At last week’s Senate oversight hearing on the Postal Service, the Postmaster General encountered some severe headwinds. Michigan Senator Gary Peters worried that costs are increasing and service is declining, Senator Rand Paul berated DeJoy for hiring more union workers rather than using cheaper contract labor, Senator Jon Ossoff renewed his complaints about poor service performance in Georgia, and Senator Josh Hawley threatened to kill the Regional Transportation Optimization (RTO) initiative because of its impacts on rural Missouri.
Two of the senators brought up the issue of keeping local mail local. New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan expressed her opposition to consolidating local mail operations from Manchester NH to Boston MA, and from White River Junction VT to Hartford CT. Nevada Senator Jacky Rosen called the RTO a “misguided proposal” that would add to mail delays and unfairly impact rural areas, and she repeated her opposition to moving operations from Reno NV to Sacramento CA.
