[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
DELIVERING FOR PENNSYLVANIA:
EXAMINING POSTAL SERVICE DELIVERY
AND OPERATIONS FROM THE
CRADLE OF LIBERTY
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND REFORM
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
SEPTEMBER 7, 2022
__________
Serial No. 117-100
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Reform
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available at: govinfo.gov,
oversight.house.gov or
docs.house.gov
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
48-610 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 Mike Flood, Nebraska
Robin L. Kelly, Illinois
Brenda L. Lawrence, Michigan
Mark DeSaulnier, California
Jimmy Gomez, California
Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts
Russell Anello, Staff Director
Wendy Ginsberg, Subcommittee 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, Massachusetts 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 September 7, 2022................................ 1
Witnesses
Mr. Gary Vaccarella, DE-PA2 District Manager, U.S. Postal Service
Oral Statement................................................... 16
Ms. Melinda Perez, Assistant Inspector General for Audit, U.S.
Postal Service Office of Inspector General
Oral Statement................................................... 18
Mr. Ivan Butts, President, National Association of Postal
Supervisors
Oral Statement................................................... 19
Mr. Frank Albergo, National President, Postal Police Officers
Association
Oral Statement................................................... 21
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
----------
* Postal Times, ``Did the U.S. Postal Service pave the way for
surge in thefts by muzzling its own police?''; submitted by
Chairman Connolly.
* The Conversation, ``How cybercriminals turn paper checks
stolen from mailboxes into bitcoin;'' submitted by Chairman
Connolly.
* The Washington Post, ``The stolen-mail scheme now targeting a
wealthy D.C. suburb;'' submitted by Chairman Connolly.
* Questions for the Record: to Mr. Ivan Butts; submitted by
Chairman Connolly.
* Questions for the Record: to Ms. Perez; submitted by Chairman
Connolly.
* Questions for the Record: to Mr. Gary Vaccarella; submitted
by Chairman Connolly.
* Questions for the Record: to Mr. Frank Albergo; submitted by
Chairman Connolly.
The documents entered into the record for this hearing are
available at: docs.house.gov.
DELIVERING FOR PENNSYLVANIA:
EXAMINING POSTAL SERVICE DELIVERY
AND OPERATIONS FROM THE
CRADLE OF LIBERTY
----------
Wednesday, September 7, 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.,
Temple University, 1810 Liacouras Walk, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, and via Zoom; Hon. Gerald E. Connolly (chairman
of the subcommittee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Connolly, Norton, Davis, Lawrence,
and Lynch.
Also present: Representatives Boyle, Evans, Scanlon, Dean,
Houlahan, Cartwright, Fitzpatrick.
Also present: Senator Casey.
Mr. Connolly. The committee will come to order.
Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a
recess of the committee at any time.
I want to welcome everybody to this field hearing in
Philadelphia, which seeks to understand the mail delivery
performance issues that plaque this region.
Before I begin my opening statement, I want to ask
unanimous consent that the following members shall be waived on
to the subcommittee as participants for the purpose of this
hearing: Senator Bob Casey, Congressman Brendon Boyle,
Congressman Dwight Evans, Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon,
Congresswoman Madeleine Dean, Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan,
Congressman Matt Cartwright, and Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick.
Without objection, it is so ordered.
I now recognize myself for an opening statement.
Last October we held a hearing in Chicago to investigate
the deteriorating mail delivery performance in that region. In
February, we went to Baltimore, the city with the worst on-time
delivery rating in the Nation.
Today marks our third field hearing examining postal
delivery in the last 10 months. Philadelphia, the host of our
third hearing, is the birthplace of our Constitution and the
hometown of the Nation's first postmaster general, Benjamin
Franklin.
This city is a fitting location to examine the Postal
Service which has transformed since its operations began even
before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In 1753,
Benjamin Franklin assumed the role of deputy postmaster general
of the colonies, helming a money-making mail-in venue for
Britain that catered exclusively to lawyers and business
people.
Then the Postal Service was too expensive for most people
to access, until Mr. Franklin took steps to democratize the
service. Once he became postmaster general, Franklin
streamlined postal routes, improved accounting practices, and
most importantly, Franklin made the Postal Service more
equitable, lowering prices, and expanding services to attract a
universal customer base that ensured the Postal Service was not
a darling of the rich and that it could serve as a vehicle for
uniting the then-colonies.
It is with these egalitarian and foundational ideals in
mind that we hold this hearing today in the cradle of the
Nation's liberty. We're here to ensure that the Postal Service
continues to bond this Nation as a union.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, our Postal Service work
force delivered prescriptions, medications, paychecks, food
stamps, stimulus checks, holiday cards, gifts, rapid COVID
tests provided by the Biden administration, and so much more to
homes and businesses across the Nation.
A June 2020 Harris poll found that the Postal Service
rankled as the single most essential company to Americans
during the pandemic. It outranked companies that manufactured
PPE and sanitizers.
According to Pew Research, 91 percent of Americans had a
favorable view of the Postal Service making it by far the most
popular agency associated with the Federal Government.
The Postal Service employees 630,000 individuals who live
in every single congressional district. That work force
delivers mail to more than 163 million delivery points every
day and operates more than 31,000 postal offices nationwide.
In April, I was proud to cosponsor it, the Congress enacted
the Postal Services Reform Act. This once-in-a-generation
legislation puts the Postal Service on the path of financial
solvency, unshackling it from unfair statutory burdens that
kept it marred in unnecessary payments and debt. The bill
plants the Postal Service on firm financial ground readying it
for the future.
Now Congress must make sure that the Postal Service
leadership is prepared and poised to take the reins we hand
them. Recent reports and constituent voices leave us concerned
that they are not. A recent inspector general report, for
example, found that the Postal Service has not 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.
Good reliable service is vital to the Postal Services long-
term survival. Late or lost deliveries drive mailers away from
using the Postal Service. Fortunately, nationwide service
performance has improved since 2020, consistently meeting on-
time delivery targets in most regions.
We should certainly recognize that progress, but I want to
note that the Postal Service reduced its on-time delivery
targets during that time period, particularly for first-class
mail. So some of the improvement we see is pursuant to the
lower standards adopted last year.
And I think most consumers would like to see us go back to
the higher standards and have high performance goals met there.
Today, we're in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love,
to look at on-time mail delivery and more.
First, we want to highlight the Postal Service's recent
announcement that it will consolidate functions, including more
than 200 post offices and postal facilities across the country,
including several here in Pennsylvania.
