WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US mail deliveries continue to face “unacceptable delays” a few months after the issue, and Post General Louis DeJoy should explain why he did not resolve the issue, according to a group of 33 US senators , Wednesday.
During the week ending Dec. 26, on-time delivery nationwide was 64 percent for first-class mail and 45 percent for periodicals, senators said.
Delays in salaries and other mail deliveries by the US Postal Service (USPS) have drawn attention this summer, as a record number of voters were sent to the polls to elect a new president.
DeJoy, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump last year, suspended operational changes in August, following huge criticism of postal delays.
He is due to testify next week before a committee of the US House of Representatives on the financial prospects of the postal service, along with Ron Bloom, a former Obama administration official elected last week as the new chairman of the US Postal Board of Governors.
The 31 Democratic senators and two independent lawmakers, led by Michigan Democrat Gary Peters, who heads the postal service oversight committee, said, “We urge you to be fully transparent with the public about the postal service’s operations and the reasons for it.” still faces delays ”.
They cited USPS reports as part of a future 10-year strategic plan that could slow down the mail even further.
DeJoy said in a statement Wednesday that the plan aims to fix problems “that prevent the postal service from meeting the expectations of the American people in terms of reliability and leading to losses of billions of dollars every year, to no avail.”
DeJoy has been heavily criticized for making service changes that delayed deliveries and suspended them in August before the 2020 presidential election.
“We have to admit that, in this peak season, we failed to reach our service objectives. Too many Americans have been waiting for weeks for major mail and parcel deliveries, ”DeJoy said last week, apologizing to customers.
Last week, the USPS reported revenue of $ 318 million for the December 31 quarter, delivering a record $ 1.1 billion in vacation packages, while first-class revenue fell $ 177 million.
The USPS reported a total net loss of $ 86.7 billion from 2007 to 2020. One reason is that Congress passed legislation in 2006 that requires the USPS to pre-fund more than $ 120 billion in pensions. and medical care for retirees. The unions have called this demand an unfair burden that other companies do not share.
Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Leslie Adler and Lisa Shumaker