WASHINGTON, DC – In response to pressure from U.S. Representative Angie Craig, the United States Postal Service (USPS) recently notified Rep. Craig’s office that it will be launching an internal investigation into reports of delayed delivery of the New Prague Times.
This announcement follows a letter Rep. Craig sent to USPS Postmaster General David Steiner and MN-ND District Manager Angela Bye last month demanding answers on the status of the new New Prague post office after her office received reports from the New Prague Times that their newspapers were not being delivered to their subscribers on time.
In addition, the response to Rep. Craig from USPS identified 1101 1st Street Northeast as the proposed site of the new New Prague post office. USPS anticipates a grand opening around September 2026.
“I’m glad to see local USPS leadership taking this issue in New Prague seriously,” said Rep. Craig. “At a time when freedom of the press is under attack in this country, it is more important than ever that Minnesotans are able to access local journalism. On behalf of Minnesotans and the local news organizations that keep them informed, I’ll keep the pressure on USPS to ensure newspapers and magazines are being delivered on time – and I’ll keep working with USPS leadership to get the much-needed New Prague Post Office up and running.”
Rep. Craig has consistently spoken out against unacceptable USPS performance in the South Metro and has led the charge to improve mail service and protect USPS from privatization. Local letter carriers and others have also raised the alarm about leadership changes that are impacting morale and culture in Minnesota post offices.
This Congress, Rep. Craig introduced her Deliver for Democracy Act, which would limit price increases on stamps until the USPS can achieve at least a 95% on-time delivery rate for periodicals and require the USPS to report annually to the U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission on its progress – including on-time delivery data for newspapers in its periodical service performance measurement.
In February of 2024, following more than a year of advocacy alongside then-New Prague Mayor Duane Jirik, Rep. Craig announced the USPS’ plans for a new post office in New Prague, MN.
And in January of 2024, following Rep. Craig’s bipartisan call for a statewide investigation, the USPS OIG announced an investigation of the entire MN-ND postal district.
In January of 2023, she launched an online USPS survey to gauge the extent of postal issues in the Second District and received more than 3,300 responses from Minnesotans. Rep. Craig delivered those responses directly to Postmaster General DeJoy’s office in Washington DC.