In addition the Postal Service previously announced it
intends to cut up to 50,000 positions to reach a break-even
point as part of Mr. DeJoy's 10-year plan. Chief among
Congress' concerns is that Postal Service has, once again,
failed to keep its key stakeholders informed, effectively
informed of their plans and how it will impact careers and
everyday job performance.
We also remain inherently skeptical of long-term Postal
Service plans that rely on rate hikes, slower service, lower
standards, fewer workers, and reduced infrastructure.
Ben Franklin who invested in more services for more people
would, I think, be dubious. We also have a keen interest in
ensuring that the Postal Service is prepared to serve as a
linchpin of the voting franchise. During the 2020 election, the
Postal Service delivered roughly 543 million pieces of election
mail, including 135 million ballots to and from voters, a 96
percent increase from 2016.
In 2022, the Postal Service is already helped deliver
ballots for 42 primaries, runoffs, and special elections.
Compared to the same time period in 2018, election mail volume
has increased 200 percent and growing.
Pennsylvania is a key crossroads for American democracy. We
must ensure that everyone has unfettered access to vote using
the methods that work best for them. Many states have deadlines
for requesting and returning election ballots that make it
difficult or potentially impossible for Postal Service
employees to deliver them to election officials in time to
qualify as a valid vote.
In other states like Pennsylvania, conservative legislators
have sought to place restrictions on mail-in voting, citing
utterly unfounded election fraud claims. Vote by mail is safe
and effective. So safe and effective that both former President
Trump and the current postmaster general Louis DeJoy vote by
mail.
Today, we seek to answer questions that ensure that the
Postal Service is ready for its consequential role in this
November's midterm elections. Mail theft and mail-related crime
have skyrocketed in Pennsylvania and across the Nation.
Between 2018 and 2021, robberies of mail carriers more than
tripled and robberies involving a gun more than quadrupled
according to Postal Service data.
The postal inspection service is opening cases in only a
fraction of these crimes offering little in the way of crime
prevention. The Philadelphia Inquirer called Pennsylvania a hot
spot for check theft with 871 stolen checks found on the dark
web in May 2022 alone.
Meanwhile, the postal police force has shrunk to 455
officers, down 65 percent from 1341 officers back in 2002.
And the Postal Service has determined that these offices
should be confined exclusively to Postal Service property, all
but inviting would-be thieves and ill-doers to prey on postal
workers and their customers while they're on delivery routes
because they're not on Postal Service property.
We need more postal police who are vested with the
authorities needed to prevent crime and stop them where they
happen. Finally, we need to make certain, as Postmaster General
Benjamin Franklin did, that the Postal Service is accessible to
everybody. We must ensure that rate hikes do not return the
Postal Service to a service of the privileged. We must ensure
that rate hikes are reasonable and reviewed.
That's why today I introduced the Ensuring Accurate Postal
Rates Act, which would require the Postal Regulatory
Commission, which has oversight authority over the Postal
Services rate determinations to restart their rate making
system review process and to include the positive financial
effects of the Postal Service Reform Act to determine if
existing enhanced rate increases are warranted.
We have a full agenda of policy issues for today's hearing
and to start will hear testimony from two constituents of our
members in attendance today to help focus our attention on
issues of access to postal facilities and care and justice for
those who risk their lives delivering mail every day.
I look forward to hearing from these constituents, our
witnesses, members of the Pennsylvania delegation and to
ensuring that Pennsylvanians are getting the mail delivery
systems they need and deserve. Ben Franklin would expect no
less.
So we're going to hear from two constituents, one of whom,
I believe, is yours Ms. Houlahan and the other is yours Ms.
Scanlon and then we'll give every member an opportunity--Brian,
I'm sorry, I didn't see you walk in. Can you wait for these two
constituents--OK.
And then if you have an opening statement, I'll call on you
right away. And then we'll give every member an opportunity for
a three-minute opening statement and then we'll go to our
testimony if that's all right.
Roll the video.
[Video shown.]
Mr. Connolly. I want to thank you both for participating.
And the first witness or first constituent we heard from is
Mary Gay Scanlon's constituent and the second witness, Joe, is
Chrissy Houlahan's constituent. So thank you both.
The chair now recognizes the distinguished member from
Philadelphia, the acting ranking member of the subcommittee
today, Brian Fitzpatrick. Thank you, Brian. You're recognized
for any opening statement you may have.
Mr. Fitzpatrick. Thank you, Chairman Connolly, for the
promotion today. I guess this is a one-day operation. Is that
how it works, with the promotion?
Thank you. Welcome to the city where America was born,
Chairman Connolly, and also where the post office was born, as
well as many other features of our government. Thank you to our
panelists today for being here. And there's one thing that I
think we can say unequivocally speaking on behalf of everybody
on the panel here and that is our complete and total support
for the importance of the U.S. Post Office, the importance and
our appreciation for the workers who have overcome a lot of
challenges. The Post Office has had to overcome a lot of
challenges.
COVID impacted everyone and everything. Perhaps no entity
more than the U.S. Postal Service and the challenge wasn't just
to the entity itself, but to the customers that the post office
serves, because so much of what we receive in the mail is time
sensitive as the chairman pointed out. Utility bills, credit
card bills that carry late fees, sale items that are time
sensitive and the like.
So on-time delivery is certainly a critical element and key
to the success of the post office, which is why we were all
proud to support the Postal Reform Act. There were a number of
things that were needed for a long time that was long overdue,
ensuring six-day delivery, ensuring door service, eliminating
the prefunding mandate, which was unique to the post office.
It was a problem that the government created that the
government had to undo. Thankfully that has been undone because
it was that specific provision that led to years and years of
insolvency and financial hardship by the USPS due to no-fault
of their own, due to a very antiquated and unfair prefunding
mandate. So we're glad that those things are now being
addressed.
A couple things I wanted to point out, obviously one of the
purposes of these hearings is to make sure that we can take
information back, put things on the record, No. 1, and actually
make additional changes that will make the Postal Service's job
easier, because it is one thing across the board I'm sure that
all of my colleagues have been in a similar situation where
we're hearing from constituents about concerns about delays,
about wrong delivery to the wrong address and also something
that's concerning to me is recruitment and retention challenges
for our postal workers and our letter carriers.
It's a hard job. It's a very, very hard job to be a postal
worker or letter carrier, even in the best of times. These are
very challenging times for all of those workers, both from a
workload perspective, a mental health perspective, a personal/
physical safety perspective. It's a hard job. And what we want
to do here is to do what we can to make that job easier.
