WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US mail delivery is still facing “unacceptable delays” months after the problem first surfaced and postal officer General Louis DeJoy should explain why he failed to resolve the problem, according to a group of 33 US senators on Wednesday.
During the week ending Dec. 26, nationwide on-time delivery was 64% for premium mail and 45% for magazines, the senators said.
Delays in paychecks and other US Postal Service (USPS) mail deliveries caught the eye this summer when a record number of voters sent in ballots to elect a new president.
DeJoy, who was appointed last year by former President Donald Trump, suspended the operational changes in August after huge criticisms of postal delays.
He will testify next week before a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives on the Postal Service’s financial outlook, along with Will Ron Bloom, a former Obama administration official who was elected the new president of the U.S. Postal last week. Board of Governors.
The 31 Democratic senators and two independent lawmakers, led by Michigan Democrat Gary Peters, who chairs the committee that oversees the postal service, said, “We urge you to be fully transparent with the public about postal operations and the reasons why they are still experiencing delays. “
They cited reports USPS as part of an upcoming 10-year strategic plan may further delay mail.
DeJoy said in a statement Wednesday that the plan aims to solve problems “that prevent the postal service from meeting the expectations of the American people in terms of reliability and result in billions of dollars in losses each year with no end in sight. is. “
DeJoy came under severe criticism for making service changes that slowed deliveries and suspended them in August ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
“We have to admit that during this peak season we have nowhere neared our service targets. Too many Americans had to wait weeks for important mail and parcel deliveries, ”DeJoy said last week, apologizing to customers.
Last week, USPS reported $ 318 million in revenue for the quarter ended December 31, with a record 1.1 billion holiday season packages, while premium mail revenue declined $ 177 million.
USPS reported net losses totaling $ 86.7 billion between 2007 and 2020. One reason for this is that Congress passed legislation in 2006 requiring USPS to pre-finance more than $ 120 billion in retired health care and retirement obligations. Trade unions call this requirement an unfair burden that other companies do not share.
Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Leslie Adler and Lisa Shumaker