Sam Graves
09/20/2024 | News release | Archived content
Investigating Postal Problems
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September 20, 2024
Straight Talk with Sam
There isn't a day that goes by that I don't hear about the failures of the United States Postal Service. People aren't getting their lifesaving medications are getting on time, bills are coming in long after the due date, packages and letters are being rerouted all over the country, and absentee ballots are getting lost.
This isn't any fault of local letter carriers. In most cases, there's nothing they can do. The problem is that mail no longer gets sorted in your local post office. Even if you're mailing a letter to your neighbor, your mail has to be shipped to a central processing center in St. Louis or Kansas City first. Thanks to USPS management, these processing centers are failing.
That's why I pushed for the USPS Inspector General to audit the Kansas City Processing and Delivery Center last year and called for an audit of the St. Louis Processing and Delivery Center last week. While we're waiting on a full investigation into the failures in St. Louis, we already have the audit back for Kansas City. USPS leadership knows the problem, but they've done nothing to fix it.
That's why I joined my colleagues from the Kansas City region this week in calling on USPS to implement the audit's recommendations and start fixing things. Identifying the problem is just the first step; now, we need to fix it. What's the point of an investigation if you aren't going to implement the solutions?
These failures and delays can't continue-not in North Missouri, not anywhere. People need reliable mail service six days a week to get their prescriptions, bills, checks, and election mail on time. I will keep fighting to ensure we have a Postal Service we can rely on and be proud of. It's one of the only agencies that can trace its roots to the Constitution. Delivering the mail on time is one of the few things the federal government needs to do and needs to do well.