And we have labor shortages across the board. We have
supply chain disruptions across the board and it's our job to
address each one of them individually and none are more
important than making sure that we address those issues with
the U.S. Postal Service, because if the Postal Service is in
any way, shape, or form broken that has a ripple effect on so
many different aspects of everyone's life. So Chairman
Connolly, thanks for coming to Philadelphia.
And I yield back.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you so much, Mr. Fitzpatrick. And thank
you so much for joining us today and for your leadership on so
many issues here in the greater Philadelphia area and in
Washington, DC.
The chair now calls on the distinguished Congresswoman from
the District of Columbia for a three-minute opening statement
should she have one, Congresswoman Norton. Welcome Ms. Norton.
Ms. Norton. Thank you, Chairman Connolly.
Can you hear me?
Mr. Connolly. Loud and clear.
Ms. Norton. Thank you, Chairman Connolly, for holding this
hearing on the United States Postal Service.
In my district, the District of Columbia, like other
jurisdictions, we have seen an increase in mail theft and
widespread delayed and undelivered mail. The public's
confidence in the Postal Service, a critical institution, has
been shaken.
Mail theft, particularly of checks, has been increasing
throughout the country. I've been contacted by constituents who
have had their checks stolen from the mail and altered, and
thousands of dollars taken from their accounts. The increase in
thefts also puts the safety of our hard-working postal workers
at risk.
I would like to thank all of our witnesses for being here,
but I would especially like to thank Frank Albergo, the
National President of the Postal Police Officers Association,
who has worked with my office to combat mail theft.
I'd like to conclude by noting that I have introduced a
bill to combat mail theft, which would clarify the authority of
the U.S. Postal Police Officers to protect the mail, Postal
Service property, and Postal Service employees wherever they
are located.
Thank you again, Chairman Connolly, for holding this
important hearing.
And I yield back.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you so much, Congresswoman Norton. And
thank you for your leadership. We look forward to working with
you on that bill. I now recognize the distinguished gentleman
from Massachusetts, my family's Congressman and a long-time
leader on postal issues without whose leadership I don't think
we would've gotten postal reform done this year, Mr. Steve
Lynch.
Mr. Lynch. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And it is great to join
you and my colleagues and all the members from the Pennsylvania
delegation. Thank you so much for your keen interest in this
and, Mr. Chairman, thank you for focusing on this issue,
especially in the advance of the midterm elections.
I did have a couple of questions just for our witnesses,
and they can answer them at their leisure, but No. 1, I noticed
from state to state - and Mr. Chairman, you did enormous and
yeoman's work on the postal reform bill. I do notice that for
voting by mail, the standards are literally state by state. And
while in Massachusetts, we have a bar code system that
automatically prioritizes, you know, election mail, that is not
the case in every district.
And as the chairman pointed out, there are some deadline
systems that have been passed by legislatures that do not wish
to facilitate vote by mail that actually leave the post office
a very slim opportunity to process the vote by mail system and
the deadlines are so tight.
So my question is, basically, what are we doing--and this
is for the inspector general, as well as for postal
leadership--what are we doing to prepare, perhaps harmonize
that system across all 50 states, if possible? And what are we
doing to prepare for any glitches that might occur in the
upcoming elections given what we went through last time with
the threat of the actual removal of high-speed sorting machines
from many of our general mail facilities, what are we doing to
prepare for that eventuality in the next election?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, again, for all your great
leadership on this committee.
And I yield back.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Mr. Lynch. And we're going to hold
that question until we have sworn in the witnesses who cannot
actually answer a question until they're sworn in, but we will
make sure we cover that question if you're not still with us,
Mr. Lynch.
Mr. Lynch. Thank you.
Mr. Connolly. The chair now wants to recognize members of
the Pennsylvania delegation and calls on Mr. Boyle, Congressman
Boyle for any three-minute opening statement he may have.
Mr. Boyle. Well, thank you. And welcome to Pennsylvania's
second congressional district. We are in my congressional
district, which I'm honored to serve. I want to thank the staff
of this committee, as well as my staff who worked hard in order
to get us a location and make today possible. And I want to
thank Temple University, which I'm also proud to represent, for
hosting us.
And I especially want to thank you, Chairman Connolly. I
remember many months ago on the House floor talking to you
about the issues that we were having specifically in the
Philadelphia area for years now, but especially this year when
it comes to mail delivery and all sorts of assorted issues,
some of which you've already referenced.
So I appreciate your responsiveness and you were saying
that you would come up here and that we would hold a
congressional committee hearing here in the Nation's
birthplace, and it's a true honor for all of us in Philadelphia
having a congressional committee leave Washington and hosting
it elsewhere is obviously quite rare.
So it is an honor here for us in this city. I want to share
with you just a couple statistics to help put this in
perspective what we're talking about.
Now, I have four constituent service offices in
Philadelphia from the far northeast to within walking distance
of here on Girard Avenue. In 2019, obviously pre-pandemic, we
had 60 postal service-related case works and complaints.
In 2020 that spiked to 199. In 2021, fortunately, it
dropped to 147. This year, however, 2022 with still four months
to go, we are on pace to eclipse that 199 that we received in
2020. So think about where we were in the pandemic in 2020 and
2021 versus today, and yet this year is by far the worst for my
constituents.
So I think the conclusion is pretty unavoidable. While
COVID-19 has presented extraordinary challenges over the past 2
1/2 years, it seems quite clear that steps taken by Postmaster
DeJoy and senior management at the Postal Service have clearly
been inadequate to get service levels where they should be.
Frankly, I have heard from constituents telling me that in
their lifetime the Postal Service has never been in a worse
shape. Louis DeJoy, you are no Benjamin Franklin. There is a
reason why I and others of my colleagues have called for his
termination. I reiterate that today.
We need change at the very top of the Postal Service. I
look forward to listening to the witnesses and discussing the
myriad issues that have developed over the last several years.
With that, again, I thank you, Chairman Connolly.
I yield back.
Mr. Connolly. What a pro. Right on time. Thank you so much,
Congressman Boyle.
I see our colleague, Congresswoman Lawrence, are you on?
And all right. We'll come back to Congresswoman Lawrence.
Senator Casey, I see that you are on and I know that you're
in session in the Senate and under a tight schedule. So we're
happy to recognize you for any opening statement you may have
and welcome so much to this hearing of the subcommittee.
Senator Casey. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for this
opportunity and I'm really honored to be part of this hearing.
I'm really grateful. This is a rare privilege for a senator to
appear at a House hearing, and I'm grateful for the time. I'll
try to be brief.
