[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
WAITING ON THE MAIL: POSTAL SERVICE
STANDARD DROPS IN BALTIMORE AND THE
SURROUNDING AREA
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND REFORM
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
FEBRUARY 14, 2022
__________
Serial No. 117-65
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Reform
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available at: govinfo.gov,
oversight.house.gov or
docs.house.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
46-904 PDF WASHINGTON : 2022
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COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND REFORM
CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York, Chairwoman
Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of James Comer, Kentucky, Ranking
Columbia Minority Member
Stephen F. Lynch, Massachusetts Jim Jordan, Ohio
Jim Cooper, Tennessee Virginia Foxx, North Carolina
Gerald E. Connolly, Virginia Jody B. Hice, Georgia
Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin
Jamie Raskin, Maryland Michael Cloud, Texas
Ro Khanna, California Bob Gibbs, Ohio
Kweisi Mfume, Maryland Clay Higgins, Louisiana
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Ralph Norman, South Carolina
Rashida Tlaib, Michigan Pete Sessions, Texas
Katie Porter, California Fred Keller, Pennsylvania
Cori Bush, Missouri Andy Biggs, Arizona
Shontel M. Brown, Ohio Andrew Clyde, Georgia
Danny K. Davis, Illinois Nancy Mace, South Carolina
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Florida Scott Franklin, Florida
Peter Welch, Vermont Jake LaTurner, Kansas
Henry C. ``Hank'' Johnson, Jr., Pat Fallon, Texas
Georgia Yvette Herrell, New Mexico
John P. Sarbanes, Maryland Byron Donalds, Florida
Jackie Speier, California Vacancy
Robin L. Kelly, Illinois
Brenda L. Lawrence, Michigan
Mark DeSaulnier, California
Jimmy Gomez, California
Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts
Russell Anello, Staff Director
Wendy Ginsberg, Subcommittee on Government Operations Staff Director
Amy Stratton, Deputy Chief Clerk
Contact Number: 202-225-5051
Mark Marin, Minority Staff Director
------
Subcommittee on Government Operations
Gerald E. Connolly, Virginia, Chairman
Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of Jody B. Hice, Georgia Ranking
Columbia Minority Member
Danny K. Davis, Illinois Fred Keller, Pennsylvania
John P. Sarbanes, Maryland Andrew Clyde, Georgia
Brenda L. Lawrence, Michigan Andy Biggs, Arizona
Stephen F. Lynch, Massachsetts Nancy Mace, South Carolina
Jamie Raskin, Maryland Jake LaTurner, Kansas
Ro Khanna, California Yvette Herrell, New Mexico
Katie Porter, California
Shontel M. Brown, Ohio
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on February 14, 2022................................ 1
Witnesses
Mr. Eric Gilbert, Acting Executive Postmaster, Baltimore, U.S.
Postal Service
Oral Statement................................................... 18
Ms. Melinda Perez, Deputy Assistant Inspector General for Audit,
Office of Inspector General, U.S. Postal Service
Oral Statement................................................... 20
Ms. Rictarsha Westmoreland, Mail Processing Clerk and Shop
Steward, U.S. Postal Service
Oral Statement................................................... 21
Mr. Chuck Metzger, Controller, ReBUILD Metro
Oral Statement................................................... 23
Written opening statements and statements for the witnesses are
available on the U.S. House of Representatives Document
Repository at: docs.house.gov.
Index of Documents
----------
* Letter sent to Postmaster DeJoy; submitted by Rep.
Ruppersberger.
* Questions for the Record: to Gilbert; submitted by Rep.
Connolly.
* Questions for the Record: to Perez; submitted by Rep.
Connolly.
* Questions for the Record: to Westmoreland; submitted by Rep.
Connolly.
The documents are available at: docs.house.gov.
WAITING ON THE MAIL: POSTAL SERVICE.
STANDARD DROPS IN BALTIMORE AND THE
SURROUNDING AREA
----------
Monday, February 14, 2022
House of Representatives
Committee on Oversight and Reform
Subcommittee on Government Operations
Washington, D.C.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 11:02 a.m., in
Baetjer Howard Moot Court Room, John and Frances Angelos Law
Center, University of Baltimore, 1401 North Charles Street,
Baltimore, MD, and via Zoom; Hon. Gerald Connolly presiding.
Present: Representatives Connolly, Maloney, Norton, Davis,
Sarbanes, Lawrence, Raskin, Khanna, Porter, Brown.
Also present: Representatives Hoyer, Mfume, Ruppersberger,
and Trone; and Senators Cardin and Van Hollen.
Mr. Connolly. The subcommittee will come to order.
Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a
recess of the committee at any time.
I welcome everybody to the hearing here in Baltimore, which
seeks to understand the mail delivery performance issues that
plague this region.
Before I begin the opening statement, I want to ask
unanimous consent that the following members shall be waived
onto the subcommittee as participants for this hearing: the
Honorable Steny Hoyer; the Honorable Kweisi Mfume; the
Honorable Dutch Ruppersberger; the Honorable Anthony Brown; the
Honorable David Trone; the U.S. Senator and Honorable Ben
Cardin; and the U.S. Senator and Honorable Chris Van Hollen.
Without objection, it is so ordered.
I now recognize myself for an opening statement.
We are here today in Baltimore, less than a week after the
House's historic passage of the Postal Service Reform Act of
2022. That bill, of which I am an author and an original co-
sponsor, will put the Postal Service on a path of financial
solvency, unshackling the Postal Service from unfair statutory
burdens that kept it mired in unnecessary payments for over a
decade. The bill takes a pragmatic approach, planting the
Postal Service on firm financial ground and readying it for the
future.
The Postal Service is invaluable to this Nation. Throughout
the pandemic, our Postal Service work force delivered
prescription medications, paychecks, food stuffs, stimulus
checks, holiday and birthday gifts, rapid COVID tests from the
Biden Administration, and more to homes and businesses across
the Nation. A June 2020 Harris Poll found that the Postal
Service ranked as the single most essential company to
Americans during the pandemic.
The Postal Service employs 630,000 individuals spread
throughout every single congressional district in the country.
According to Pew Research, 91 percent of Americans have a
favorable view of the Postal Service, making it the most
popular Federal agency; in fact, I would argue making it the
most popular thing on the planet.
A recent Inspector General report, however, found that the
Postal Service has not always been meeting the needs of its
customers. In fact, the Postal Service Office of Inspector
General found that the Postal Service only met service
performance targets for three of 33 products in Fiscal Year
2020.
Why are service performance targets important? Well, the
Inspector General said that missing delivery goals could result
in late fees and even a drop in credit ratings for consumers,
as well as a disruption in cash-flow for businesses. I know one
of our witnesses today that Mr. Mfume referred us to, Mr.
Metzger, experienced these very late fees and incurred costs
because of mail delays.
The Office of Inspector General added that late deliveries
may drive mailers away from using the Postal Service, saying
that once a consumer moves their bill payment online, they may
be unlikely to go back to using the mail.
Simply put, missing service performance targets hurts those
who rely on the Postal Service, and ultimately can diminish the
hard-earned standing of this revered institution.
Despite the importance of meeting service performance
targets, between October 2020 and January 2021, on-time
delivery rates for First-Class Mail plummeted from 84 percent
to 61 percent. Historically, the Postal Service, by way of
comparison, achieves rates of between 90 and 93 percent, not 61
percent.
Fortunately, nationwide service performance has improved
since, almost hitting those historically achieved rates. We
should certainly recognize that progress, identifying the best
practices that galvanized it so that the Postal Service can
continue to serve the public. But it should also be noted that
two key changes implemented by the Postal Service in the last
Fiscal Year made these data rosier than reality.
First, though the Postal Service exceeded its Fiscal Year
2021 service performance target for First-Class Mail, that
target was significantly reduced from the prior year, Fiscal
Year 2020. In particular, the Postal Service reduced its Fiscal
Year 2021 target for on-time delivery rates for First-Class
Mail by more than 11 percent. So, it reduced the target, and
then met it. That is not progress.
In addition, the Postal Service added an extra day or two
to some First-Class Mail delivery standards, giving the Postal
Service extra time to deliver the mail and still count it as
on-time, even though from the customer's point of view it is
two or three days later than it used to be. So, some of the
improvements we see are likely attributable to new decreased
service standards and not to actual improvements in the speed
of mail delivery.
On this day after the Super Bowl, you might liken this to
moving the goalposts so close that the kicker couldn't possibly
miss the extra point.
Last October, we held a hearing in Chicago to investigate
its deteriorating mail delivery performance. But as we said in
that hearing, Chicago was not the worst in the Nation. That was
Baltimore.
We are here in Baltimore today because this area was and
remains among the hardest hit by substandard delivery.
Baltimore's mail delivery has consistently underperformed the
rest of the Nation.
We can put up the chart.
If you look at that screen, you will more clearly see why
we are in Baltimore today. The figure shows quarter-by-quarter
on-time delivery rates for every Postal district across the
Nation. The top row is for First-Class Mail with a two-day
service standard, and the bottom row is for First-Class Mail
with a three-to-five-day service standard. Baltimore is in red,
and the nationwide average is indicated by the dashed black
line.
We need to know why, in the second quarter of 2021,
Baltimore's on-time delivery rates dropped to 62 percent for
two-day mail and 25 percent for three-to-five-day mail. That is
around one in three pieces of mail arriving late for two-day
mail, and 75 percent, three out of four that arrived late for
three-to-five-day mail. I know my Maryland colleagues
understandably find that to be unacceptable.
We should note that Baltimore's performance, alongside the
rest of the Nation, has improved since last year's trough. But,
as the graph shows, Baltimore has often underperformed the
nationwide average since Fiscal Year 2012. We are talking about
a decade's performance.
We are in Baltimore today to try to understand the root
causes of that historic underperformance. By working together
to address issues we uncover, we can ensure that the Postal
Service delivers mail to Baltimore residents consistently and
on-time.
We expect and demand more from our Postal Service. But to
do that, we need leadership to provide it with the resources
and staffing it requires to meet customer needs.
Instead, we have witnessed deteriorating service
performance coupled with price hikes. Postmaster General Louis
DeJoy has made consequential and damaging operational changes
at the Postal Service that affect postal delivery nationwide,
and he has repeatedly done so without conducting the data
analyses or customer engagements required to ensure that he is
not causing further damage.
I am particularly concerned about the Postal Service's 10-
year plan, which reduces service standards further and
increases prices. That is a novel business model, lower
standards and charge more for them. The Postal Regulatory
Commission's advisory opinion of Mr. DeJoy's proposal to reduce
delivery standards stated that it is not clear that the
tradeoff between financial viability and maintaining high-
quality service standards is reasonable.
According to the Postal Service Office of Inspector
General, nine of Baltimore's busiest post offices had
difficulty even grasping the scope of their own problems, if we
can put that chart up. If you look at the screen again, you
will see a table from a recent Inspector General report showing
that nine Baltimore-area post offices undercounted delayed mail
in their facilities by 771,640 pieces, a 79 percent undercount.
So, as bad as the news has been, it is 79 percent understating
it.
Data management did not only pose an issue in Baltimore's
delivery units, but also in its processing and distribution
center, which processes mail pieces and distributes them to
local post offices. Another related Inspector General report
notes that employees were not performing container load scans
and depart scans consistently before dispatching mail to the
next facility. Without accurate and complete data, management
cannot make informed operational decisions, and so it is left
guessing the steps they need to take to improve mail delivery
for postal customers.
The Inspector General also found that key features of the
processing and distribution center slowed down employees,
leading to increased delays in mail delivery. For example, the
facility's tray management system, which transports trays of
letters within the facility and significantly reduces transport
time, has been inoperable since March 2019, three years.
According to the OIG report, the absence of those tray
management systems has added two hours per day to each
operation to move the mail. That is two hours each day for
three years. The tray management system was supposed to be
replaced last month. I hope we can get an update today.
In short, mismanagement of Baltimore postal facilities has
unnecessarily contributed to delays in mail delivery relative
to the rest of the Nation.
Today we have witnesses who can help us diagnose those
problems, and we have witnesses who need to be part of
designing and implementing solutions to those problems.
We need to hold Postal Service leadership to account. We
need to see written plans that are responsive to the analysis
and recommendations of the Postal Service Inspector General.
And we need to strive to reach delivery rates that meet the
demands of the Postal Service's customers, reviving the Postal
Service instead of driving it into decline, especially during a
pandemic.
We are going to work together as colleagues to solve these
problems and to hopefully change the governance of the Postal
Service to ensure we have a Board of Governors and a Postmaster
General who understand the essential function of the Postal
Service during a pandemic and who are dedicated to the Postal
Service mission to deliver mail and packages in a timely and
efficient basis to every American household and every American
business, every day.
Thank you.
Do we have a Republican? The gentleman does not wish to
give an opening statement.
Mr. Hoyer, are you with us? Yes, you are.
The Chair recognizes the distinguished Majority Leader of
the House of Representatives, Mr. Hoyer, for any opening
remarks.
Mr. Hoyer. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thanks
for holding this hearing in Baltimore. I know that Mr. Sarbanes
and Mr. Ruppersberger appreciate your looking at this vital
issue, and I want you to know that I recently sent a letter--
today, as a matter of fact--to the Postmaster General to ask
him questions about the region that I represent in southern
Maryland. But, of course, I am concerned about the delivery of
the mail throughout not only our state but, as a former
Chairman of the Treasury Postal Committee on the Appropriations
Committee, I had numerous hearings about performance of a
service vital to the American people.
So, thank you very much for holding this hearing.
Also, I see Carolyn Maloney, the Chair of the full
committee, is on with us, and this is going to be looking at
things that aren't going as well as they should have. However,
last week we were able to pass historic legislation with the
leadership of the Chair of the full committee and yourself, Mr.
