St. Louis-area members of Congress call on Post Office to fix ‘unreliable mail service’

Whatever the problem might be — snow, rain, heat, gloom of night — four Republican members of U.S. Congress who represent the St.

Louis area have put their stamp on complaints about mail delivery. U.S.



Reps. Ann Wagner, Town and Country; Jason Smith, Salem; Blaine Luetkemeyer, St. Elizabeth; and Sam Graves, Tarkio, last week wrote to U.

S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, asking for major changes to fix “unreliable mail service in eastern Missouri.” The letter specifically wants the postal service’s Office of Inspector General to audit the mail sorting and distribution center in Hazelwood.

A specific issue with the legislators is reports that there was an increase in undelivered election mail in the U.S., including absentee ballots, during the August primaries.

“We are deeply concerned about reports that USPS has not effectively engaged with local election authorities as it has in prior elections and that this lack of communication resulted in USPS not realizing these failures until it was too late,” the letter states. Along with wanting the audit of the Hazelwood facility, the lawmakers also are concerned with how the USPS’ plan to save $3 billion annually will affect delivery to rural areas. “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,” the lawmakers wrote.

Joining the complaining contingent is U.S. Sen.

Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, who wrote to DeJoy to complain about rural mail delivery. “I am alarmed by the possibility you would implement additional changes to further degrade service quality at a time when USPS is failing to deliver Missourians’ mail in a consistent and reliable manner,” Hawley wrote last week. Illinois U.

S. Sens. Richard Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, both Democrats, also have sent similar letters to DeJoy.

Hawley said the postal service’s plan to reduce the number of trips its trucks make to rural areas could delay deliveries by up to 24 hours. “That would be wholly unacceptable,” he wrote..