I wanted to start by thanking you, Mr. Chairman, and the
members of the committee for this opportunity for the important
issues that are raised at this hearing. And I also want to
recognize the terribly difficult challenges the Postal Service
has faced over the last couple of years and to thank postal
workers for preserving all of the--I should say, thank postal
workers for persevering, is a better word, under these terribly
difficult circumstances. They've worked very hard and it's a
very difficult job they've done, especially in the midst of a
pandemic and so many other challenges.
And so we applaud those frontline postal workers for their
service, but we cannot ignore, as you know better than I, the
reports of systemic problems with the quality, the quality of
mail service, from extended delays and delivery to mail theft,
constituents all across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have
reported Postal Service issues to my office just like all of
yours.
Just a couple of examples. My office received numerous
reports from Luzerne County, Pennsylvania up in the northeast
corner of our state. Representative Cartwright knows it well.
Reports of delays and receiving all kinds of mail from
prescriptions to paychecks. My office has also heard from
numerous attorneys in both Montgomery and Dauphin Counties, who
have serious concerns about significant delays in legal mail.
Another situation which I know you've heard about is in
Philadelphia, the Germantown Post Office, is a terrible example
of how egregious and long-term many of the problems with the
Postal Service is in Pennsylvania.
So my constituents have been told or have told my office
that delays have led to unnecessary hardships like paying late
fees on missed bills, being unable to respond in a timely
manner to critical documents, and despite repeated attempts by
members of various communities in our state to resolve these
issues with senior Postal Service officials, the reports of
serious service issues have persisted.
Now, I understand that these problems are difficult to
solve, but we have to make a lot more progress than we've made
over the last couple of years. Pennsylvanians, just like every
other constituents in every other state, rely on the Postal
Service whether it's to communicate with loved ones or engage
in business or receive critical documents or even medical
supplies.
And we know that quality service that is timely, that's
secure, and is responsive is essential for all of our
constituents. I believe the Postal Service can provide the
quality service that Americans deserve, and I look forward to
the opportunity to support the Postal Service as it seeks to
improve, improve service quality. But we've got a lot of work
to do and these answers, answers to these questions have to be
responded to like all of the members of the committee have
begun to outline.
So Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for this time and
allowing me to be part of it.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you so much, Senator Casey. And thank
you for being with us today and for your commitment to the
whole plethora of postal issues that matter so much to the
people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and all Americans.
So thank you.
The chair now recognizes subcommittee member and one of the
great leaders in postal reform and a former postal worker
herself, the Honorable Brenda Lawrence of Michigan. Welcome,
Ms. Lawrence.
Mrs. Lawrence. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you
for yielding. First, I want to thank the subcommittee for
organizing this field hearing in Philadelphia to examine the
issues of mail delivery performance, worker safety, and efforts
to reduce mail theft and more.
The Postal Service is the only organization and company or
Federal agency that touches every single home in America six
days a week. The U.S. Constitution even stressed the necessity
of safe and speedy mail delivery. That is why we must take
every step possible to protect our postal workers to ensure
their safety while they execute on their duties.
It is an important part of American history and life. And
of all the things that we do to keep our economy going, this is
a very important role. I spent 30 years as a member of the
United States Postal Service family. I recall the pride and the
sense of responsibility in delivering the mail, but I also had
a great expectation and faith in our postal police and
inspectors. And I want to be thankful to all of them and to the
witnesses who are before us today.
All of us have a critical role to play. So thank you to the
U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General and for the
work that you do in ensuring efficient mail delivery and
safeguarding the integrity of the postal system for almost 30
years and to the Post Office Police Officers Association whose
primary job is to prevent and respond to postal-related crime,
yes.
The Postal Service is too first responder in protecting
what we call the United States Postal Service. I look forward
to hearing about your experiences and seeing what
recommendations you have to offer. Thank you for all that you
do.
And Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you so much, Mrs. Lawrence. And we look
forward to working with you even out of Congress on these vital
issues.
The chair now recognizes the distinguished gentleman from
Scranton, Pennsylvania where the chair went to high school, Mr.
Cartwright. Welcome.
Mr. Cartwright. Well, thank you to subcommittee chair,
Gerry Connolly, for convening this hearing. And thank you to my
fellow members of the Pennsylvania delegation and
representatives from the United States Postal Service for being
here.
Over the past two years, my office has seen a record number
of constituent calls and case work requests for assistance with
the mail and package delivery. Hundreds of constituents have
called in my office, written letters, responded to my online
survey, sent emails to express their concerns about the USPS.
We've heard horror stories from constituents who are told
by their local post offices that first-class mail is going
unsorted and there aren't enough carriers to cover all the
routes, all of this resulting in astonishing delays in
delivery.
Constituents in communities across my district, the eighth
congressional district of Pennsylvania, have reported going
more than two days without mail, despite a promise made to my
office that no household should go more than one day without a
delivery.
Earlier this year, residents of South Abington Township in
Pennsylvania, just north of Scranton, were going 10 to 12 days
without mail. Not only were there reports of package and mail
delivery being poor and unreliable, but also the same thing at
post office locations. Hours were shortened, locations were
closed for days without notice. The Bushkill post office in my
district was closed for five consecutive days earlier this
year.
Look, people rely on the mail and the Postal Service to
conduct the business of their daily lives, to get their
medication, to pay their bills, to receive the benefit checks
that they're owed. And the answer is not just a pad, oh, you
should use online banking or get direct deposit. No. The answer
is holding the U.S. Postal Service accountable to do their job
while also listening to their concerns or needs for additional
resources.
I've worked directly with the USPS on this to get the
issues resolved, including meeting directly with Gary
Vaccarella. Glad to see Gary is on this Zoom and other members
of his staff, but, unfortunately, I have to tell you, these
issues are ongoing. I've demanded solutions for my
constituents, but the complaints keep coming in and it seems
like as one community's issue appears to resolve, another
community in my district reports delivery delays, problems at
their post office locations, or other issues.
I think everybody here can agree that we're on the same
page of wanting reliable, expeditious mail and package
delivery. We want the post office to work.
I'm glad you're having this hearing, Chairman Connolly. I
hope we have a productive one and work toward solutions to
better serve the people of Pennsylvania.
Yield back.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Mr. Cartwright. Again, a pro.
Right on time.
The chair now recognizes the other Representative across
the street from Temple University right here, the Honorable
Dwight Evans, for his opening remarks.
Mr. Evans. Thank you, Chairman Connolly.
Chairman Connolly, when you mentioned our colleague Lynch
name, I thought of a gentleman, a former speaker of the House,
and it's very appropriate that you have that all politics are
local.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to begin by thanking all of
today's witnesses, the U.S. Postal Service is one of the most
important agencies in the United States. I'm glad to see that
we are taking the recent troubles in Postal Service performance
seriously.