Chairman, and I congratulate the entire committee. And it was
an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote in sending a bill to the
Senate, and I expect the Senate to start to seize on it and
hopefully pass it this week to get the Postal Service on a
sound fiscal standing so that they can proceed with the reforms
that your committee, that you have just discussed, and I know
your committee and Chairwoman of the committee will highlight
and help us reach the reforms that we need.
I appreciate this opportunity to participate with you, and
I have written of my concerns, and I will speak briefly to
concerns raised by several my constituents in the 5th
congressional District.
Postal delays have denied many, unfortunately, of my
constituents of the ability to pay bills on time despite
mailing their payments early. This is unacceptable, Mr.
Chairman. These delays resulted in Marylanders receiving
Failure to Pay notices and subsequently risking utility
shutoffs.
Several constituents reported that their pension
applications were unable to be processed by USPS employees at
multiple locations in southern Maryland. One person contacted
me after a USPS truck hit a personal vehicle on the street and
would not pull over or stop at all. That is not the Postal
Service at large, but it is a problem that needs to be
addressed in a very fulsome and effective way.
These issues are indicative of the national decline in the
Postal Service performance, and particularly egregious failures
in Baltimore and throughout Maryland. This is a serious
national problem. America cannot function without a USPS that
works.
Now, let me say tangentially, the Postal Service delivers
hundreds of millions of pieces of mail, about 159 million,
every day. Even with a one percent mistake level, which all of
us would like to replicate ourselves, that is a huge number of
people who are being not served as well as we need them served.
Across America, postal delays threaten the health of
seniors and those with preexisting conditions who depend on the
Postal Service to deliver their prescription drugs reliably.
Last week, as I have said, the House overwhelmingly passed
a bipartisan Postal Service Reform Act with a resounding 342 to
92 vote. Congratulations, Madam Chair, and all of you who
worked on that Postal Reform bill. It is needed, necessary, and
is decades in the making. It had the support of Democrats,
Republicans, the Postal Union, the USCS leadership, which
worked constructively to make this bill possible. I want to
thank Superintendent DeJoy for the work that he did. Obviously,
Mr. Chairman, you have raised issues that I share with respect
to systemic changes that have been made which have undermined
the Postal Service's ability to perform its job in the way that
we expect. The legislation, however, that we did pass will
result in better pay and benefits for USPS workers and,
importantly for the American people, ensure six-day delivery.
Unfortunately, though, it will not address the significant
service problems that plague Maryland and other states in the
near term. I remain concerned about the Postal Service's
policies that have been recently adopted to which you referred,
Mr. Chairman, the effect of which is the destruction of mail
and delivery services.
We in Congress are committed to making sure that the Postal
Service has the resources to address its issues with delays and
reliability.
As I said, I recently sent a letter to Postmaster General
DeJoy to express my deep concerns and urged him to rectify the
issues I have been hearing about from my constituency. I know
my colleagues in Maryland have done the same. I hope he will
sit down with the stakeholders directly to discuss these issues
and discuss ways to address them meaningfully.
There is a critical need for increased transparency and
accountability, starting from the very top, to ensure that
Americans can send and receive their mail on time. Even in our
age of digital communications, Mr. Chairman, Americans still
rely on the Postal Service for essential services, and we must
ensure its dependability.
I appreciate the subcommittee being here in Maryland today
to focus in particular on the issues here in our state, and I
look forward to hearing from the witnesses, who I hope will
speak to these challenges and how they can be addressed.
Again, Mr. Chairman, thank you for your leadership.
Carolyn, thank you for your leadership, as well. And I say to
my dear colleague from Washington, DC, the state of Frederick
Douglas, on the screen with us as well, thank you very much for
your leadership and participation in this hearing.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Mr. Hoyer. Thank you and all of
the Maryland delegation for this extraordinary attendance
today, which I just think underscores the commitment each and
every one of the members representing this great state of
Maryland have with respect to this issue and the desire to
highlight problems, but also find solutions. We really
appreciate that participation today, especially with our two
U.S. senators, as well. In Chicago, we had one U.S. senator,
but not two.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Connolly. At any rate, the Chair wants to recognize the
distinguished Chair of the full committee, who is the first
chair since 2006 to actually get a Postal reform bill not only
on the floor but passed with an overwhelming bipartisan vote.
Great credit goes to our Chairwoman, Carolyn Maloney, who is
recognized for her opening statement.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you so much, Chairman Connolly,
and all of my colleagues who are on. I see Danny Davis, a
former Postal employee, who speaks so beautifully about ways to
help the Post Office, and Eleanor Holmes Norton, and the entire
Maryland delegation, our senators, our representatives, and a
special thank you to Steny Hoyer, who was the quarterback on
passing this bill, always there to help, always there to push.
It was difficult. Thank you, Steny, so much for your leadership
on this and so many other things.
As we all know well, the Postal Service is one of our
Nation's most vital and respected institutions. It is so
important that our Founders included it in the Constitution, up
front, under Article I. So it is fair to say that the Postal
Service is woven into every fabric of our country.
It provides service across the country to every single
address, from rural farms to urban skyscrapers, and it adds
over a million new deliveries every year.
It really binds our Nation together in a way that no other
organization does.
Unfortunately, its service performance has suffered in the
last two years.
Part of the challenge has been caused by the Coronavirus
pandemic. Postal employees, who are on the front lines, have
been hit especially hard with sickness caused by COVID-19.
The Postal Service's recent positive performance in its
2021 peak period indicates that it is indeed capable of getting
mail delivered on time.
But performance in certain areas of the country, and
particularly in Baltimore, remains far below acceptable levels.
It is critical that the Postal Service address this poor
performance as soon as possible to ensure that Baltimore
residents receive reliable, on-time delivery of critical mail,
medications, and other critical resources.
To help the Postal Service achieve this goal, the House
just passed my legislation to put the Postal Service on a more
sustainable financial footing. It was very strongly bipartisan.
We had over 120 Republicans join us. I want to give a shout-out
to Representative Comer for his leadership on the Republican
side.
With these reforms, the Postal Service will have the
resources it needs to ensure exceptional performance for all
Americans regardless of whether they live in cities or in rural
areas. And it will bring back to the Postal Service over $50
billion in 10 years, and it will save taxpayers money, over
$1.5 billion, in 10 years.
It also brings reforms on delivery where you will have a
real live Internet portal where you can check the delivery by
zip code so that Postal workers and community activists can
work to improve the Postal delivery in your area. And it will
allow them to contract with cities and states and tribes and
counties to provide services, like permits to go fishing or
hunting, other types of permits that will allow them to gain
revenue, and it has many other improvements.
But with this, I look forward to the hearing. I want to
thank Chairman Connolly for holding this incredibly important
hearing and yield back the balance of my time. Thank you so
much.
Mr. Connolly. I thank the distinguished Chairwoman and
thank her for her leadership and commitment to this issue.
The Chair now recognizes the distinguished senior senator
from the state of Maryland, our friend, Ben Cardin, Senator
Cardin.
Senator Cardin. Thank you, Chairman Connolly, and thank you
very much for holding this hearing. Specifically, thank you for
coming to Baltimore. We are at the University of Maryland,
University of Baltimore Law School. We welcome you here,
President Schmoke. We are proud of this institution, and we are
very proud that you have come here to Baltimore because of this
issue. And Chairwoman Maloney, we thank her also for her
leadership on this committee.
As you noted, we have the entire Baltimore City Federal
delegation present at this hearing, telling you a little bit
about how important this matter is to our constituents and to
our community. I want to thank Senator Van Hollen for his
leadership and our House delegation. Congressman Ruppersberger
has been taking the lead on this, Congressman Mfume,
Congressman Sarbanes. We have all been engaged on this issue.
It is Valentine's Day. I will be checking tonight when I
get home to see if I got my valentines or not. I have a lot of
secretive admirers, so I hope my mailbox will be full. But I am
concerned as to whether that mail will be there or not.
And I am looking forward to hearing from our witnesses. Mr.
Gilbert, our Acting Executive Postmaster, we thank you for
being here; Ms. Perez from the Inspector General's Office; and
I believe we will be hearing from Ms. Westmoreland representing
Local 181.
I want to start by saying the obvious. We respond to
constituent concerns, and we have had a record number of
constituents upset and worried because of the Postal Service
not being up to its expected level. I could give you many, many
examples.
St. Luke's Place, a senior housing in Baltimore County, we
have heard numerous complaints of not getting their medicines
on time, jeopardizing their health, not getting their checks on
time, compromising their financial ability, having the bills
that they paid that they thought would be on time not arriving
on time. These are common complaints that we are getting
routinely in our office.
But I don't even have to go to my constituents who are
contacting me through our case workers. I can just go to my own
example at home. Recently I have had to pay two finance charges
on credit cards because the check was not received on time by
the credit card company. So, what did I do? I found alternative
ways now to pay my credit card bills because I can't rely--and
I put it in the mail weeks in advance of the due date, and it
still didn't get there on time.
So, that is just causing additional problems for the Postal
Service because you are losing customers, and it just feeds on
the challenges that we have.
So, the Maryland delegation wrote a letter to the
Postmaster months ago outlining these problems. And as has been
pointed out, these problems have existed for some time. We
recognize that the Coronavirus has made it more challenging; we
recognize that. But these problems didn't just occur from the
Coronavirus. They have been here for a substantial period of
time.
So we brought this to the attention of the leadership, and
we still don't have the results that we need. So, we have done
our own investigations. There have been some reports issued.
Our equipment is not what it needs to be in Baltimore. You
haven't made those investments even though we have asked for
it. The facilities are not what is necessary in order to reach
the level that is--we are not getting the resources, and we are
not getting the managerial concern and leadership that we need
in order to get the level up to what is acceptable. It is not
acceptable today, and it has to change, and it has to change
quickly.
I want just to acknowledge that the dedicated people who
work at the Postal Service, working under extremely challenging
circumstances, it is not their issue why we don't have the
service that we need. They are working as hard as they possibly
can. They have asked for even additional ways in which they
could accommodate the challenges that are there and that have
had a resistance from the leadership of the Postal Service.
So, this is unacceptable, and I very much look forward to
these conversations today. But it must change, and it must
change quickly.
Now, Mr. Chairman, on a positive note, Senator Van Hollen
and I will be leaving to go to Washington tonight to vote on a
cloture motion so that we can take up the Postal Service bill
that passed the House. We do hope we can pass it as early as
this week because we recognize there are systemic challenges in
the Postal system in the way that you have to pre-fund your
health care, in the way that your workers are not integrated
into the Medicare system. All of that needs to be corrected,
and the House bill does that and will be strongly supported, I
am convinced, by the Senate. We hope to get that to the
President.
That will help. But we need to have the commitment that you
are going to make the changes in Baltimore, in Maryland, in
this Nation so that the Postal Service can once again have the
confidence of the people of this Nation as to what it
historically has done.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I thank you again. I yield back.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you so much, Senator. Hopefully, this
hearing can be an inspiration for your colleagues to vote for
that cloture motion. Thank you so much for being with us.
The Chair is so pleased to recognize his friend and former
colleague, not only in the House but in the Senate, on the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Mr. Van Hollen and I were
young staffers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and
he went on to great things, and I am still pawing away.
Senator Van Hollen is recognized for an opening statement.
Welcome, Chris.
Senator Van Hollen. Thank you. I want to start by thanking
Chairman Connolly, Gerry Connolly, for holding this hearing and
bringing it to Baltimore. And thank you for the great work that
you and your colleagues in the House have done in passing that
Postal reform legislation. We do hope to take that up quickly
and pass it in the Senate.
It is really good to be here with my colleagues, Senator
Cardin, Congressman Ruppersberger, Congressman Mfume,
Congressman Sarbanes.
This has been an issue we have been focused on, and I
believe this hearing will further get to the bottom of the
challenges that we face.
Last July I chaired a hearing in the Senate Appropriations
subcommittee, and we heard from Maryland Postal customers
struggling with delays and all the hardships that imposed. We
heard from a Maryland Postal worker who described how he and
his colleagues do their very best to deliver the mail under
very tough circumstances and under very big management
challenges. And we heard from the USPS Inspector General, who
confirmed that the disruptive changes instituted by Postmaster
General Louis DeJoy in the summer of 2020 had made things much
worse. Things were challenging because of the pandemic, but the
changes that Postmaster DeJoy put in place made it much worse.
I have called for his removal, and I believe he still needs
to be replaced.
But while that brought down the level of service
nationwide, Mr. Chairman, as you indicated, things have
improved, but the goalposts have also been moved. They have
improved here in Maryland and in Baltimore, but as you pointed
out with your charts, Baltimore remains the hot spot in the
country in terms of poor mail service delivery, and you have
already gone through the figures, so I will not repeat those.
The good news is that the Inspector General has made
recommendations to fix the problems that the Postal Service is
beginning to adopt, and service in Baltimore is improving as a
result. Later today I will begin going through those in detail
during some of the question period to determine what has been
done, what remains to be done, and how we can improve mail
service, because at the end of the day, that is our goal. Our
goal is to make sure, by spotlighting the problem, we fix the
problem. And I appreciate, Mr. Chairman, you coming here so
that we can do that in an urgent way.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Senator Van Hollen. Thank you so
much for your commitment and leadership, as well. We wish you
good luck in the cloture vote tonight.
Mr. Mfume is recognized for an opening statement. Welcome.
Mr. Mfume. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for
being here in Baltimore. But more importantly, thank you for
the leadership that you have provided year after year, and for
those of us who look to you for guidance on so many of these
issues.
I also want to thank Senator Cardin and Senator Van Hollen,
both of whom made a commitment to be here and are here, and I
appreciate their work on these issues. I am hoping, like you,
that cloture does take place in the Senate tonight and that
this reform bill that so many of us have sponsored does, in
fact, become law.
