[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                     
          
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------   
                            
                   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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