Bipartisan Senators Ask USPS to Pause Changes Adversely Impacting Communities

A United States Postal Service (USPS) worker leaves a postal facility in Chicago, Ill., on Aug. 15, 2019. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

A group of 26 bipartisan senators asked the United States Postal Service (USPS) to halt operational changes the agency has been implementing until the modifications are reviewed by the Postal Regulatory Commission.

In 2021, the USPS published the 10-year “Delivering for America” plan, in which, multiple changes for the organization were laid out seeking to improve financial and operational efficiency, and transform USPS into “one that is self-sustaining and high performing.” The plan aims to avoid $160 billion in projected losses at USPS by the end of the decade. Since implementing the plan, the postal service has reversed “years of declining reliability,” it claimed. By the end of the plan’s 10-year period, USPS expects to achieve break-even in its operations.

Modifications brought about as part of the plan were the precursor for the senators’ message to the agency. In the May 8 letter to the Postmaster General and Board of Governors of the USPS, the senators said the postal agency was moving too swiftly forward and making “irrevocable changes” that have resulted in negative user experiences for communities relying on the postal network.

The first issue the senators noted was that the USPS aims to move mail processing further away from local communities, and were transferring operations out of local facilities to more distant hubs. This “particularly harm[s] local mail,” they noted, as packages would need to travel farther distances, often in another state.

Secondly, the USPS plans on reducing the number of truck trips and mail collection at the postal agency’s facilities in an initiative called “local transportation optimization.” This results in mail sitting at local offices overnight.

“USPS has begun to implement this change without notifying the public, causing critical delays for mail that requires overnight delivery,” the letter said. “In some rural communities, it has eliminated the possibility of overnight delivery for critical mail like medications and laboratory tests.”

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The senators expressed concern about the ongoing societal impacts these policies have had so far as well as detrimental effects that could happen in the future.

“In regions where USPS has implemented significant changes, on-time mail delivery has declined. In addition, it is not clear these changes will improve efficiency or costs,” they wrote.

“Despite these concerns, USPS has moved forward with announcing and approving additional facility changes across the country. The nature of these changes creates concerns that local and rural service could be degraded.”

The letter asked USPS to request a comprehensive advisory opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC). The analysis must include the “full scope” of network changes.

Lawmakers noted that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy had promised during a hearing that USPS would consider requesting an Advisory Opinion. However, Mr. DeJoy “disappointingly” failed to do so, they wrote.

“The Postal Service must promptly request a comprehensive Advisory Opinion to study the impacts of its full plan. USPS should pause all changes, including administrative approvals and on-the-ground changes, until the PRC completes this study and USPS incorporates the results,” the letter said.

“USPS must improve service immediately in areas where changes have been implemented, and restore status quo operations as much as practicable.”

The primary responsibility of the USPS is to offer reliable and timely delivery to communities across the United States, the senators stated.

Even though the agency must continue adapting to changing market conditions to remain stable and serve public needs, “it must proceed with caution and understand the implications of its plans in order to protect mail delivery for all communities.”

Declining Service Performance

Late last month, the Postal Regulatory Commission issued an order directing USPS to show cause within 20 days as to why “an advisory opinion is not warranted for the recent initiatives being implemented under its Delivering for America Plan (DFA).” Otherwise, the USPS has to file a request for an advisory opinion within 40 days of the order.

The show cause order pointed out a correlation between DFA network changes being made by the postal agency and service problems in areas where such changes were being implemented—Atlanta, Georgia; Houston, Texas; and Richmond, Virginia. It also noted that the nationwide service performance of USPS was declining.

“We don’t have firm proof of what is causing the recent decline in service performance. I think the American public, postal stakeholders, and Congress want to understand the impact of the Postal Service’s network transformation plans,” said Postal Regulatory Commission Chairman Michael Kubayanda.

“They want to know what is happening to mail service, how to stop this decline, how to keep it from spreading, and how to restore service to targeted levels of performance. Those are the questions the Commission is looking to answer with this order.”

Last month, the USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG) published a report reviewing the impact of the postal agency’s “local transportation optimization” in Richmond, Virginia.

It found that “service performance decreased significantly in the weeks following implementation” of the optimization plan. “Although service performance improved after peak mailing season concluded in January, it was still below levels compared to the same period last year for all mail classes.”

The report estimated that the initiative would affect rural communities and individuals the most since this demographic mails the highest number of letters and packages.

The postal agency’s management said they expect $7 million in annual savings from Richmond through the initiative.

USPS had reported a $6.5 billion net loss for the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2023. The volume of first-class mail declined to the lowest level since 1968. At the time, the agency said it does not expect to reach breakeven results this year.