Over the past two years, my district has dramatic increases
in the amount of loss or stolen mail, undelivered packages,
post office closures, and poor performance by the local post
office. My constituents like the constituents in every
congressional district relies on the USPS for timely delivery,
important financial documents, medication, voter registration
forms, ballots, paychecks, rent, utilities, small business
deliveries, and more, yet my office have received hundreds, I
repeat hundreds of complaints regarding delivery of these items
to residents and businesses.
And when we have discussed these concerns with local USPS
leadership on numerous occasions we have not received
satisfactory responses. A particular concern is the status of
the Germantown Station Post Office located on Green Street,
which have received numerous complaints regarding poor
performance.
The Green Street Post Office has reported numerous losses,
damage, stolen mail. Many constituents have come to me seeking
assistance when their expected delivery never arrives. These
issues have prevented senior citizens in their apartments from
receiving medication and Social Security.
Furthermore, the staff of at the Germantown Post Office has
failed to adequately respond to the constituent concerns
leaving my residents confused and unable to access Postal
Service. Now, we all recognize that there will be the
occasional hiccups in delivering any service to American
people, but this type of unresponsiveness and lack of urgency
on behalf of the USPS is simply inexplicit.
Repeated incidents like this will only worsen Americans'
faith in this Postal Service and in the government's ability,
more broadly, to do what's needed to be done to protect them.
When my office is written to and spoken with, I have found
the responses inadequate. So I say, Mr. Chairman, I thank you
for your leadership at bringing it here to Philadelphia where a
gentleman by the name of Ben Franklin took the lead.
So I'm here to work together with you and your leadership.
And thank you for this opportunity.
I yield back.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you so much. I thank you for your
commitment to your constituents' plight and commitment to
trying to resolve these issues and find solutions.
The chair now recognizes the gentlelady from Chester?
Ms. Scanlon. No. Delaware County, Philadelphia.
Mr. Connolly. Delaware County. Oh, part of Chester?
Ms. Scanlon. city of Chester.
Mr. Connolly. city of Chester. I got that right. Mary Gay
Scanlon.
Ms. Scanlon. Thank you, Chairman Connolly. And we're really
grateful for you bringing this hearing to Philadelphia, not
just because it's the birthplace of the post office, but
because we've seen so many issues in this region over the last
few years.
You know, as we know, the Postal Service has been plagued
with service issues since the installation of Postmaster DeJoy
in June 2020. I'm extremely concerned about the degradation of
service which we've seen and concerned that it will continue,
particularly with the announcement of this new plan to close
and consolidate a couple hundred local sorting and delivery
operations, including many in the Philadelphia area.
This is important because the U.S. Postal Service is an
essential public service that Americans, small businesses, and
government agencies rely upon. We need to make sure that people
can receive and pay their bills in a timely way, conduct
business, get their medications from the VA, and that
government agencies can send out and receive tax bills and
other important government documents.
What we've seen under Postmaster DeJoy is an approach to
the Postal Service that prioritizes alleged efficiencies over
service. We've seen changes that are more appropriate to
running a private business that provides overnight delivery for
champagne or crudites or other luxury items rather than for an
agency that provides an essential public service.
So today I'd like to focus on some of the issues that my
constituents have been experiencing and I would note, again,
that we have received more communications, whether mail, email,
telephone calls, or getting stopped on the street about service
issues over the last few years than any other issue my office
has heard about.
You know, the Philadelphia region has experienced some of
the worst rates of on-time mail delivery in the Nation with an
on-time delivery rate of just 61.9 percent in the third quarter
of Fiscal Year 2021. We fielded hundreds of calls and messages
from constituents regarding late delays or non-delivery of the
types of items I've mentioned.
While delivery rates have improved nationwide and in
Pennsylvania, some of this appears to be only because the
goalposts were moved. They were given more time to make on-time
delivery. This was particularly concerning as the delays
escalated during the 2020 Presidential election and delayed the
receipt and return of mail-in ballots.
And we want to make sure those delays do not recur during
this midterm election.
We've seen related to these service issues, closures of
post offices which close without notice during the day due to
staff shortages or other issues. That means a small business
owner or employee who runs to the post office during her lunch
break cannot pay bills or mail products to a consumer or
customer.
In a related service issue, we've seen increases in postal
mail theft and crime. Municipalities and constituents alike
have come to me with stories of stolen checks that have been
washed and repurposed for different amounts to different
payees. So we need to examine why Postmaster DeJoy has
prioritized eliminating postal police.
Public concern about check theft then relates back to the
fact that it's all the more important that people are able to
get in-person services at their post offices. And last, I want
to raise the long-standing inaccessibility issues at the
Chester, Pennsylvania Post Office in Delaware County, which my
constituent, Susan Dennis, spoke to in the video at the outset.
That post office was built in 1937, 85 years ago and has
not been renovated significantly since then. It has no publicly
accessible ramps or lifts, effectively barring customers with
mobility impairment from transacting businesses. This isn't a
small facility. It serves a city of more than 30,000, a
majority-minority community with a poverty rate in excess of 30
percent. Many of whom are dependent on public transit and
services that can be accessed through the post office.
I've contacted the USPS about this repeatedly for the past
year and, in particular, have asked that the Postal Service
give full and fair consideration to doing a retrofit for the
facility, a request that the Postal Service has ignored. So I'm
deeply concerned that there's no plan, long-term plan, to
address these discretionary accessibility upgrades.
I'm, once again, requesting that the Postal Service address
these concerns by creating a plan to do so. And I will be
sending a letter, along with Chairman Connolly, and thank you
for his interest immediately following this hearing.
Our veterans, our seniors, our municipal authorities rely
upon the Postal Service as an essential public service and it's
important that it be able to serve everyone.
Thank you.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you so much, Congresswoman Scanlon. And
thank you for your particular focus on the Chester Post Office
in Delaware County. We really appreciate your commitment to
your constituents in trying to make sure that everyone has
access.
The distinguished gentlelady from the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania, Madeleine Dean, is recognized for any opening
statement she may have.
Ms. Dean. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm Madeleine Dean. I
represent the fourth congressional district, Montgomery and
Berks Counties. I want my counties to get their fair shout out.
Thank you, Mr. Connolly, for bringing this important
oversight hearing to Philadelphia, a field hearing on the
important issues surrounding the Postal Service, access to the
Postal Service to all of our constituents and I'm very pleased
that you chose to have it here at Temple University, home to
my--it's my husband's alma mater, so thank you, Temple, for
having us here today.
