Representatives Sam Graves (R-MO-06), Sharice Davids (D-KS-03), Jake LaTurner (R-KS-02), Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO-05), and Mark Alford (R-MO-04) united in a bipartisan effort to address mail delivery delays in the Kansas City area. The group called on U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to act on a recent audit’s recommendations, which identified staffing shortages and inadequate management oversight as key factors contributing to the delays in the Kansas City area.
“In recent months, our offices have received a growing number of messages from Kansans and Missourians concerned about missing mail, delayed postal delivery, and extended periods with no delivery service at all,” wrote Graves and his colleagues. “The USPS Office of the Inspector General identified clear deficiencies…and identified numerous other issues related to the safety and security of personnel in this audit.”
Conducted by the independent USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG), the recent audit examined operations at the Kansas City Postal and Distribution Center following reports of some of the nation’s slowest mail service in the nation. The audit identified several deficiencies, including delays in mail delivery, issues with package scanning, and poor property conditions. In response, Graves and his colleagues are calling on the USPS to promptly implement the OIG’s recommended solutions.
“It is unacceptable that these facilities have fallen and are failing to keep up with the USPS standard of service. We wholeheartedly urge the leadership of the Postal Service to roll out the recommendations of the USPS Office of the Inspector General immediately to improve the service of the USPS in the Kansas City Metro area for our constituents.” Graves and his colleagues continued.
A full copy of the letter can be found here.
In March 2023, Rep. Graves called on Postmaster General DeJoy to deliver a plan to address mail delivery delays, fulfill the USPS’s legal obligation to deliver mail 6 days per week, and listen to the concerns of Kansas City residents who had been frustrated with the performance of their local USPS branches. Following that letter, the USPS OIG announced they would conduct an audit of delayed mail and delivery operations in the Northland and the Kansas City area. The audit was completed in August of last year.
Over the last several years, Congressman Graves has voiced numerous concerns with the USPS about performance issues. In October 2022, Reps. Graves and Cleaver sent a letter to Postmaster General Dejoy expressing concerns about the agency’s failure to fulfill their congressionally mandated duty to provide six-day mail delivery. In December 2022, the Postal Service responded with complaints about low unemployment rates in the Kansas City region and encouraged residents to apply to work for the USPS, without offering a plan for the agency to meet their mandate.
Graves recently introduced the Pony Up Act, which would require the Postal Service to provide a mechanism for constituents to get reimbursed for late fees that were incurred as a result of late mail delivery, which has been experienced across North Missouri. He also called on the Postal Service to halt their postage price increases until they can solve their late delivery issues.
