WASHINGTON — U.S. Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Ct.) introduced the No Bonuses for Bad Service Act to prohibit United States Postal Service (USPS) leadership from receiving bonuses or additional compensation until mail service and delivery meet the standards that the American people deserve. The bill comes after Senator Hawley launched an investigation into USPS’ failure to deliver Missourians’ mail on time.
“While Missourians wait for their mail, some never even seeing it delivered, the Postmaster General and his team receive hefty bonuses. There is no reason postal service leadership should be lavishly compensated while they refuse to meet basic standards,” said Senator Hawley. “I am introducing the No Bonuses for Bad Service Act to ban bonuses for USPS leadership until every American can trust the postal service to deliver their mail on time.”
“Bonuses for failure make no sense. USPS leadership should not be receiving bonuses while thousands of people wait for mail that arrives late or is undelivered. The No Bonuses for Bad Service Act prioritizes the American people—promoting accountability from USPS and setting the standard for mail service and delivery that Americans deserve,” said Senator Blumenthal.
The No Bonuses for Bad Service Act would:
- Prohibit the USPS Board of Governors from approving any additional compensation for the Postmaster General and Deputy Postmaster General for a fiscal year in which the Postal Service does not meet or exceed an on-time delivery rate of 95% for all market dominant mail products.
- Require the Postal Service to submit its annual delivery rate report to the Postal Regulatory Commission.
The United States Postal Service (USPS) has posted staggering financial losses in recent years, including $25 billion over the last three fiscal years, more than $6 billion beyond USPS’s own internal projections. At the same time, USPS has repeatedly raised postage rates on American households and businesses while consistently missing its own service standards. On-time delivery has continued to slip. Residents in rural areas wait weeks to receive mail. Recently in Missouri, a massive pile of undelivered mail was discovered in a vacant lot without explanation from the Postal Service. These delays and missing mail are becoming a real financial burden for those Americans who don’t receive their bills or paychecks.
Despite these failures, Postal Service executives have been rewarded with lavish bonuses. Over the past ten years, Postmasters General have received more than $2 million in additional compensation, even as delivery performance declined and the budget numbers got worse. During the last three years of Louis DeJoy’s tenure alone, the Board of Governors approved more than $567,000 in additional bonus compensation. Postmaster General David Steiner, who assumed office just a year ago, has already pocketed a $170,000 bonus. Senator Hawley directly confronted Steiner about these bonuses in a recent committee hearing, and the Postmaster refused to forgo bonuses until the mail is delivered on time.
Read more about Senator Hawley’s ongoing investigation into the postal service here.
Watch Senator Hawley’s full exchange with Postmaster General Steiner here.
Read the full bill text here.
Add your first comment to this post