Lawmakers Also Seek Answers on Election Mail Issues, New Plan to Delay Rural Mail
Washington, D.C. – Representatives Ann Wagner (MO-02), Sam Graves (MO-06), Jason Smith (MO-08), and Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-03) wrote Postmaster General Louis DeJoy today requesting the United States Postal Service (USPS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit the Hazelwood, MO, Sorting and Distribution Center, explain failures to deliver election mail on time, and provide clarity on a new USPS proposal to further delay mail in rural America.
“The bottom line is that our constituents depend on USPS and cannot afford these continued failures,” the lawmakers wrote. “Submitting a plan to further delay mail deliveries for rural Americans while continuing to increase postage rates because USPS leadership cannot effectively run their operation is totally unacceptable. Quite simply, Americans don’t want to pay more for worse service.”
The lawmakers continued: “While we are all incredibly thankful for the vital service that our letter carriers provide, we are concerned that their hands are tied because of unacceptable failures occurring at Sorting and Delivery Centers due to ineffective USPS leadership. It defies common sense that there is anyone in USPS leadership that can still honestly believe the best path forward is to further consolidate operations at these failing Sorting and Delivery Centers without any real plan to improve service.”
In addition to an audit of the Hazelwood Sorting and Distribution Center, the letter requests USPS’s plan to address unreliable mail service in Eastern Missouri, a report on recent absentee ballot issues and a plan to address these failures before the November election, and a report on how the USPS rural delivery proposal will affect each Post Office in the region.
You can read the full letter here.