My thanks to Majority Leader Hoyer, the member on the other
side, Mr. Boggs, and all my Maryland colleagues who, as you
have noted, are here. Congressmen Ruppersberger, Sarbanes,
Raskin, Trone, Brown are part of this because they are part of
what we like to consider Team Maryland. This is an issue that
affects all of us in Maryland, obviously, but also people all
across this country.
So, I thank you for coming here to Maryland's 7th
congressional District to convene this. I am appreciative of
your diligence and your commitment in addressing Postal delays.
None of those are any more important in my mind right now than
the delays in Baltimore, where we have, regrettably, seen and
documented the worst problems, the worst slowdowns, the worst
imaginable things in terms of the Postal Service. So, I am
happy that you are here.
For 250 years, going back to the days of Ben Franklin, who
was the first Postmaster, Americans have relied on the Postal
Service for prompt and affordable mail that comes on time. Yet,
for the last two years, my congressional office, like so many
of yours, has seen complaint after complaint from constituents,
one after another, who have not received their medicines, who
have not received their bills on time, who have not received
their checks, not even received First Class packages on time,
and have ended up, as Senator Cardin said, paying late fees for
something they were never late about.
In the last two years my congressional office has fielded
hundreds of complaints from constituents that really want and
deserve a better way.
Missing mail delivery and delivery slowdowns have
unfortunately become a part of everyday life across the
country, and more so here in Baltimore. According to the U.S.
Postal Service's audit that I and Congressman Ruppersberger
requested, Baltimore did not meet its own service targets for
First Class Mail, for Priority Mail, for periodical mail, and
for marketing mail, and that went on for a 92-week period,
beginning October 4 of 2019 through July 2 of last year. And
most recently, in the fourth quarter of last year, Baltimore
experienced delayed mail almost 20 percent of the time.
So, the Inspector General's audit that I requested and the
additional audit that came after that confirmed the national
post office and its leadership has failed the American people,
and even more so the people of Baltimore.
As I have said many times as a member of this committee,
Mr. Chairman, change must start at the top, and I am so happy
that the Chair of the full committee, Mrs. Maloney, has joined
us and is a part of this. Her leadership, and that coupled with
yours, has got us to a point where we are actually seeing some
changes.
President Biden heeded the call of many of us to replace
Ron Bloom from his seat. And as I said for almost two years,
since July 2020, Postmaster DeJoy has to step down. He has got
to go. He has repeatedly thumbed his nose at every attempt to
try to bring about a process to show him the error of his ways.
He has disassembled sorting machines in post offices all over
this country. He has removed mailboxes without the proper
audits required for mailboxes to be removed from communities,
and he has denied overtime repeatedly from Postal workers who,
as has been said earlier, really provided the backbone through
this crisis to make sure we got mail delivery.
Now, I just want to do, if I might, Mr. Chairman, one quick
thing, and that is to say that we have all seen where the
Postal Service has over 230,000 vehicles. And now, after
deliberately putting in place a program and process to slow
down the mail, deliberately he did this, now he is refusing to
purchase electric vehicles for the post office, the aging fleet
of vehicles that have to be replaced. Mr. DeJoy wants to buy
116,000 gasoline trucks instead of doing what he ought to do,
what the EPA, the President's Council on the Environment and
everybody has said, and that is to find a way now to move to
electric vehicles.
So, I can't say much more than that except to say that Mr.
DeJoy, if you are listening, we feel strongly about this. We
are not going to stop until you are removed from your position
and the American people will have some semblance of quality,
affordability, and prompt service once again.
And thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Mr. Mfume.
Mr. Ruppersberger is recognized for any opening remarks.
Mr. Ruppersberger. Thank you, Chairman. I want to
acknowledge the chairman of the whole committee, Carolyn
Maloney.
Chairman Connolly, you have done a great job in leadership
on this issue. You spent time and thank you for coming to my
hometown and the members of this table's hometown to deal with
this issue. It is very serious; it is un-American. We know the
positive history of the post office.
I also want to acknowledge our congressional team. You
don't want to mess with our congressional team when we come
together. Our two senators, you have Senator Cardin, Senator
Van Hollen, and then the Baltimore people, where the real
problem is. I want to thank Kweisi Mfume and John Sarbanes. We
work as a team, and we are not stopping until our constituents
are properly served by one of the most outstanding
organizations in the United States of America, and history
shows that.
I also want to acknowledge the leadership of Steny Hoyer,
who is constantly here working with us on all of these issues.
In my over 19 years in Congress--I really can't believe I
have been here that long--I have never received complaints of
this magnitude about the mail. Many of my constituents have
gone weeks without receiving their mail, including paychecks
and life-saving prescriptions.
Mail problems are a challenge for Members of Congress
because we lack jurisdiction. The United States Post Office is
an independent agency that falls under the Executive branch and
does not receive tax dollars. So, we have had to get creative.
I have written to Postmaster General DeJoy and requested
meetings on numerous occasions. He has never, not once,
responded. I have been meeting regularly with the local
leadership, including Postmaster Gilbert, who you will hear
from today. Thank you for being here.
I have demanded solutions at press conferences.
Finally, Congressmen Sarbanes, Mfume and myself, we
requested the United States Post Office Inspector General, who
oversees the Post Office independent of the everyday operations
of the Post Office, step in and audit the most problematic post
office in my district and in the country.
You know, it is good to be first when it is something good.
But for the Baltimore region to be No. 1, the worst mail
delivery in the country, that is wrong, we can't allow it, and
we are going to do whatever we can on behalf of our
constituents to change that and to turn it around.
I again thank you for the hearing, Mr. Connolly.
When the audits came in, the results were unsurprising. We
knew how serious this issue was. The Baltimore region has the
second highest number of missing mail inquiries in the country.
Many product categories never met their service target during
the three-month audit period. Forty-two percent of packages
were improperly scanned. It is just mind-boggling what happened
here in the Baltimore region. Baltimore, again, the worst in
the country. That just blows my mind, and we are going to turn
it around, and we are trying.
Now, while worsened by the pandemic, post office issues
were clearly deteriorating before COVID. We heard today, I
think Chairman Connolly said the issues really started to
deteriorate in 2013, even before DeJoy came into leadership.
They are the result of poor planning and oversight by
Postmaster General DeJoy and senior Postal leadership, who have
unilaterally rolled out the ``Delivering for America'' plan
despite widespread concerns. The plan has lowered service
standards and increased prices. And while headquarters gave
themselves unprecedented raises and bonuses, this issue keeps
moving forward without regard to the great people who work in
the post office now and in all those years. The poor management
has really hurt the system here, and we want to thank those
employees who have stayed the course, and we are behind you.
Now, I ask for unanimous consent to enter into the record a
letter I sent last week to Postmaster General DeJoy further
outlining my concerns.[EO2]
Mr. Connolly. Without objection, so ordered.
Mr. Ruppersberger. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Ruppersberger. I am eager to work with this committee
to put the post office back on a sustainable path and restore
mail service to the level our constituents deserve.
I yield back.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Mr. Ruppersberger.
The Chair now recognizes the distinguished Congresswoman
from the District of Columbia for any opening remarks she may
wish to share, Ms. Norton.
Ms. Norton. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Chairman
Connolly, let me say how much I appreciate your giving me an
opportunity to give an opening statement at this very important
field hearing on ongoing issues with the United States Postal
Service.
Mr. Chairman, these problems are nationwide. While this
hearing is focused on the delivery issues in the Baltimore
area, not far from my own District of Columbia district, I
would be remiss if I did not mention that my district, the
District of Columbia, is facing similar problems with delivery
as well. D.C. residents have been contacting my office in
record numbers about the rate of undelivered mail. I have had
to write the Postal Service regularly about delayed,
undelivered mail in every part of the district. The situation
is simply untenable.
That is why this hearing is so important. We need answers.
Changes need to be made to the Postal Service as quickly as
possible.
I strongly support the mission of the Postal Service. It is
a vital government institution. I also have great respect for
our dedicated Postal workers. The delivery issues are not their
fault.
While the Coronavirus pandemic has certainly affected the
Postal Service and its work force, Postmaster General Louis
DeJoy deserves much, if not most, of the blame for the delivery
issues.
I again reiterate my call and that of members who preceded
me for Postmaster General DeJoy to be removed or resign.
Thank you again, Mr. Chairman, for holding this important
hearing.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Ms. Norton, and thank you for your
consistent support to reform and improve Postal services for
your constituents and all our constituents.
The Chair now recognizes the distinguished gentleman from
Chicago, Illinois, the Honorable Mr. Davis, for any opening
remarks he may wish.
Mr. Davis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The only thing I would
need to do and say is to thank you and commend you, Chairwoman
Maloney, and the members of this committee, and all those
people from Maryland.
You know, you have two United States senators there and we
only had one. The other one couldn't be present. And you have
Steny Hoyer. He couldn't be in Chicago either.
But let me just associate myself with the remarks. I wish
my people from Chicago could hear these remarks so that they
know Chicago is not the only one. I concur with all those who
have called for the resignation of the head of the Postal
Service because it has a noble mandate, it has a great history
of being revered by citizens throughout the country, and we
don't want that mandate, nor do we want that history, to be
reversed. It needs new leadership.
Commendations again to you, to Congresswoman and our
leader, Carolyn Maloney, for the tremendous leadership you have
provided on this issue. I thank you and yield back.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Mr. Davis.
The gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Sarbanes, is recognized
for any opening remarks.
Mr. Sarbanes. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I want to
thank you and the subcommittee for coming to Baltimore today to
discuss the reasons for the longstanding mail delivery issues.
I want to thank the University of Baltimore for hosting us.
For years, as we have heard, Baltimore has ranked at the
bottom of the country in terms of on-time delivery of mail and
lost mail, metrics that pose significant hardships for many
mailers who rely on this Federal agency to pay their bills,
receive their medications, and even vote.
I have received, as others have, countless messages from my
constituents detailing how Postal Service delays have impacted
their daily lives, and I want to share just one of those right
now.
On May 10, 2021, one of my constituents from Pikesville
mailed her passport and marriage license to the Towson Social
Security office, just about 10 miles away, to obtain a name
change. On May 13, the office mailed them back. However, the
documents were not received until August 7, nearly three months
later. Despite repeated efforts to seek assistance from the
USPS's online complaint system, the documents only appeared
after my office was able to intervene.
Imagine that some of your most sensitive personal documents
missing for months without any way of knowing where they might
be or if they are gone forever. And she is not alone. Many
others have experienced similar situations, in some cases even
seeing their credit scores drop because of a late or never-
arriving bill.
Marylanders deserve better, and I am confident that we can
do better. Just last week, as you said, the House passed the
Postal Service Reform Act to make critical improvements to the
financial stability, operational efficiency, and the
transparency of the Postal Service. The bill will not only save
the Postal Service billions of dollars, thereby ensuring it has
the resources necessary to strengthen its staffing, equipment,
and commitments to the American people for decades to come, but
will also impose additional oversight, critically, and
accountability measures to help us better hold the agency to
the high standards we know its dedicated public servants are
capable of.
I want to thank you, Chairman Connolly, for your work on
this bill. I encourage my colleagues in the Senate to vote for
its passage this week; we have high confidence there.
I look forward to hearing more today about how we in
Baltimore and in Congress can work together to ensure the
efficient implementation of this bill and markedly improved
Postal delivery here in Maryland.
Mr. Chairman, the U.S. Postal Service is a treasured
institution. When the letter you are waiting for shows up in
your mailbox on time, it makes you feel good. It makes you feel
like things are working. That is what this is all about.
I yield back.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Mr. Sarbanes, and thank you for
the specific example you gave us because it is important to
remember that this is not a problem in the abstract. This is a
very practical problem, during a pandemic particularly, where
the Postal Service is a lifeline for people, and it can be
profoundly disruptive at a very difficult time to begin with.
Thank you, Mr. Sarbanes.
Our colleague, a former employee of the Postal Service
itself, so she knows where all the bodies are buried, and a
leader in Postal reform on our committee and in the Congress,
the gentle lady from Michigan, Ms. Lawrence, is recognized for
any opening remarks she may have. Welcome.
Ms. Lawrence. Thank you so much, Chairman Connolly. I just
want to thank you for your leadership, and to the Chair of our
committee, Representative Maloney, for all your commitment to
this issue.
As a 30-year veteran of the Postal Service, conducting
oversight and fighting for its long-term solvency, it is
especially important to me. I want you all to know that the
last few years have truly demonstrated the importance of the
Postal Service's mission, and that is providing prompt and
reliable mail delivery.
Throughout the pandemic, Americans relied on the Postal
Service to deliver essential medical supplies, economic impact
payments, and many more. When we talk about mental health in
America, a simple thing like a greeting card from someone you
love arriving in a timely manner can make a difference.
Due to employee availability, regions of the country,
including Baltimore, and my district in southeast Michigan,
experienced widespread delivery delays. Last week, in a strong
bipartisan vote, the House of Representatives approved the
Postal Service Reform Act to demonstrate our commitment to the
agency's long-term financial viability.
I want everyone here to know that when I say this is
personal, it truly is. I was a letter carrier when I first
started. I know what it means to walk in cold, rain, sleet and
snow. I sorted mail. I know what it means to disrupt your
family routine so that you can work. The people and the workers
of the Postal Service are committed. We need the leadership of
the Postal Service to step up and take accountability for what
is happening; but more importantly, to make the investments in
the Postal Service so that it will continue to be the one
Federal agency that gets the highest ranking of approval and
not let the American people down.
As the most favorable government agency, we must ensure
that the Postal Service is positioned to deliver the mail in a
prompt and reliable manner. We are seeing the numbers in the
pandemic get better across the country. We expect the
challenges that the Postal Service had during one of its most
critical times in America to improve as well.
