postal Service back on track.
Sincerely,
Sam Graves