I want to start by saying my admiration for the Postal
Service, for those who work in and around the Postal Service.
You are critically important to all of us. We learned that,
perhaps, the harder way through a pandemic, through COVID, and
a global economic closure, but it really reminds me of the
Postal Service's roots that you so eloquently described, Mr.
Connolly.
Ben Franklin, before the formation of this country, was a
part of the Postal Service deputy postmaster and he wanted to
make it more democratic, with a small D. More egalitarian.
We're here today to say let's go back and take a look. Is the
Postal Service able to operate in that egalitarian way to serve
all of our residents?
Like everyone here, my constituents service case work
around the Postal Service is way up this year. To date we are
three times the number of Postal Service cases as of all of
last year, three times the number and it's just September.
Some of the complaints that we are hearing are work force
shortages, of course, the chronic problem of not enough, not
consistent daily delivery, not consistent hours of operation in
some of our post offices, the worry of closure or consolidation
of post offices making the Postal Service farther from my
constituents. Critically important, as we saw in the past
election, was the protection of and speedy delivery of mail-in
ballots. Like my colleagues here, mail theft has been a
complaint among my interestingly my tax collectors have called
us to say incoming receipts of taxes have been missing, COVID
relief and stimulus checks missing, prescriptions delayed or
missing.
So what I'm here to say is, I'm interested in finding out
what works and what doesn't work. And I'm proud to be part of
the reform for the Postal Service and making sure we hold
leadership accountable.
Again, welcome to Philadelphia. It's so good to be here at
the birthplace of the Postal Service, and I thank all of our
witnesses.
I yield back.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Congresswoman Dean. And thank you
for your commitment, and we look forward to working with you as
well. Last, but certainly not least, the Congresswoman who, in
fact, represents Chester County, Chrissy Houlahan. Welcome,
Congresswoman Houlahan.
Ms. Houlahan. Very, very proudly represents Chester and
Berks County for the shoutout of the day. Thank you, Chairman
Connolly, and thank you very much for the subcommittee for
bringing this important hearing to the Commonwealth and to this
wonderful city of Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.
My district, as you mentioned, is Chester and Berks County.
I serve the sixth congressional district. It's about 45 minutes
from here is the beginning of the district between Valley Forge
and the mushroom farms of Kennett Square and it stretches all
the way up to the city of Reading.
I have the opportunity to be able to represent that
district and I'm enormously proud of it, but in my community,
seniors are depending, just like you've heard from other
people, on the post office for deliveries like prescription
drugs or rural businesses are counting on us to be able to
deliver goods and services. Students are relying on the Postal
Service for voting by mail and, of course, veterans like myself
are also reliant on the mail for a lot of other service
deliveries as well.
Listen, you're going to hear, you have heard the same thing
over and over again. So I don't want to beat a dead horse, but
in Oxford, Pennsylvania, in my community, the post office has
been shuttered in the middle of the day due to lack of staff
and facilities like Mary Gay mentioned, Representative Scanlon
mentioned, are literally falling apart in places like West
Chester in my district. They don't have accessible access for
people with disabilities.
So I'm here at this hearing to try to get some answers on
behalf of my constituents and my community who really depend on
this very critical government service.
I'm really grateful to see both sides of the aisle today
coming together once again, to understand and seek out those
common-sense solutions to the challenges that we face in our
Postal Service.
With that, I will say this year, tens of thousands of
Pennsylvanians will be using our Postal Service as was
mentioned earlier to deliver their ballots for November's
elections. However, our Commonwealth in my community deserves a
well-functioning Postal Service each and every day, regardless
of the month, of the year, or the particular day of the week. I
want very much to thank our witnesses today for shedding light
on how we can ensure that the post office remains a reliable
and accessible source of mail delivery for everyone. I very
much look forward to our conversation.
I will end with 45 seconds to spare and yield that to the
service of the committee. Thank you very much, Chairman, for
the opportunity to speak.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you so much, Ms. Houlahan. And thank
you for mentioning the bipartisan nature of how we have
responded to this set of issues in Congress because that's
true. The Postal Reform Act that was passed into law this year
after 16 long years of struggle was a bipartisan bill and we
really appreciate that. And Mr. Fitzpatrick certainly played a
role in that as well on the Republican side.
So I think that's really important that we--these are
issues that face our constituents and they don't have a
Democrat or Republican label to them.
We are now going to hear from our witnesses. I thank you
for your patience. We have 11 members participating in this
hearing, including the United States Senator, Mr. Casey. That
is unusual to have that kind of level of participation in a
field hearing.
And so we wanted to make sure everyone, especially those
representing this area, had an opportunity to lay out for their
constituents and for all of us how they saw this set of issues
and how it's affecting their constituents. We have four
witnesses and I'm going to ask all of our witnesses present to
stand and raise their right hand and the witness, Mr.
Vaccarella, I guess, who's on Zoom--who's on Zoom? I'm sorry.
Vaccarella, if you'd raise your right hand as well, it is the
custom of this subcommittee to swear in witnesses.
Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth so help you God?
Let the record show all of our witnesses have answered in
the affirmative. Thank you so much.
Our first witness today will be Gary Vaccarella, the
region's district manager for the Postal Service. Then we'll
hear from Melinda Perez, who's testified before the
subcommittee before, who's the assistant inspector general for
audit at the U.S. Postal Service, Office of Inspector General.
Then we'll hear from Ivan Butts, National President of the
National Association of Postal Supervisors and a son of
Philadelphia where his career began. Finally, will hear from
Frank Albergo, National President of the Postal Police Officers
Association, which has a lot of issues in front of it that
concern all of us.
The Postal Service also has additional subject matter
experts available on our Zoom platform to respond to member
questions that may be outside of Mr. Vaccarella's expertise.
Those additional experts are Peter Rendina, deputy chief
inspector of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Adrienne
Marshall, director of the election and government mail, David
Webster, senior director processing operations for the Postal
Services Chesapeake division.
So with that, I would now call upon Mr. Vaccarella for his
five minutes of testimony. Mr. Vaccarella.
STATEMENT OF GARY VACCARELLA, DE-PA2 DISTRICT MANAGER, U.S.
POSTAL SERVICE
Mr. Vaccarella. Thank you. Good morning, Chairman Connolly,
Ranking Member Hice, Acting Ranking Member Fitzpatrick, members
of the subcommittee, and members of the Pennsylvania
delegation.
Thank you for the opportunity to discuss our commitment to
service excellent. Our preparedness for the upcoming 2022
election cycle and our initiatives to protect the safety and
security of the mail system and those who work in it. We
recognize that your constituents depend on the Postal Service
for timely and reliable mail service.