I want everyone here to know that I came here to the
Congress pledging to invest in the Postal Service and to
stabilize them financially. I have delivered that package, and
I expect for the Postal Service to continue to deliver to the
people of America.
Thank you so much, and I yield back.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you so much, Congresswoman Lawrence.
The gentleman from Tacoma Park, Maryland, Mr. Raskin, is
recognized for any opening remarks he may have.
Mr. Raskin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your great
leadership on all of the Postal issues we are dealing with; and
thank you, Ms. Maloney; and to my Baltimore colleagues for
hosting this really important hearing.
My constituents, too, have seen significant delays in mail
delivery and a sharp decline in service performance in recent
years, but the speed of performance is only part of the
problem. The most common complaints I am getting are about mis-
delivered mail, hospital bills, paychecks, medicines, tax
documents, all gone to the wrong address, which means the
neighbors essentially have to deliver mail to each other, if
they can do it. That is obviously not a sustainable model for
us getting mail to people.
There is also the problem of missing mail, time-sensitive
documents like contracts, bills, personal correspondence, that
simply is never delivered at all and just vanishes into a
Kafkaesque Postal void.
And then this morning, just 20 minutes before we met, I
spoke to two treasured constituents and friends in Bethesda who
had a check to their credit card company of $4,987 stolen out
of their mailbox and then copied, with all kinds of nightmarish
implications in terms of having to try to scramble to deal with
that problem, and I don't know to what extent we have an
efficient system for dealing with the increasing problem of
mail theft, which is something I want to ask about today.
So, whether it is my constituents in Westminster who aren't
getting mail for three or four days in a row, or constituents
in Kensington or Silver Spring whose forwarding orders are not
being properly honored, whatever it is, we need to clean up the
system and make sure it works right. This is a leadership and
management challenge, as Ms. Lawrence said. It goes to the top
levels of the Postal Service, and we need to see rapid change
and improvement so that this American jewel of the Postal
Service continues to shine in service throughout this century.
I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Mr. Raskin, and thank you for all
you do on this and so many other issues that matter to
Americans.
The gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Trone, is recognized for
his opening statement.
Mr. Trone. Thank you, Chairman Connolly, and to the
subcommittee staff, for holding this important hearing. And
thanks to Chairwoman Maloney for her leadership on this issue
and so many other issues.
We all know the United States Postal Service is a pillar of
American society, and the timely delivery of mail is critical
to lives and livelihoods of countless Americans, especially in
regions like in my district in western Maryland with little or
no broadband.
According to the September 2021 Office of the Inspector
General's report on the nationwide service performance during
the 18 months observed, the amount of mail and parcels
delivered on time decreased in every single mail
classification. This is particularly true of the Baltimore
region, among the worst if not the worst in the country when it
comes to delivering First-Class Mail. While we understand
COVID-19 has brought unprecedented challenges, at the end of
the day this is a leadership failure, leadership.
Postmaster DeJoy must be removed. As our late friend,
Congressman Cummings, says, we are better than that, we are so
much better, and he has to go.
Millions of Americans, including some of the most
vulnerable, rely on the Postal Service for their medications,
Social Security checks, tax refunds, and so much more. In my
district, in that most rural part of western Maryland, that
lack of broadband means many folks still pay their bills by
mail. And in small towns without pharmacies, the Postal Service
is the only way to get a prescription filled. We can't afford
to let delays interfere with the delivery of these vital
services. We owe it to the American people to get it right.
I look forward to working with my colleagues on Team
Maryland and across the country to ensure the Postal Service
takes the necessary steps to correct this course and serve the
American people in a timely and effective manner.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Mr. Trone. Thank you for your
tenacity and your steadfast commitment to improving the Postal
Service and the quality of life for all of our constituents.
That concludes opening remarks, believe it or not.
We have four witnesses today. Let me introduce them, and
then I will ask them to stand and/or raise their right hand for
being sworn in.
Our first witness today will be Eric Gilbert, who is the
Acting Baltimore Postmaster for the U.S. Postal Service here in
Baltimore.
Then we will hear from Melinda Perez, Deputy Assistant
Inspector General for Audit for the U.S. Postal Service Office
of Inspector General.
Then we will hear from Rictarsha Westmoreland, Mail
Processing Clerk at the incoming mail facility in Linthicum,
Maryland, and Shop Steward for the American Postal Workers
Union.
And finally, we will hear from Chuck Metzger, Controller of
ReBUILD Metro, a non-profit organization located here in
Baltimore in Mr. Mfume's 7th District that works with community
members to revitalize homes and neighborhoods without
displacing existing residents, and he will tell his story.
The two remote witnesses will be unmuted so that we can
swear everybody in.
If you would rise, and if our two remote witnesses would
raise their right hand along with our in-person witnesses. You
got it? OK. Thank you.
[Witnesses sworn.]
Mr. Connolly. Let the record show that our witnesses
answered in the affirmative. Thank you.
Without objection, your written statements will be made a
part of the record.
Mr. Gilbert, you are recognized for your opening remarks.
Welcome.
STATEMENT OF ERIC GILBERT, ACTING EXECUTIVE POSTMASTER,
BALTIMORE, U.S. POSTAL SERVICE
Mr. Gilbert. Good morning, Chairman Connolly, subcommittee
members, and the Maryland delegation. Thank you for calling
this important hearing to examine service performance in
Baltimore. My name is Eric Gilbert. I have served as an Acting
Executive Postmaster of Baltimore since October. My Postal
career began 26 years ago as a mail processing clerk in San
Diego, and I have held several leadership positions since. I
acted in the same assignment in 2020 and since returning have
put processes in place to improve service performance.
Overall, the main factors impacting Baltimore's service
performance are related to employee availability and training.
Currently, we have 102 clerk and carrier vacancies, and
pandemic-related absences and other availability issues also
affect our ability to maintain service excellence.
On the pandemic front, attendance has improved since the
expiration of legislative leave, but availability remains fluid
due to changing COVID variants. On a daily basis, our district
management holds calls to discuss key metrics and develop plans
to move resources where needed. On a weekly basis I review
staffing and, when necessary, seek assistance from surrounding
areas to ensure service. During these reviews, we work to
determine the root cause of any unusually high employee
absences.
Beyond addressing immediate absences, we are concentrating
on recruitment. Our ability to hire new employees was in fact
hampered by delays in removing departed employees from our
rolls. I now hold weekly calls with district management and my
own team to discuss removals and approve staffing at the
individual unit level.
On hiring itself, we have expedited the process by
automating the posting of vacancies once hired. We move to
address limitations in training by opening a new Carrier City
Training Academy, increasing the number of new hires we can
train from seven to 32 each week.
I also engage in a recruitment campaign to increase the
number of certified, on-the-job instructors, and I have taken
steps to ensure that the employees waiting for efficient
training are provided modified training on processes such as
sorting and scanning.
On retention, we do have trouble retaining carriers in
Baltimore. Many leave the job after realizing it is much more
physically demanding than anticipated. To address this, we
conduct one-on-one interviews with those employees about
factors that led them to leave and what changes would encourage
them to stay.
Hiring and recruiting is also difficult for high-crime
areas, and when we place new hires in those units, they often
resign.
On the operational front, to improve efficiencies such as
lack of scanning, weekly training is provided to all
supervisory employees who in turn train carriers and clerks. I
monitor all available reporting tools daily and take necessary
action to correct.
All of these efforts are aimed at improving our
performance, and we are seeing improvement. A case in point: In
2021, peak holiday mailing season, to prepare for a successful
peak, we hired 267 employees in Baltimore between October and
December. The Maryland district leased additional space for
package sorting annexes and added six package sorting machines
to increase processing capacity. We established five added
delivery annexes in Baltimore and moved package volume to those
sites to be run separately from normal delivery operations.
These annexes allowed us to provide more consistent
delivery by alleviating space constraints in our regular
delivery units, improving package sortation, and providing more
flexibility.
We also conducted early morning package delivery runs from
Baltimore units to ensure timely delivery and early carrier
return. We delivered nearly 2.5 million packages in Baltimore
from November 28 through December 24.
Our overall performance data demonstrates that service has
stabilized across all product areas, though it declined
slightly in early December and January due to COVID-related
absences and winter weather. It has since rebounded.
Please note that I am committed to providing high-quality,
reliable service to Baltimore City residents. We have seen
steady service performance improvement as a result of the
processes we have established, and we will refine these
processes as any new challenges arise.
Thank you, Chairman Connolly and members of the
subcommittee, for the opportunity to address these matters. I
welcome any questions that you may have.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Mr. Gilbert.
Ms. Perez, you are recognized for your opening summary.
STATEMENT OF MELINDA PEREZ, DEPUTY ASSISTANT INSPECTOR GENERAL
FOR AUDIT, OFFICE OF
INSPECTOR GENERAL, U.S. POSTAL SERVICE
Ms. Perez. Can you hear me OK? Thank you.
Good morning, Chairman Connolly, Ranking Member Hice,
members of the subcommittee, and the Maryland delegation. Thank
you for inviting me here today to discuss our work related to
the Postal Service's delivery performance in Baltimore,
Maryland.
Our mission, to ensure the efficiency, accountability, and
integrity of our Nation's Postal Service, is something we take
very seriously. The Postal Service has reported it had a
successful peak holiday season nationwide with no significant
issues, although it has not reported on how it did in specific
locations such as Baltimore, which has been challenged with
timely mail delivery for years.
Because of those challenges, last May Congressmen Mfume and
Ruppersberger asked us to review mail delivery and customer
service operations in the Baltimore area. In response, we
initiated an audit focused on nine delivery units in Baltimore.
We visited these units last June and found delayed mail at
each, totaling almost a million pieces.
One of the main drivers of these delays was employee
shortages due to COVID, and we identified some opportunities
for the Postal Service to improve hiring and retention. This
included offering more opportunities for new employee training
and identifying and filling vacant positions in a timely
manner. Postal management agreed with all of our
recommendations and has either fully addressed or is taking
action to address them.
We also initiated an audit on Baltimore's mail processing
facility to identify issues that could affect the timeliness of
mail delivery. We found the plant had many manager and
supervisor vacancies due to a hiring freeze. In addition,
broken equipment required employees to manually transfer mail
between floors using elevators, adding two hours per day to
move the mail. These problems, along with supervision,
communication, and coordination issues, resulted in mail being
brought to the docks later than planned. As a result, trucks
left late or additional transportation had to be used, leading
to increased costs and greater risk of delayed mail.
Postal management generally agreed with our findings and
was responsive to most of our recommendations.
Because we know timely mail delivery is important to all
Postal customers, we developed a service performance website
that shows delivery performance over time by geographic area
and mail class. For several years, Baltimore had low service
scores that were largely below the national average. Then,
around July 2020, Baltimore service performance scores began to
decline and did not start to improve until April 2021. The most
recently released data shows service performance in Baltimore
steadily improved through this past September, although it has
remained consistently below the national average.
Another way we have focused on service issues is by
strategically structuring our resources to perform groupings of
audits in specific geographic locations, similar to the work we
performed here in Baltimore. This will allow us to provide a
more comprehensive look at mail processing and delivery issues
at each location. We recently finished our work in Portland,
Oregon, and have begun work in Columbus, Ohio and San Diego,
California.
In addition, we have prioritized work related to national
service issues. This past fall, we published a report on
nationwide service performance that identified the most common
causes of service failures, which were a shortage of employees,
insufficient operational and transportation capacity, and
facilities not always properly sorting mail and parcels.
Another recent report looked at the Postal Service's
preparedness for the holiday season and found that it had
addressed some of the conditions that led to last year's
problems. We observed operations and monitored performance data
throughout the peak holiday season and will issue a report this
spring on how the Postal Service performed.
In an upcoming project, we will report on how the Postal
Service manages its delivery operations, with a focus on
undelivered routes. We are also reviewing the 10 lowest-
performing mail processing plants, including the Baltimore and
Linthicum facilities, to determine the root causes of the
service problems.
Finally, we know there is a concern that planned Postal
changes will impact mail service in Baltimore, as well as the
rest of the country. We currently have an audit on the Postal
Service's ``Delivering for America'' plan that looks at how the
Postal Service developed its forecasts and how it will measure
the plan's success. As the Postal Service continues to roll out
its plan, we will monitor and evaluate its effectiveness and
success, as well as identify any impacts on mail delivery.
We understand how important the Postal Service and timely
delivery is to its customers in Baltimore and around the
country. We appreciate the opportunity to discuss our work, and
I am happy to answer your questions.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Ms. Perez. You are a pro. You had
26 more seconds. Great.
Mr. Westmoreland, you are recognized for your opening
statement.
STATEMENT OF RICTARSHA WESTMORELAND, MAIL
PROCESSING CLERK AND SHOP STEWARD, U.S. POSTAL SERVICE
Ms. Westmoreland. Hi. Good morning. This is Ms.
Westmoreland.
Mr. Connolly. Oh, excuse me.
Ms. Westmoreland. Good morning, Chairman Connolly, Ranking
Member Hice, members of the House Committee on Oversight and
Reform, and distinguished members of the Maryland congressional
delegation. My name is Rictarsha Westmoreland. USPS hired me as
a Postal Support Employee, PSE, in 2016 to work in the
Linthicum incoming mail facility, located just outside of
Baltimore. Today, in addition to my postal duties, I serve as a
shop steward and trustee for the Baltimore Francis Stu Filbey
Area Local 181 of the American Postal Workers Union. My local
and national union represents more than 200,000 of the 630,000
postal workers who proudly accept, sort, process, transport,
and deliver mail to 161 million addresses a day.
