Commentary: Straight Talk with Sam

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves R-Missouri

Dear Friend,

You don’t have to pay too much attention to realize that mail has been a disaster lately. Late mail, missing mail or no mail at all, it just doesn’t seem to show up. I hear from constituents literally every day. Something has to change.

For years, I’ve pushed for maintaining six-day mail delivery. Mail is a lifeline for our rural communities and it’s critical the Postal Services delivers. Yet, it almost seems as if we’re down to 3- or 4-day mail. Quite frankly, I just want to see it regularly delivered.

Last year I pushed for an inspector general investigation of the Kansas City Processing and Delivery Center. They serve not only Kansas City, but also northwest Missouri. Ultimately, the problem became glaring enough that the United States Postal Service (USPS) did the investigation. Surprise, surprise, there were major issues, issues that the inspector general recommended the Postal Service fix and that I’m still pushing them to implement.

Not only do they need to implement the IG’s recommendations in Kansas City, but the Postal Service also needs to scrap their disastrous plan to further delay rural mail service — as if delivery times could get any worse. Six days a week means exactly what it says, not the sporadic delivery we’ve been getting.

Meanwhile, service on the eastern side of north Missouri, specifically anyone served by the St. Louis Processing and Delivery Center, keeps getting worse as well. The St. Louis facility was never investigated, despite me and other members of Congress throughout the region calling for one.

This week, I joined Senators Hawley and Schmitt and several of my eastern Missouri colleagues in asking the inspector general for an investigation into the mail delays caused by the St. Louis Processing and Delivery Center. We have to get to the bottom of these issues — and fix the problems.

Rural Missouri depends on the mail for bills, medicine, payments and business deliveries. They can’t just keep raising prices, failing to deliver, losing packages and blaming everyone except the people that actually run the Postal Service. Our postal carriers do their very best, but they can only deliver what gets back to them from the black hole of the processing centers.

It’s far past time the mail gets delivered on time, six days a week. The inspector general needs to take immediate action, and the Postal Service needs to make things right, so the mail gets dependably delivered once again.

Sincerely,

Sam Graves