My name is Gary Vaccarella. I am currently the district
manager for the Delaware/Pennsylvania 2 District. Began my
postal career as a clerk in 1985 at the Fort Pierce, Florida
post office. Previously served as the district manager of
western New York district, postmaster of Baltimore, Maryland,
postmaster of Orlando, Florida, and various other leadership
positions throughout the organization. Also joining me today
are colleagues from processing operation, election, and
government mail, and the United States Postal Service, who will
answer subject specific questions you may have.
Service performance in Pennsylvania is strong. My district
and the Pennsylvania 1 district constantly rank among the
highest performing districts in the country with recent service
scores reliably exceeding 90 percent for mail and packaged
products.
In fact, to further illustrate our reliability, the current
average day to deliver mail in Pennsylvania when compared to
pre-pandemic averages has remained steady for first-class mail
and has improved for marketing mail.
Flight path challenges in some areas of Pennsylvania
customers can reliably expect Postal Service to deliver mail
and packages in a timely manner. Where there have been some
isolated incidents of past service disruptions due largely to
employee availability issues, we have taken proactive steps.
These include hiring more carriers, loaning delivery employees
from other areas to understaffed units whenever possible and
monitoring daily staffing levels.
In Pennsylvania, we have hired 2,962 city carrier
assistants, 1,363 rural carrier assistants, and 1,704 postal
support employees over the past 12 months. These pre-career
representatives of our work force perform the same duties as
career carriers and clerks. These positions are often a gateway
to career positions.
Turning to election preparedness as highlighted in my
written testimony, the Postal Service successfully managed and
delivered unprecedented ballot mail buy-ins for the American
public during the 2020 election cycle.
On average in 2020, we delivered ballots to voters in 2.1
days and ballots from voters to election officials in just 1.6
days.
We also delivered ballots effectively in 2021. For the
2022-cycle, we have already conducted proactive and robust
outreach to state and local election officials, including
outreach to election officials in Pennsylvania. So far in 2022,
delivery time has been 1.79 days for ballots from election
officials to voters and one day to deliver completed ballots
from voters to election officials.
Regarding mail security and employee safety. It is a top
priority for the organization. We share community concerns
about recent increases in mail theft from collection boxes and
robberies of letter carriers in Pennsylvania and other areas of
the country.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is a Federal law
enforcement and security arm of the Postal Service, and postal
inspectors are authorized to investigate and make arrests both
on and off postal premises. Postal inspectors work to bring
offenders to justice and make thousands arrests each year.
Inspection service is also working to improve collection box
security with key and lock enhancements.
We are aware of legislative proposals to expand the
jurisdiction of postal police officers, or PPOs. However, PPOs
are assigned to certain facilities because the inspection
service has determined that these facilities require the
presence of uniformed, trained, and armed officers.
Removing those officers from Postal Service property would
increase the security risks to those facilities. Inspection
service determined that allowing PPOs to patrol the streets
would not decrease mail theft or improve letter carrier safety.
It is the role of the postal inspectors to investigate these
crimes. PPOs serve as a vital role in the security of the
Nation's mail system and that function should not be
compromised through a modification of authority that would be
tracked from the protection of the greatest number of postal
employees, customers, and property.
In conclusion, service performance in Pennsylvania has
improved since the height of the pandemic and our national and
state service force for first-class mail, marketing mail, and
competitive products remain strong. The Postal Service also
stands ready to ensure successful 2022 election cycle.
Moreover, the inspection service is faithfully executing their
mission to protect the Nation's mail.
I want to thank the members of the subcommittee and members
of the Pennsylvania delegation for holding this hearing. The
supporting witnesses and I look forward to your questions.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you very much, Mr. Vaccarella.
Ms. Perez, you are now recognized for your five minutes of
testimony, and I should note, all of your full statements will,
of course, be entered into the record in full.
Ms. Perez?
STATEMENT OF MELINDA PEREZ, ASSISTANT INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR
AUDIT, U.S. POSTAL SERVICE OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL
Ms. Perez. Thank you, and good morning, Chairman Connolly,
Ranking Member Hice, Acting Ranking Member Fitzpatrick, members
of the subcommittee, and the Pennsylvania delegation.
Thank you for inviting me here today to discuss our work
related to the Postal Service's delivery performance and
efforts to address mail theft.
Our mission is to ensure the efficiency, accountability,
and integrity in our Nation's Postal Service. We take our
mission very seriously.
Looking at service performance starting in Fiscal Year
2018, Philadelphia's scores were relatively close to the
national average for most categories of mail until the fall of
2020. Then the timeliness of mail delivery in Philadelphia
experienced a significant decline.
While the Nation overall experienced mail delays during
this time, Philadelphia was hit especially hard. Service
performance in Philadelphia has improved since that time, and
the most recently released data shows its First Class mail
scores are near or above the national average. However, there
may still be problems with mail delays in certain locations.
Philadelphia was not alone in facing major service
disruptions in the winter of 2020. We looked at service
performance in 17 districts, including Philadelphia, over this
timeframe.
The specific issues we identified in Philadelphia were
similar to what we found in other locations 09 problems with
employee availability, loss of capacity to move mail on
commercial networks, and dot congestion contributing to mail
being sent late to other postal facilities.
We know timely mail delivery is important to the American
public. In response to concerns, we stood up a new audit group,
the field operations review team, to conduct targeted facility
reviews in locations with service challenges.
As part of these reviews, we perform a cluster of audits,
visiting one mail processing plant and three to four post
offices at the same time.
This allows us to get a better understanding of issues that
span both processing and delivery, an increasingly important
focus of our work now that these functions fall under different
postal executives.
These reviews provide quick evaluations, ensuring timely
and meaningful results to Postal Service management and our
stakeholders.
This year we completed site visits at eight clusters in the
western and central areas of the country and found issues
related to late and extra trips, scanning performance, delayed
mail, cluttered processing floors, and poor facility conditions
at many retail and delivery units.
Our work in Fiscal Year 2023 will focus on the southern and
eastern parts of the country, including the Philadelphia area.
Timely mail delivery becomes even more important as
elections draw near. We have an open audit looking at the
Postal Service's readiness for the 2022 midterm election.
In addition to conducting observations at postal
facilities, we are evaluating whether the Postal Service
effectively took corrective action in response to our prior
recommendations.
In addition, as we have done in the past, we will be
conducting field visits across the country in the weeks leading
up to and the week prior to the midterm elections. We will
provide the Postal Service near real-time feedback and
subsequently publish a report on our findings.