As a Marylander, I appreciate the committee's concern over
USPS' performance in Baltimore and its ongoing efforts to
protect the Postal Service.
The Linthicum facility is an essential part of the
Baltimore region's mail system, with nearly 50 percent of the
facility's mail originating from Baltimore. It is not an
exaggeration to say that the problems I witness at my facility
result in mail delays for the entire country. We must address
the Baltimore region's mail delays and United States Postal
Service's ever-declining service standards before customers
lose confidence in their Postal Service.
My coworkers and I are bombarded by media reports and
customer complaints about lost and delayed mail. I hear from
friends and loved ones about how USPS' delays affect our
communities when we fail to deliver life-saving medications,
wedding invitations, retirement checks, and bill payments on
time, which results in late fees.
Unfortunately, the frustration we witness from the public
is not unique. In preparation for this hearing, I reviewed a
November 2021 Office of the Inspector General audit report that
found that the Baltimore region had the second-highest number
of lost mail inquiries of any major metropolitan area. The same
report found that the former Baltimore district failed to meet
its performance targets every week during the 96-week audit for
flagship products, including First-Class Mail.
While this performance is embarrassing, it is preventable.
We can restore the level of service Postal customers deserve
with better managerial decisions. While the United States
Postal Service's continued decline in service standards is at
the root of many of the customer complaints I receive, the
focus of my testimony will be on how a lack of staffing impacts
the accuracy of our mail service.
In my facility, my union informed me that since September
11, 2021, there has been a reduction of 99 PSEs and 14 full-
time regular clerks, for a total reduction of 113 mail
processing clerks, a statistic that is only made worse by COVID
absenteeism. Lead clerks are the individuals charged with
training. However, because of the worker shortage, lead clerks
are working on machines, and they cannot walk around and help
new employees. As such, my colleagues, who are not designated
trainers, are expected to step in and take on the task of
training new employees in addition to their daily duties. My
coworkers do their best but, like the lead clerks, they are
overwhelmed. Often because of the physical distance between
workstations, questions go unanswered, and mistakes happen.
I believe that the current delays we are witnessing across
the Nation result from inadequate investments in staffing and
poor management. We do not have enough workers, and when we
hire, new employees are not trained how to sort the mail. This
leads to mail being given to carriers out of order, which
forces letter carriers to skip entire blocks and bring mail
back to the station, or worse, mail to be delivered to the
wrong address.
The problems we face--disrespectful management, a flawed
onboarding process, and chronic understaffing--are reversible.
But even if we were able to start meeting our performance
targets, the United States Postal Service would still be slower
than the public deserves until we return to the 2012 service
standards.
Baltimore certainly has its problems, but, like every other
Postal facility across the country, it has a dedicated group of
Postal workers who genuinely want to see management step up and
make the improvements we desperately need. I hope that my
testimony may aid us in taking a step in the right direction
and move the United States Postal Service toward not just
meeting its current performance targets but to restoring itself
to the 2012 service standards the American public deserves.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today, and I look
forward to your questions.
Mr. Connolly. Wow. Seven seconds to go. You are even better
than Ms. Perez. Thank you so much, Ms. Westmoreland.
And finally, Mr. Chuck Metzger is recognized for his
opening summary statement.
STATEMENT OF CHUCK METZGER, CONTROLLER, REBUILD METRO
Mr. Metzger. Good morning, everyone. I appreciate the
opportunity of giving my testimony today. My name is Charles
Metzger, and I am the Controller of ReBUILD Metro. We are a
non-profit organization in Baltimore whose mission is to
revitalize east Baltimore through the redevelopment of vacant
and abandoned properties. Our organization has redeveloped over
450 abandoned buildings in our community, reducing our vacancy
rate by 90 percent and creating quality, affordable housing,
parks, green spaces, and small retail businesses. We utilize
grants, donations, and philanthropic promissory notes--loans--
to finance our work.
In the regular course of business, each December we mail
interest payments to our investors. In January 2021, we
received five calls for investors looking for their 2020
payments. They did not receive them in the checks that we
mailed in December. We issued stop payments on the checks and
reissued the interest payment using electronic ACH transfers.
Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident. During
the first quarter of 2021, we did not receive mail for six
weeks. After numerous calls to our post office on Shady Avenue
in Baltimore City, we received some mail but not the full
complement of what was missing.
The lack of regular U.S. mail deliveries presents a
significant hardship because our operations are dependent on
receiving grant payments, donations, and vendor invoices on all
of our mail. In addition to impacting our revenues, the service
problems affect our expenses. ReBUILD Metro owns 160 properties
for which we pay monthly utility bills. We are no longer
receiving these consistently. Due to the missing utility bills
and invoices, we have incurred hundreds of dollars in late fees
due to missing invoices.
Following the utility bill issue, I filed a complaint with
the Postmaster in Washington, DC. When the D.C. office replied
to my request, they indicated that the carrier could not access
our mailbox. This statement has no grounds. Our office is on a
corner of a rowhome in east Baltimore, and we have been served
for several years through a U.S. mailbox on the front of our
building. Additionally, we have a second entrance with a
private mail slot which serves to collect rent and other
community correspondence. Following another month of failed
Postal service, we contacted Congressman Mfume's office. Within
a week of communicating with Congressman Mfume's office, normal
mail delivery resumed. We thought our USPS problems were
resolved, but in December 2021 the service issues emerged
again.
In December 2021, we mailed our annual interest payments to
our investors, whose funding makes much of east Baltimore's
revitalization possible. Over the past two weeks, we received
calls from our investors stating that the annual interest
payments were not received. We were again forced to stopped
payment on the checks and issue electronic ACH transfers. A few
days later, one investor called stating that they had finally
received their check, but it was postmarked January 21, 2022.
We mailed several of the interest checks to them on December
15, 2020, which arrived as scheduled. This situation undermines
ReBUILD Metro's credibility, calling into question our
competency, financial management, or both.
In addition to ReBUILD Metro's problems with the mail, our
community residents are experiencing the same failures in USPS
service. ReBUILD Metro may worry about its reputation, but some
of our most vulnerable community members are exposed to much
greater hardships when they incur late fees which they cannot
afford or receive late unemployment or Social Security checks.
We ask you to complete a full review of the USPS services in
our community.
I want to thank you again for giving me the time to speak.
Mr. Connolly. Mr. Metzger, thank you so much.
We are now going to go into question time for members. I
would ask everyone to try to respect the five-minute rule
because we have 15 members participating in this hearing.
The Chair is delighted to recognize the distinguished
senior member, our senator from Maryland, Mr. Cardin, for his
round of questioning.
Senator Cardin. Once again, Mr. Chairman, thank you very
much. And let me thank all four of our witnesses.
Mr. Gilbert, are you satisfied with the progress you have
made in Baltimore?
Mr. Gilbert. No, sir.
Senator Cardin. I am glad to hear you say that because we
have been working on this for a long time----
Mr. Connolly. May I interrupt for just one second?
Mr. Gilbert, it is hard to hear you. You have a soft voice,
which is great, but if you could just move that mic closer to
your mouth so we can get it.
Mr. Gilbert. How about now?
Mr. Connolly. Thank you so much.
Senator Cardin. I am glad to hear you say that you are not
satisfied. We have been working on this for a long time, before
you got into your current position. At one time the Baltimore
district was putting mail they couldn't sort into trailers,
just sitting there for a long period of time. No wonder they
were either lost or months in delay. At other times you have
indicated you have rented additional auxiliary space, which is
not an efficient way to operate when you have to work between
different spaces. We have already heard from Ms. Westmoreland
about how difficult it is just to get through the facilities
when you do this temporary change.
We had been told that Baltimore needed new equipment
because some of the equipment just wasn't functioning properly,
and it looks like it is still in that status. We were told
Baltimore and Linthicum needed major upgrades, and I don't
think the upgrades have been done.
My question to you is if you are not satisfied, every area
of the country has challenges with COVID and the work force, so
why isn't there more urgent attention to dealing with the root
causes of the inefficiencies in Baltimore, lost mail in
Baltimore, the lengthy delays in Baltimore, which is causing
immeasurable hardship?
Mr. Gilbert. From a customer service standpoint, sir, we
make every effort to ensure that when we receive the mail, we
deliver the mail.
Senator Cardin. But that is not happening. We saw a
constant--the IG's report showed that from July 20 of last
year, 2020, through April 2021, there was a constant decline in
service. Some progress was made, and then it was lost again.
We know that the mail is being lost. We are getting these
reports. The witnesses are telling us; our constituents are
telling us. Our own families are not getting the mail
delivered. It could be months that I don't get a financial
statement from one of my accounts because it is just lost in
the mail. This is routine.
Mr. Gilbert. Anything prior to October, sir, my arrival,
there were some mail condition concerns within the city of
Baltimore. Since my arrival at the beginning of October, our
mail conditions have improved with the effort of every piece
leaving our delivery units.
Senator Cardin. So, you have been saying you have a
difficult time justifying, I guess to your supervisors, filling
positions in the Baltimore region because they haven't been
declared open. Did I hear you correctly in your testimony?
Mr. Gilbert. No, sir. Within the city of Baltimore, from a
supervisory staff standpoint, we only have two vacancies.
Senator Cardin. So you have enough people now.
Mr. Gilbert. We do have enough people. Yes, sir.
Senator Cardin. So in your testimony you said that your
major problem was having enough personnel and training. I
thought those were the two reasons that you were giving for the
problem.
Mr. Gilbert. That would be correct, sir, prior to October.
Since my arrival, again, we focused on our hiring and our
training. At this point, with our hiring and training, we are
at staffing and complement.
Senator Cardin. So, are you satisfied now that you have the
resources to be able to meet the delivery standards that are
expected?
Mr. Gilbert. No, sir.
Senator Cardin. So, what do you need?
Mr. Gilbert. We need consistent employee availability.
Basically, we are relying on our employees, to include our
management staff members, to come to work when scheduled. That
is our primary need at this point.
Senator Cardin. So it is not the numbers that you have. It
is that you have absenteeism as a result of COVID. Is that the
problem?
Mr. Gilbert. Separate from COVID as well, sir. Employees
call in FMLA conditions, et cetera, to where they are not
regularly in attendance.
Senator Cardin. And this is unique to this region as
compared to other regions in the country?
Mr. Gilbert. It is not unique to this region.
Unfortunately, we have a higher absentee rate here in the city
of Baltimore to where it was too comfortable for folks to pick
up the phone and call in sick. Part of my process since I have
been here is daily, we review our employee attendance as in how
many employees have not come to work and the reasons why, to
include folks who have zero work hours; i.e., have not been to
work in four weeks, minimum. We go through the process as to
vetting their documentation, if received, and if not received,
we have aggressively moved to have those employees removed off
the rolls.
Senator Cardin. Do you agree with the findings of the
Inspector General?
Mr. Gilbert. I do, sir.
Senator Cardin. And have you implemented all the
recommendations?
Mr. Gilbert. We have, sir.
Senator Cardin. Let me ask Ms. Perez, are you aware whether
they have implemented all of the recommendations that you had?
Ms. Perez. Yes, sir. For the delivery unit report, they
have implemented, out of the seven recommendations, I believe
four we have been able to close. They have provided
documentation and have taken action on the other three, but our
responsibility is to do due diligence and hold the Postal
Service accountable to have full assurance that there will be
full implementation. So we are in open dialog with the Postal
Service at this juncture to receive that additional support so
we can fully close the other three recommendations.
Senator Cardin. And, Mr. Gilbert, I take it that you agree
that you want to close those, so you are going to be fully
cooperative in implementing the recommendations of the
Inspector General?
Mr. Gilbert. That is correct, sir.
Senator Cardin. Well, what I find troubling about your
testimony is that if it is a personnel issue that is driving--
it doesn't seem like you are accepting the fact that we have
had supervisory and managerial failures in the Baltimore
region, by clear misdirection at times; and, as we see it, the
failure to advocate for the resources that are necessary in
order to bring the service levels up. We are, so far, an
outlier. Don't you agree that the Baltimore region is an
outlier among the Postal Service?
Mr. Gilbert. I would agree, sir, and there is a level of
ownership from the management standpoint down to the local unit
level as to the importance of, one, measuring service; and two,
ensuring that we provide the mail to the customers within the
communities we serve. So when we talk about a management issue,
that is all the way down to the local unit level. We have that
level of ownership.
Senator Cardin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Senator Cardin.
Let me just say, this issue of absenteeism came up in our
October hearing in Chicago that it is really a Service-wide
problem, during the pandemic certainly. But it is also
important to note, as I think you were doing, Senator, that the
problem predates the pandemic in terms of service delivery,
before your time in October. But we are talking about a 10-year
chronic problem here in Baltimore that is separate from the
pandemic, or even the absenteeism that you are describing now.
Thank you, Senator.
Senator Van Hollen, delighted to recognize you for your
round of questions.
Senator Van Hollen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again, thank
you for holding this hearing.
Ms. Perez, I wanted to ask you a specific question that
arose out of the hearing that I held last July in the
Appropriations Committee dealing with service and materials for
the blind. One of the witnesses we had there was Rania Dima,
who was in the process of going blind and needed materials
through the mail to help her learn braille before she went
completely blind. And she testified that the delivery service
for the program for Free Matter for the Blind, the deliveries
were not on time at all. You are familiar with that service,
right?
Ms. Perez. Yes, sir. We are in receipt of your request and
that work is underway.
Senator Van Hollen. Now, just as I understand it, the Free
Matter for the Blind material is supposed to be treated the
same as First-Class Mail. Is that right?
Ms. Perez. That is my understanding as well, yes.
Senator Van Hollen. And what she told us was that the
deliveries through that program were even later than First-
Class Mail, which, as we are hearing today, was already bad
enough. So we asked the Inspector General to look specifically
into this issue. Can you give us an update today on when we can
get a report back?
