Delivering for Pennsylvania: Examining Postal Service Delivery and Operations from the Cradle of Liberty

On Wednesday, September 7, 2022, at 11:00 a.m. ET, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations, will hold a field hearing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to examine drops in the U.S. Postal Service’s mail delivery performance, recent increases in postal mail theft and crime, and whether the Postal Service is prepared to effectively receive and deliver mail-in ballots nationally during the upcoming election cycle.

In 2020, Postal Service senior staff, including the Postmaster General, began making consequential operational changes to mail and package delivery without consulting customers and, as a result, mail delivery service across the U.S. plummeted.  In Philadelphia, the on-time delivery rate for mail that should take three-to-five days to deliver was just 61.9% in the third quarter of fiscal year 2021.  While delivery rates have improved nationwide and in Pennsylvania, some of this improvement is the result of new service delivery standards that extend delivery targets, making it easier to achieve on-time delivery.

In recent years, postal mail theft has also emerged as a rampant problem.  Between 2018 and 2021, robberies of mail carriers more than tripled, and robberies involving a gun more than quadrupled.  However, in 2020, the Postal Service put a new policy in place that prevented Postal Police officers from investigating mail theft that doesn’t take place on USPS property.

At approximately 2:00 p.m. ET, at the conclusion of the field hearing, Chairman Connolly and members of the Pennsylvania congressional delegation will hold a press conference to recap the information uncovered at the hearing.