Ms. Perez. Yes, sir. My understanding is the planning is
underway and we plan to announce that audit to the Postal
Service within the next week or so, and we hope to have a final
report sometime this summer, and we look forward to updating
you on that.
Senator Van Hollen. All right. We hope that you can get it
to us as quickly as possible, and most importantly that that
service can be up to speed as quickly as possible.
Ms. Perez, let me ask you a question, because we have the
issue of delivery of mail once it is received by Mr. Gilbert
and his team. But before that, it has to go through the
processing system, right?
Ms. Perez. Correct.
Senator Van Hollen. And that means the Baltimore processing
and distribution center is one of the major processing centers;
is that right?
Ms. Perez. Correct.
Senator Van Hollen. Can you tell us how much of the delay
in the Baltimore area relates to problems at the Baltimore
processing and distribution center versus how much of it
relates to problems after mail has left that center?
Ms. Perez. That is a good question. And unfortunately,
based on the work that we had done in the area, I am unable to
determine whether or not the problems are specific to the plant
or they are specific to the delivery units. We looked at the
nine delivery units in June of last year, and then we
subsequently looked at the facility. We worked to try and see
if there is a correlation there, but in this instance we did
not necessarily have that.
Senator Van Hollen. But you looked at nine units, right?
Did you look to see whether mail was delayed in getting to
those units compared to other processing centers around the
country?
Ms. Perez. I am actually not sure whether or not that was
part of the audit, the scope of the audit, so I would have to
determine that and get back to you.
Senator Van Hollen. Because part of the report from the
Inspector General indicated that there was an especially high
number of management vacancies at the distribution center;
isn't that right?
Ms. Perez. Correct.
Senator Van Hollen. And according to my figures, in
November of last year, the Baltimore processing and
distribution center had three vacancies for managers of
distribution operations and five vacancies for supervisors of
distribution operations, partly because of a hiring freeze that
had been in place earlier; is that correct?
Ms. Perez. That is correct.
Senator Van Hollen. And is that the hiring freeze that was
put in place by Postmaster DeJoy?
Ms. Perez. I do not know who placed the hiring freeze, but
it is the cause of the inability of the Postal Service at that
facility to fill those positions.
Senator Van Hollen. Do you know why Baltimore would impose
a hiring freeze on itself?
Ms. Perez. No, I don't.
Senator Van Hollen. So do you have an update as to how many
of those vacancies, both for the processing and distribution
center management of distribution operations and the
supervisors, have been filled as of today?
Ms. Perez. I don't have actual numbers, but I do know that
the Postal Service is making progress in filling those
vacancies, and we will keep that recommendation open until we
have full support from the Postal Service that they have filled
all vacancies in the Baltimore P&DC.
Senator Van Hollen. If you could get back to us and look
into that particular question, because we have these two
different components of mail delivery, and I think we are
trying to get to the bottom of where the problems are, and
there may be problems in both.
If I could just very briefly, Mr. Chairman, ask Mr. Gilbert
about the metrics the Inspector General suggested that you use
in determining whether or not you need extra resources, extra
help. They put forward metrics with respect to mail delivery,
on-time, absentee rates. Are you familiar with the metrics that
they put in place?
Mr. Gilbert. I am, sir.
Senator Van Hollen. And they asked, I guess, you and your
team to develop a system that would trigger requests for
additional resources. Do you have those thresholds that you put
in place?
Mr. Gilbert. We do, sir.
Senator Van Hollen. And as of today, are you meeting those
thresholds, or are you above or below those thresholds?
Mr. Gilbert. We are above those thresholds.
Senator Van Hollen. So the issue, back to Senator Cardin's
question, is you are meeting those thresholds, but now it is a
question of primarily absenteeism.
Mr. Gilbert. Yes, sir.
Senator Van Hollen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Senator Van Hollen.
And if I could just follow-up on one point you were making,
Ms. Perez, as to whether the hiring freeze that affects
management, what was its genesis? Was there a hiring freeze
under the previous Postmaster General?
Ms. Perez. I do not know, but I can state that that was a
nationwide hiring freeze at the time. So, Senator, to your
question, it was not specific to the Baltimore region.
Mr. Connolly. No, but we are trying to determine when did a
hiring freeze occur, and my distinct recollection is it
occurred when Mr. DeJoy was named Postmaster General. His
predecessor did not have such a hiring freeze that I am aware
of, and that is what presumably we are still dealing with here
in Baltimore in terms of the vacancies that Senator Van Hollen
asked about.
Ms. Perez. I believe we documented the dates in the report,
correct.
Mr. Connolly. OK, I appreciate that, thank you.
Mr. Mfume, you are recognized for your round of questions.
Mr. Mfume. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Gilbert, let's go back to some of your testimony, if
you would, with respect to the questions from both of the
senators. You stated that a lot of this ended or started
getting better after your arrival in October of last year; is
that correct?
Mr. Gilbert. Correct, sir.
Mr. Mfume. And do you have any idea before your arrival in
October why things developed the way they did?
Mr. Gilbert. The primary reason being employee
availability. We simply did not have enough employees report to
work to effect delivery daily.
Mr. Mfume. Right. But as has been stated several times,
this had been going on long before the pandemic. So any idea as
to why it went on so long and why there was never an effort by
your predecessors to correct it?
Mr. Gilbert. No idea, sir.
Mr. Mfume. OK. That time before October 2021 through the
pandemic, and even before, part of that time you were the
Postmaster; correct?
Mr. Gilbert. That is correct.
Mr. Mfume. So for seven of those months you were part of
what we call, for lack of a better term, the problem that was
existing at the time. When you were there as Postmaster
previously, did you go to any of your supervisors or to the
Postal Service or to anyone else as the Postmaster from
Baltimore, which you were from March through October 2020, and
say we have a problem?
Mr. Gilbert. I did, sir.
Mr. Mfume. And who did you report that to?
Mr. Gilbert. At the time, a district manager.
Mr. Mfume. And who was that person?
Mr. Gilbert. He has since retired, Darryl Martin.
Mr. Mfume. And what was the reply?
Mr. Gilbert. We need to do what is necessary to increase
our complement and control employee availability.
Mr. Mfume. So he really didn't go to the heart of fixing
the problem that you pointed out?
Mr. Gilbert. He and I did not have that conversation; no,
sir.
Mr. Mfume. So, was there anything you could do as
Postmaster yourself at the time to correct or start correcting
the issues that we all have been talking about here today?
Mr. Gilbert. My effort was to gain a better understanding
of why it was so comfortable for employees not to come to work.
It was a novelty to me the number of employees that we had
absent on a day-to-day basis.
Mr. Mfume. OK. So, we are in the pandemic. You leave and
then you come back and you become Postmaster again. Did you
then or do you now have an idea of how to stem that issue, how
to get around that? I mean, do you have a plan when it comes to
vacancies? Because they are going to be with us for a while. I
am just trying to figure out, going forward, what is your plan
to deal with that?
Mr. Gilbert. Well, we will always have vacancies. It is the
open route plan which creates the challenges. So part of my
initial strategy in the first week reassuming the role in
Baltimore was to look at our employee availability, have we
improved or did we get worse, and then what strategies that I
have learned in conjunction with the headquarters' initiative
to drive employee availability, get our employees to come to
work.
Mr. Mfume. And did you do that also when you were
Postmaster previously?
Mr. Gilbert. In the beginning I did not, sir, but as we
progressed through the pandemic, in the later months, I
established that strategy; yes, sir.
Mr. Mfume. OK. And what about the issue of absenteeism,
which is going to be with us whether we like it or not and
affects all sectors of the society? What is the plan that you
have in place knowing that absenteeism continues to be a
problem, to get around it?
Mr. Gilbert. Become more aggressive when it comes to the
removal of employees on the rolls, ensuring that the proper
documentation is sent to those employees, and if we do not get
a timely response, instead of delaying it, we move quickly to
how those employees are removed, simply put.
Mr. Mfume. OK. So if you have to start removing employees,
do you have a pool or a batch of potential employees that you
have already interviewed and they clearly meet the standards
and they are waiting and eager to be hired? Or are you letting
people go without anyone to replace them, increasing the number
of vacancies?
Mr. Gilbert. There is a pool. We have what we call the
automated posting system in the city of Baltimore. Basically,
it is a one-for-one. As we remove, whether it be based on
attrition or termination, then we will automatically move to
replace that employee on the rolls.
Mr. Mfume. So, Mr. Gilbert, you must understand the
absolute frustration of many of us, particularly those of us
who represent Baltimore, who have seen this go on and on and
on. In addition to Mr. DeJoy being replaced or removed, there
have got to be things in place on the ground where Postmasters
like yourself look at all of the extenuating circumstances and
problems and start aggressively figuring out a measurable plan
forward.
So, 11 months after the release of the OIG report,
Baltimore is still ranked among the worst in the Nation, which
really, really, really troubles me. It ought not be that way,
and we can't allow it to continue to be that way.
So, can you guarantee on the record today to this committee
that you will put in place a significant increase in service
and in operations that will alleviate this problem from this
area?
Mr. Gilbert. We are in that process and working toward
continuing, continuous improvement, sir.
Mr. Mfume. Well, you were doing that the first time you
were Postmaster of the area. Can you guarantee, though, that
there will, from this point onward, be a significant change in
those numbers and in terms of the operation here in Baltimore?
Mr. Gilbert. My daily focus is that, to ensure we get
better and we get it right, moving the mail to the customers
within the communities we serve.
Mr. Mfume. But you can't guarantee it?
Mr. Gilbert. Not at this time, sir.
Mr. Mfume. I yield back.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Mr. Mfume.
The gentleman from Baltimore, Mr. Ruppersberger, is
recognized.
Mr. Ruppersberger. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Perez, I want to thank you and your office for the
timely completion of a thorough audit. Some of the post offices
you looked at--Essex, Parkville, Rosedale, and Dundalk-- are
all in my district-- did not report a single piece of delayed
mail, not one, even though they were collectively responsible
for more than 258,000 delayed mail items.
My question: When the post office fails to accurately scan
mail pieces, how does this impact the ability of customers to
reliably trace and receive letters and packages that they
desperately need?
Ms. Perez. Yes, sir. Thank you for your question. As you
can imagine, without proper procedures implemented with regard
to mail processes, that would leave a visibility issue not only
within the Postal Service with regard to their ability to
ensure that they are monitoring operations, but it would also
leave a visibility issue with regards to constituents and the
inability to track their, for example, mail packages throughout
the process.
Mr. Ruppersberger. OK, thank you.
Ms. Westmoreland, is she on the Zoom?
Ms. Westmoreland. Yes, sir. This is Westmoreland.
Mr. Ruppersberger. Yes, thank you. Countless Postal
employees have stated they were over-worked and exhausted as
post offices continued to remain understaffed. My office has
heard from many Postal workers about the culture inside post
offices. I have heard of employee fear of retaliation if they
file grievances or speak publicly about the culture in their
post office. Reportedly, departments have been understaffed,
and they have been working more overtime hours than their
contracts have allowed. The former Baltimore Postmaster
Williamson admitted they are borderline breaking labor laws.
Now, we need to fully staff post offices and address these
unacceptable management issues. Ms. Westmoreland, do you feel
supervisors are properly trained? Yes or no?
Ms. Westmoreland. No.
Mr. Ruppersberger. Are there enough employees to sort and
deliver mail in a timely manner?
Ms. Westmoreland. No.
Mr. Ruppersberger. OK, I thank you.
Postmaster Gilbert, while the U.S. Postal Service is an
independent agency and does not receive tax dollars, we are
here to help. The Postal Service must increase transparency and
ask for help when needed.
Now, I know your background. I know you were here when we
had a lot of these problems started, and now you are back again
to manage. I am telling you from my position, representing a
lot of the area where there is a problem, we have to learn from
our past mistakes to move forward. I am asking you--and I am
glad that Congressman Mfume followed that area of questioning
as far as you are concerned because basically you are there and
we need your leadership, and some of the things that we need to
know and I would like to know is when you were in leadership,
and now you are where you are now, where you are the focus of a
lot of this, what did you learn now based on what happened in
the past that you think you can do to improve the operation and
make the decisions that are necessary to deliver the mail on
time to our constituents?
Mr. Gilbert. Part of it, sir, is the messaging to the
employees I directly oversee to create the level of--make them
uncomfortable with the thought of storing or warehousing mail.
We have been driving, or I have been driving the message that
it is not OK to delay, and that was the primary failure point
from a mail condition standpoint.
Mr. Ruppersberger. Now, you had to know there were major
problems that we have discussed today when you were in charge,
and I would like to know, when you saw these issues, who would
you go to in Mr. DeJoy's office? Where would you take these
issues when you knew that there was a problem, you couldn't get
it solved for whatever reason? You have to go to your superiors
and ask for more resources or change the system or whatever.
What did you do in that regard as it related to contacting
DeJoy or his office, his leadership team?
Mr. Gilbert. Well, I wouldn't contact Mr. DeJoy directly. I
would follow the leadership chain and the hierarchy. I would go
through the district manager, and then we would--
Mr. Ruppersberger. And who was that? Who was that when you
were there?
Mr. Gilbert. Currently, that is Laura McLucas.
Mr. Ruppersberger. OK.
Mr. Gilbert. And then we would have conversations and
discussions with our area vice president.
Mr. Ruppersberger. OK. And then what happened?
Mr. Gilbert. And then our area vice president would be our
sounding board and/or advocate, whether we would need to hire
more and/or what our mail conditions are as far as allocating
resources----
Mr. Ruppersberger. And I assume it didn't happen because
you see we are the worst in the country, No. 1 worst in the
country based on what the Inspector General has stated. That is
a bad place to be for all of us, and we see the results.
Now, I personally, and I know our team, wants to get it
fixed, so we are going to do what we can to work with you. We
ask you these questions that are uncomfortable, and you were a
part of that system, but we only ask them so we can work with
you and help you. I think you have noticed that we have not
publicly criticized you personally. But you are part of the
leadership team, and you are in the unique position that you
can learn from what you did, what the problems were in the
past, so we can help you work in the future.
My last question: What do you think you need from Congress?
Mr. Gilbert. From Congress, to assist us with the Job
Fairs, that information, and the assistance from the Maryland
delegation, that was very helpful. Right now, I think we have
the necessary tools, materials, and employees to accomplish the
mission, sir.
Mr. Ruppersberger. And do you have a direct line to your
leadership team?
Mr. Gilbert. I do.
Mr. Ruppersberger. OK. Thank you.
I yield back.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Mr. Ruppersberger.
Mr. Ruppersberger. Was I on time?
Mr. Connolly. What was that?
Mr. Ruppersberger. Was I on time?
Mr. Connolly. Perfect, as always.
Mr. Ruppersberger. Thank you, Gerald. I thank you.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Charles.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Connolly. The gentle lady from the District of
Columbia, Congresswoman Norton, is recognized for her line of
questioning.
Ms. Norton. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
This is a hearing that I think unfolds a lot of information
that is relevant to districts around the country. I want to
begin by noting, as I did in my opening statement, that since
virtually the start of Postmaster General DeJoy's tenure I have
received a deluge of complaints from constituents about not
receiving timely delivery of their mail, often with mail just
never arriving. This indicates that we have a ubiquitous, a
nationwide problem, exemplified by today's hearing focusing on
Baltimore in particular.
My question is for Ms. Westmoreland. Ms. Westmoreland, I
would like to highlight a few specific examples of problems my
constituents are facing, and I note that these are not just
cases from the past two years. These are cases that are
currently pending for which I am still awaiting a response from
the Postal Service, and they join many others still awaiting a
response from the U.S. Postal Service.
One of my constituents runs a health care practice out of
his home, and his business is hindered because important
insurance documents and checks have not been delivered. He
knows that these documents and checks should have been
delivered because he has signed up for--and I am quoting--
``informed delivery.'' His rightful concern is that even beyond
the significant inconvenience this causes, documents related to
health and finances are lost altogether.
Another constituent said that the lack of mail delivery has
resulted in not receiving tax documents, correspondence from
the D.C. Superior Court, insurance benefits, and credit card
bills.
I would like to ask you, Ms. Westmoreland, since you are
probably one of the most on-the-ground witnesses today, what
changes do you think the Postal Service leadership should make
that would help the hard-working employees of the Postal
Service like you, who are not the root cause of these issues
and who work tirelessly every single day to make sure the mail
gets delivered? I would like your input specifically on what
changes you, who are on the ground working every day, think the
Postal leadership should make that would help you in the
delivery of mail.
Ms. Westmoreland. As an employee, I believe that an
agreement or leadership roles that they should make, it needs
to start with proper staffing. The staffing is a management
issue. We have to have the right people or the manpower to make
sure that we are getting the mail out in an accurate timeframe.
And then also something that I would think we would need
from management is for the managers to be properly trained. A
lot of the managers are put in operations based off the
business need. So they are originally PSEs. They convert to
career employees. And then after they are career employees they
go up to lead clerks, expediters, or 204Bs, or even higher in
the management.
Ms. Norton. Do they get any training as they move up?
Ms. Westmoreland. To my knowledge, I do not have the facts
on that. But based off of working with the managers that I
currently have in my facility, I would say no, they do not
receive that training or they are not retrieving that training,
because from what I heard from prior supervisors, that they
take training (inaudible). Now, if that is true or not, I am
not sure.
Ms. Norton. What I have been hearing directly from you is
important here in that the Postmaster and other leadership need
to convene a meeting of employees to get their input.
Ms. Westmoreland. I agree.
Ms. Norton. That kind of on-the-ground back and forth I
think would help in improving the Postal Service.
I want to close by reiterating that this situation is
simply unacceptable and that Postmaster General DeJoy should
either resign or be removed.
And, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Connolly. I thank the gentle lady and thank her for her
commitment.
The gentleman from Chicago, Illinois, Mr. Davis, is
recognized for his round of questioning.
Mr. Davis. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And let
me thank our witnesses.
While I don't know a great deal about what would be
happening in Baltimore, I would like to ask Ms. Westmoreland,
given all of the information that we continue to hear, there
are some individuals who feel that the Postal Service has a
mandate that is too heavy to lift; that is, to provide First-
Class Mail service to all of the individuals in the United
States of America, no matter where they are and no matter where
they live. And given that it must be self-sufficient in terms
of living off the revenue that it generates, from your vantage
point and from what you just kind of know and feel, not that it
is your job or responsibility to know that, do you feel that
the resources that it has are enough to fulfill the mandate,
which is tremendous? And that while we make improvement, while
we do certain things with the work force, while we improve the
management relationship, while we do all of those things, do
you think that is sufficient to get to the end line or to get
across the goalposts that we all seem to be saying we want to
reach?
Ms. Westmoreland. I am not sure. Can you elaborate more
when you say ``mandate,'' what you are talking about exactly?
Mr. Davis. Well, the mandate is to deliver mail to
everybody in the United States of America who are listed as
having an address.
Ms. Westmoreland. OK. Sorry to have cut you off. So the
question that you are asking me is do I believe that we have
enough resources for the mandate?
Mr. Davis. Yes.
Ms. Westmoreland. No, I do not believe that we have the
appropriate resources for the mandate for everyone to be able
to get their mail in a timely manner.
Mr. Davis. Thank you very much, because I share, and while
that does not take any responsibility from the management of
Postal operations, I think it is something that we as a
Congress also have to take a real hard look at and make some
determinations in terms of you can't get blood out of a turnip.
I am saying you cannot get blood out of a turnip. So I think
there are some real serious discussions that we have to have,
and I certainly think that management of Postal operations have
to be as efficient and as creative and as good as you can
possibly be in using the resources that we have. But I do think
serious change is needed.
Mr. Chairman, I thank you again for the opportunity to
simply participate in this very serious undertaking, and I
thank you very much and yield back.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Mr. Davis, and thank you for your
commitment. I know that you joined our committee in this
Congress specifically to be able to address this issue of
Postal reform and Postal delivery service, so thank you. And I
do think you raise a very important point.
We passed almost $6 trillion--trillion with a ``T''--in
COVID relief-related assistance and benefits, and except for a
$10 billion line of credit that ultimately was turned into a
grant, we provided zero assistance to the Postal Service. And
while we are bailing out whole industries, we did not do it for
the Postal Service, arguably the single most important lifeline
during the pandemic for Americans.
So there is some reckoning on the part of us in Congress
that we have got to deal with, and I think you are quite
correct, Mr. Davis, to point that out.
The gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Sarbanes, who has been
patiently waiting, is recognized. Mr. Sarbanes.
Mr. Sarbanes. Thanks very much, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Gilbert, I wanted to address some questions to you.
Shortly after you stepped into your current role, you will
remember we had the chance to talk about some of the challenges
and the longstanding staffing issues that the Postal Service
faces in the Baltimore region. One of those has been hiring.
You have been very candid about that, especially given the
limited capacity at the training academy. When we spoke before,
you mentioned the opening of a second facility for training. I
was hoping you could maybe give us an update on that process
and, for starters, how has that gone? How is the process going
with the second academy? Are you seeing improvements in your
ability to quickly and efficiently train staff there?
Mr. Gilbert. Yes, sir. As mentioned, we have had an
increase to where with the single academy we are only able to
process or on-board seven employees per week. Since the
additional academy, we have increased from seven to 32 per
week, to include we have added a second driver's training
course, which has also helped expedite the on-boarding process.
Mr. Sarbanes. I wanted to talk about the broader challenge
of recruitment in Baltimore for employees. Congressman Mfume
talked to you about the pool that is kind of there to fill
positions once you can actually process those vacancies in a
proper way. But my sense from talking to you before and just
kind of keeping my radar up is that getting employees into that
pool in a way that can actually sustain the work force in the
Baltimore area is a huge ongoing challenge, and I would like
you to speak a little bit more to that.
First of all, do you have a sense in the various categories
of the Postal Service in the Baltimore district what the
average tenure looks like for an employee in those categories
and how that compares to, say, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 5
years ago? Give me some kind of frame of reference for that.
Mr. Gilbert. Well, in my 26 years in the Postal Service,
with many of those years being in management, it was almost a
novelty to see a career employee with 20-plus years resign from
the United States Postal Service. I have seen that here in
Baltimore City due to workload conditions, et cetera, or
personal situations. So that in itself creates a problem to
where our retention period or our retention rate is not where
we need to be from a national average standpoint, but it does
create a challenge within the city of Baltimore.
Mr. Sarbanes. So you have two problems caught in the
switches here. One is that it sounds like the attrition rate is
accelerating, you are not getting the same longevity in the
work force, and then when those vacancies are created, trying
to fill them is that much harder. Can you speak to the
credentials of the staff that you are hiring up? You have these
training academies now, which is great. Do you feel that the
ability to get the new work force trained up in a way that will
keep them in those positions is where it needs to be? And just
talk again more broadly--I mean, I would just like to hear your
candid assessment of how hard or easy it is to find a good
Postal employee out there in the pool, bring them into the
Postal Service, and then have some confidence that, once
trained, they are going to stay. And as part of that answer
maybe tell me a little bit about the attrition rate just within
the newly recruited pool. If you are getting 100 new people
in--let's just use that as an example--if I came back a year
later or two years later, would I see 90 of those employees, or
would I see 50, or would I see 25? Give me a sense of that.
Mr. Gilbert. Well, I think in the current environment we
could probably see about 80 percent of those employees. As
mentioned, sir, carrying mail is not easy. So many folks are
on-boarded, and then when they physically get out there to
perform the task, it is not something that they thought it
would be. On average, I receive 10 to 12 resignations from non-
career or pre-career employees a week, and most of the reasons
being the work was just not what it was, some scheduling
issues, and/or the conditions from a workload standpoint they
weren't willing to endure. So that aspect of it, it is hard to
retain our employees from the pre-career standpoint.
That is when our recruitment comes in. We have a one-on-one
process to where we call these employees prior to accepting
their resignation to say what can we do to keep you, and then
what is it going to take to retain you once you come back. Some
of the answers or responses are not obtainable, and then they
choose to separate from the organization. So not so much as
attrition, but our employee turnover rate is a little bit out
of our control.
Mr. Sarbanes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know my time has
expired, but I think the staffing issue is a huge challenge,
particularly here in the Baltimore area. It is not unlike
first-and second-year teachers, holding on to them and figuring
out all the different strategies to make sure they don't leave
after all the hard work to get them on board. Thank you.
Mr. Connolly. Great point. Thank you so much, Mr. Sarbanes.
The gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Raskin, is recognized for
his questions.
Mr. Raskin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The tax season is underway, so the problem of mis-delivery
is very much on the mind of my constituents as people are
waiting for important financial documents to arrive by mail.
One of my constituents has been missing a letter from the
Maryland Department of Labor, a W-2 form and an important bank
document, and many of their neighbors are also experiencing the
same thing with missing mail. I have constituents reporting
that they are getting up to three or four mis-deliveries a
week. It comes to the right street but the wrong number, or the
right number but the wrong street. I also have constituents who
tell me that they have asked for mail to be held or forwarded,
but it continues to pile up on their front porch or in their
mailbox.
So when my office gets requests for help with Postal
Service issues, my case workers contact the Postal Inspector
Team to launch an investigation, and we are provided a written
response from the Postal Service which is usually pretty
generic, with promises of improvement in the future.
Ms. Westmoreland, does your leadership incorporate customer
complaints and issues reported to the Postal Inspector Team
into the trainings that are provided to your mail processing
clerks?
Ms. Westmoreland. I don't have that name, sir.
Mr. Raskin. OK.
Mr. Gilbert, in your experience, when a case worker reports
a recurring issue to the Postal Service such as consistent mis-
deliveries in a neighborhood, does the Postal Service share
these concerns with the relevant post office? What actions are
you taking to ensure that the issue is addressed?
Mr. Gilbert. The situations are addressed at the local unit
level down to the employee to determine if he or she is a
repeat offender. What I mean by repeat offender, are there
constant complaints that employees are mis-delivering mail. If
that is the case, we track via our logs, and then we move to be
corrective, and in some cases that may require discipline.
Mr. Raskin. OK. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, I mentioned the problem of mailbox thefts,
which is now a rampant problem in Silver Spring; and in
Bethesda, I mentioned I spoke to some constituents this morning
who lost a check for nearly $5,000. One in Silver Spring put a
check for $10,000 in the mail to a relative, and when it was
deposited, they contacted their family member to confirm it had
been cashed, and to their astonishment the family member had
never gotten it. It had been deposited by a total stranger and
forged with their name. Thankfully, the constituent's bank was
able to mark it as a counterfeit and the $10,000 was restored.
But this is going on in a lot of different cases.
I am wondering, Mr. Gilbert, in your experience, when the
Postal Service is alerted that a mailbox may have been
compromised by people either fishing in or removing the bottom,
which I have heard about, what steps are you taking to secure
the mailbox and to replace the lock, or perhaps to monitor it?
Mr. Gilbert. In many cases when we talk about the blue
collection boxes on the street that have been tampered with
and/or an individual mailbox, we review it to see if the box
can be modified. Can the box be modified to ensure that once
mail is deposited, that it can only be removed once we access
via the key? So we do go through that process and review once
it is escalated to us.
Mr. Raskin. OK. In several the cases that I have heard
about, there are actually a lot of Good Samaritans/active
citizens who have gotten involved if they either learn of a
theft ring they are willing to come forward and talk about it,
or if they see something they are willing to talk about it.
Ms. Perez, has the OIG looked at this whole issue of
mailbox theft? And what recommendations can you make to the
Postal Service? I consider this a really serious problem, and
we need to crack down on this basic threat to the integrity of
the mail system.
Ms. Perez. Yes, sir. Any theft allegations that we would
receive we take very seriously. We at the OIG, we investigate
employee misconduct or theft. So with regard to external
theft--for example, with the blue mailboxes--that would be the
responsibility and jurisdiction of the Postal Inspection
Service.
Mr. Raskin. I see. But you are saying that some of the
thefts that you have discovered have been internal to the
Postal Service?
Ms. Perez. Correct. If we receive allegations of employee
mail theft, we would be responsible for looking into those.
Mr. Raskin. And just tell us quickly, if you would, what
happens in a case like that?
Ms. Perez. Our Office of Investigations would investigate
thoroughly, and they would then in turn make recommendations to
the Postal Service with regard to what they found, and then the
Postal Service would take action.
Mr. Raskin. And that is a crime, so they would presumably
be investigated and charged?
Ms. Perez. Correct, if there would be, for example, the
willingness of an Assistant U.S. Attorney to take on a case.
Mr. Raskin. OK. Well, I thank you for your attention to
that.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for your indulgence.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you so much, Mr. Raskin.
And before I call on Ms. Brown, the gentle lady from
Cleveland, Mr. Metzger, I think you wanted to make an
intervention.
Mr. Metzger. I wanted to ask the Postmaster, we went twice
in the beginning of the year, a six-week period, without
getting mail. I stated earlier we get 160 water bills a month,
so that is the equivalent of 480 bills over that time period.
Where is that mail? We have never received it. The checks
that we sent out never got to the people who they were supposed
to. My question is just where is that mail sitting at now?
Mr. Connolly. By the way, I believe my Valentine's Day card
to my wife might be included in that mail.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Gilbert. I can tell you, Mr. Metzger, that when there
is a situation in the mail conditions where we have mail that
is not delivered, it typically is staged at the carrier's work
station or within the local delivery unit.
Mr. Metzger. But I haven't received 480 pieces of water
bills from the beginning of the year. We never received them.
Mr. Gilbert. Well, I can directly tell you, sir, that I
myself went and surveyed the delivery route that falls in your
delivery address, and that route is 100 percent current. There
is no mail staged or warehoused within that facility. So if we
received it, we delivered it.
Mr. Metzger. OK.
Mr. Connolly. OK. Ms. Brown, you are recognized for your
round of questioning.
Ms. Brown. Thank you, Chairman Connolly, and thank you for
holding this hearing. And thank you to all the witnesses for
joining us today.
First, I would like to thank our Postal Service workers.
Through rain, sleet, hail, snow, and even a pandemic, U.S.
Postal workers work around the clock to serve every address in
America.
Unfortunately, in recent days I have heard from many of my
constituents who are experiencing some of the same issues that
have been discussed today around delivery delays. Mail may be
delivered once or twice a week, and sometimes even every other
week. My office has sent an inquiry to the Postal Service with
specific questions about its service performance in northeast
Ohio, and I look forward to a response so we can work to
resolve the issues in an expeditious fashion.
It is evident that mail delivery issues extend far beyond
Baltimore, and we must work to ensure mail delivery improves
before the American people lose total confidence in the Postal
Service.
So my question is, the 2020 OIG report examining Postmaster
DeJoy's operational changes identified they resulted in
significant negative service impacts across the country. Even
the Postal Regulatory Commission issued an advisory opinion
stating that the plan to change service lacks supporting
evidence.
Because of Mr. DeJoy's failure to engage critical
stakeholders, including Congress, the Postal Regulatory
Commission, unions, and Postal customers, the American people
are left waiting to receive important packages for weeks on
end. This is clearly unacceptable.
Ms. Perez, what are your plans to examine Mr. DeJoy's
reasons for implementing sweeping operational changes?
Ms. Perez. So, with regard to sweeping operational
changes--for example, initiatives that they have rolled out in
their ``Delivering for America'' plan--we not only have ongoing
audits--for example, looking at the metrics and how they will
measure the success of that plan, and also looking at impacts
to mail delivery--but we will also continue to look at separate
initiatives that the ``Delivering for America'' plan will roll
out, as well as the $40 billion in investments that are
instituted in that plan. So we will have much ongoing work in
those areas.
Ms. Brown. Thank you so much.
Mr. Gilbert, service performance results for the Baltimore
area are several percentage points lower than service
performance across the rest of the Nation. So past, present,
and future, what factors contribute to the lower results? I
know we talked about absenteeism. Present, what progress has
been made in the past year to improve that performance? And in
the future, what can you do about effective training strategies
that can be used to improve mail delivery?
Mr. Gilbert. Well, the same period last year, from quarter
to quarter, quarter 1 of 2021 to quarter 1 of 2022, we have had
a 30 percent increase in our service performance. It is not
where we need to be, but that is the information that we are
sharing with our employees. We are getting better in the
process, but we are still missing the mark as far as our
service scores are concerned.
That being said, our daily overview of our performance,
whether it be previous day or pervious week, is part of our
cadence. So we share our results with our employees, with our
eye on the prize being the target to provide the service to the
customers.
Ms. Brown. Thank you so much.
And last but not least, Ms. Westmoreland, can you just
speak a little bit about how the lack of staffing and training
at your facility affects the long-term health of the post
office?
Ms. Westmoreland. I am sorry. Can you repeat that?
Ms. Brown. Yes. How does the lack of staffing and training
at your facility affect the long-term health of the post
office?
Ms. Westmoreland. The long-term training and staffing
affects us at the post office as an employee. Again, I will
refer you back to a training issue and a staffing issue. A lot
of the managerial that we have do not know how to properly do
their job. So when it comes to delegation or when it comes to
educating someone about the operation that they are currently
working in, we don't have management that can give the proper
expertise in that section. So it makes it hard to get the job
completed.
Ms. Brown. All right. Thank you very much.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you for being so diligent as the newest
member of our subcommittee.
Mr. Trone, you are batter up, and then it is only me after
you.
Mr. Trone. Mr. Chairman, thank you for putting me on the
list today as part of Team Maryland.
The first question is for Mr. Gilbert. As I mentioned in my
opening statement, much of western Maryland does not have
reliable Internet connectivity due to lack of broadband. So we
rely heavily on the Postal Service for bank notices, tax
returns, paychecks even. Ever since the Cumberland sorting
facility in Cumberland, Maryland, was closed several years ago,
our mail is routed to Baltimore to be processed before it can
be delivered, resulting in lengthy delays. In fact, my case
workers up in Cumberland, when they have mail for western
Maryland, don't mail it there. They mail it in Gaithersburg,
because when it goes to Gaithersburg, it gets to western
Maryland faster than it would if it started there.
So our question is proximity to Baltimore, should that
really be the determining factor as to whether mail is
delivered on time or not? What steps can be taken, Mr. Gilbert,
to prioritize Postal deliveries to places like Cumberland so
western Marylanders are not put at a disadvantage because of
their geography?
Mr. Gilbert. Sir, I am not sure what steps could be taken
from a mail processing standpoint. But from a delivery unit/
customer service standpoint, our four-step process to ensure
that we accurately collect, transport, process, and deliver the
mail is the mission, starting from the collection point, to
answer your question, sir.
Mr. Trone. When these delays start at one day, by the time
it gets back from Baltimore it is multiple-day delays, and it
is just not satisfactory for folks in western Maryland. They
feel like second-class citizens.
Let's jump over to Ms. Perez. In your testimony you
mentioned that when the Postal Service implements network
changes, it is often unable to improve service or realize the
projected cost savings, and these changes can result instead in
regional service issues like we have in Cumberland. So the USPS
closed Cumberland in 2012. They were supposed to shift to
Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the processing center there, 70 miles
away. However, constituents complained to my office that
instead all their mail now goes to Baltimore, double that
distance away, 140 miles. So if a Cumberland resident wants to
mail something across the street, it goes 300 miles to
Baltimore and back.
Is the OIG aware that mail in western Maryland is sent
almost three hours across the state to return, given we have no
processing centers to serve western Maryland?
Ms. Perez. That is not something we would specifically home
in on. However, when we do select facilities and delivery units
that we believe are ripe for a review, we would review data and
metrics that the Postal Service maintains to be able to
prioritize where we should focus our resources.
Mr. Trone. Well, we would like the OIG team to take a look
at this situation. It seems the current arrangement is not cost
efficient, there are very much unfortunate delays, and with the
difficulty of broadband, they need extra attention.
I will jump over to Mr. Gilbert again. We also have
packages delivered by FedEx and UPS right to the local post
office in western Maryland by these third-party deliverers only
after UPS and FedEx drive it to Cumberland, to the post office.
Then it gets sent to Baltimore for processing, where it is
often delayed and in many cases lost forever. Have the changes
you made in the last several months addressed this issue that
these packages from FedEx and UPS are going from Cumberland to
Baltimore and back? Has any progress been made on this issue?
And also recovering the packages that have been lost in the
system indefinitely that our constituents have brought to our
attention?
Mr. Gilbert. Anything with a trackable bar code is
measurable, so we are able to determine the disposition of a
single mail piece. I can tell you once again, sir, once we
receive the items or packages, we make every effort to deliver.
Mr. Trone. Thank you to the witnesses. We need swift
changes, no question about it.
Thank you, Chairman Connolly.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Mr. Trone.
And the last two questions of this hearing I am going to
place.
One is I talked in my opening statement about the tray
management system, absent which there are delays of several
hours every day. That management system has been missing for
three years, since March 2019. That was uncovered by the OIG
report.
Ms. Perez, has that been ameliorated?
Ms. Perez. So, the Postal Service, when they replied in
their official comments to our recommendation of that report,
had basically stated that the Baltimore facility is a priority
in its network modernization plan.
Mr. Connolly. It is a priority.
Ms. Perez. The Baltimore facility is a priority in their
network modernization plan. So they are doing some additional
analysis and making a determination as to whether or not they
will update that facility or expand that facility or replace.
Mr. Connolly. So it is a priority, but they haven't yet
ameliorated it.
Ms. Perez. Correct, with regard to the network
modernization plan.
Mr. Connolly. Three years and counting.
Ms. Perez. Correct.
Mr. Connolly. That is an interesting concept of what
constitutes a priority.
Ms. Perez. Yes. We are in ongoing dialog with the Postal
Service to understand that.
Mr. Connolly. Mr. Gilbert, why hasn't the Baltimore post
office acted on the management tray issue with expedition?
Mr. Gilbert. That doesn't fall within my purview, sir. That
is a mail processing venue, and that doesn't fall under
Baltimore City.
Mr. Connolly. I am sorry. You are the Postmaster for
Baltimore.
Mr. Gilbert. For delivery and retail.
Mr. Connolly. I see. So it is someone else's responsibility
to look at a system that can expedite the sorting and ultimate
delivery of mail?
Mr. Gilbert. That is correct.
Mr. Connolly. And who would that be?
Mr. Gilbert. The starting point would be the plant manager
of the Baltimore facility, sir.
Mr. Connolly. And, I don't know, after this hearing might
you drop a nice word in the ear of the plant manager that it
might make sense to act on this after three years?
Mr. Gilbert. I will note that, sir. I will have that
discussion.
Mr. Connolly. We will count on you. Thank you, Mr. Gilbert.
Mr. Gilbert. Yes, sir.
Mr. Connolly. And my final question, and back to you again,
Ms. Perez, the OIG in the report talked about and looked at
nine Baltimore area post offices, and you were looking at
delayed mail, already delayed. But then you discovered that it
was not only delayed but they were underreporting how much
delayed mail they had by 79 percent. Help us understand what it
means to have undercounted delayed mail.
Ms. Perez. So when we conducted that work in June of last
year, we had asked about the root causes or tried to observe
conditions as to why that may occur, and what we were told at
the time by the management at those units was that there was an
employee availability issue. But as we continued to dig a
little further, there were also issues, as Mr. Gilbert has
stated, with regard to hiring, retention, training, as well as
being able to track metrics to understand when they are having
issues with regard to executing all duties at those delivery
units.
Mr. Connolly. OK.
I want to thank all of our panelists. I want to thank my
colleagues for their diligence.
This is an important subject, and it has gotten more
important especially during the pandemic. We have wonderful men
and women serving the American public every day. We also have
apparently some people who are gaming the system and not coming
in to work, and that has to change. There have to be management
changes and, as Mr. Ruppersberger said, we also in Congress
need to bear what responsibility we can and should bear in
assisting in the improvement of a service that is considered so
essential by every American.
In closing, I want to insert into the record two U.S.
Postal Service Office of Inspector General reports issued in
2021, the Mail Delivery and Customer Service Operations Select
Baltimore Units, Baltimore, Maryland report; and the Efficiency
of Operations in Baltimore, Maryland Processing and
Distribution Center report.
Without objection, they shall be entered into the record.
Mr. Connolly. And also without objection, all members will
have five legislative days within which to submit extraneous
materials and to submit additional written questions for the
witnesses through the Chair, which will be forwarded to the
witnesses.
We would ask our witnesses, should you get such inquiries,
please be as expeditious as you can in responding to our
members with their queries.
It is quite something to have 15 members participate in a
field hearing, which again underscores I think just the
criticality of the issue and the commitment of our colleagues,
especially from Maryland, to addressing this set of issues. We
are going to have a press availability in about 5 or 10 minutes
upstairs, so we are going to give everybody an opportunity to
gather themselves and do that.
And unless there is further business to come before us,
this field hearing is adjourned. Thank you.
[Whereupon, at 1:30 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
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