Along with service challenges, mail theft is also a growing
concern. We recently initiated an audit that will analyze
trends and evaluate the efforts the Postal Service and Postal
Inspection Service are taking to prevent and respond to mail
theft.
Our Office of Investigations also focuses significant
efforts in this area. We have several recent investigations
into mail theft by postal employees around Philadelphia,
involving stolen Treasury checks and gift cards.
One cause of recent increases in mail theft is the
challenge around arrow key accountability as we reported in
August 2020.
Arrow keys are used by postal workers to open blue
collection boxes and neighborhood delivery box units. Subjects
are stealing arrow keys or approaching postal employees and
offering to pay them to sell or loan them their keys.
To address this issue, our Office of Investigations has
initiated Operation Secure Arrow, a multi-faceted effort to
identify and investigate employees involved in the theft and
mishandling of arrow keys. This includes employing data
analytics, focusing on employees who are misusing arrow keys,
and collaborating with the inspection service.
We currently have 20 open investigations related to this
problem, and these investigations have already resulted in five
criminal prosecutions and seven administrative actions.
Sending and receiving mail without fear of it being delayed
or stolen is critical to an effective postal system. We
appreciate the opportunity to discuss our work, and I am happy
to answer your questions.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you so much, Ms. Perez.
Mr. Butts, you are recognized for your five minutes of
summary testimony. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF IVAN BUTTS, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
POSTAL SUPERVISORS
Mr. Butts. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Chairman Connolly, and
members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to provide
the views of the National Association of Postal Supervisors
regarding postal performance and the safety and security of
postal personnel, property, and the mail.
My name is Ivan Butts. I am honored to serve as president
of the National Association of Postal Supervisors, representing
approximately 48,000 postal supervisors, managers, and
postmasters.
Chairman Connolly, permit me to thank you for your
leadership in championing two pieces of legislation that are
important to NAPS members--H.R. 1623, the Postal Managers and
Supervisors Fairness Act, and H.R. 1624, the Postal Employees
Appeal Rights Amendment Act.
These measures provide fairness and paid consultation and
due process rights to executive and administrative schedule
postal employees.
As we approach the 2022 election season, absentee ballots
continue to be a popular and secure alternative to in-person
voting. For this reason, NAPS supports H.R. 1307, the Vote by
Mail Tracking Act, which would require each state to use a
standard envelope design and distinct barcode that enables the
tracking of each individual ballot.
Postal performance is immensely important to NAPS members.
As such, NAPS is concerned about the effects of the USPS
recently announced plan to consolidate and realign mail
processing operations throughout the country.
Members of Congress from Pennsylvania should know this
proposal would impact mail processing and delivery in southeast
Pennsylvania throughout--through the consolidation of 12 USPS
associated offices into the tri-county facility.
We believe, consistent with the law, the Postal Service
should be transparent with regards to the reasons it's deciding
to initiate this plan, what are the specific goals of the plan,
what are the cost savings. If so, how much will be saved, and
how will success be measured.
NAPS contends that these are requirements of the Postal
Accountability and Enhancement Act, as well as the agency's
handbook, PO-408408.
The delivery unit optimization plan initiated by the Postal
Service in 2010 and revised in 2013 exhibits the same
operational objectives as the soon-to-be-implemented Sort and
Delivery Center consolidation plan.
In August 2014, the Postal Inspector General casts serious
doubts about the projected cost savings attributed to Duo.
In addition, the IG recorded the USPS' failure to comply
with guidelines and inability to provide a rationale for
specific consolidations.
Furthermore, the IG made recommendations related to the Duo
plan. However, the Post Office dismissed those recommendations.
Duo was the prolog for two other postal actions that slowed
mail delivery down, post plan, in reduced service to rural
carriers and the plant consolidations which caused mail service
to fall off the cliff.
NAPS is calling on congressional oversight necessary to
ensure that the present, proposed consolidation and realignment
plan is not Duo on steroids.
Oversight is necessary to ensure that the USPS plans will
not increase USPS expenses. Consequently, we request the
Congress to require the Postal Service to suspend the plan
until a transparent and comprehensive analysis can be
completed.
Finally, the security of the mail and the protection of
postal personnel and property is under threat. Two years ago,
the Postal Inspection Service narrowed the Postal Police
Force's authority, restricting it to investigating only crimes
committed on postal property. This change exposed postal
employees, postal vehicles, and mail to crime.
Representatives Garbarino and Norton introduced legislation
clarifying Federal law authorization, authorizing Postal Police
to protect postal personnel, postal property, and U.S. Mail
beyond the perimeter of postal-owned and leased properties.
Our support of such legislation came with a price. With me
today is retired Police Captain Butch Maynard, the President of
NAPS Branch 51, who we believe was forced to retire from his
position in the Postal Police due to the Inspection Service
retaliation against him for support of the Postal Police
legislation.
The Postal Inspection Service conducted a nationwide review
of Postal Police divisions that culminated with the abolishment
of one of its division--the Newark division, the division
managed by Captain Maynard. These operations were transferred
to a smaller division here in Philadelphia.
Captain Maynard was the only management employee negatively
impacted by the realignment. NAPS believes the act of
retaliation against him for the lawful exercising of his First
Amendment Acts is worthy of further congressional inquiry.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to appear
before you today. NAPS looks forward to working with the
committee to sustain a vital, sustainable, and vibrant post
office. I look forward to your questions.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you so much, Mr. Butts. We appreciate
your testimony, and we will followup.
Mr. Albergo, you're our fourth and final witness. You are
recognized for your five minutes of summary testimony. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF FRANK ALBERGO, NATIONAL PRESIDENT, POSTAL POLICE
OFFICERS ASSOCIATION
Mr. Albergo. Good morning, Chairman Connolly, and the other
members attending today's hearing. On behalf of the Nation's
Postal Police officers, we thank you for calling attention to
the dramatic rise in mail theft experienced by so many
Americans, as well as equally disturbing trend in violent
crimes perpetrated against postal employees.
My name is Frank Albergo, and I serve as the national
president of the Postal Police Officers Association. The PPOA
represents uniform Postal Police officers employed by the
United States Postal Inspection Service.
The Postal Police force began at this very location,
Philadelphia's Temple University, which on December 9th of
1970, graduated the first class of 30 Postal Police officers.
Simply put, wherever and whenever Postal Police officers
have been deployed, an immediate and significant reduction in
postal-related crime results.
The Inspection Service has two kind of law enforcement
officers--Postal Police officers, also referred to as PPOs, and
postal inspectors. The roles of PPOs and postal inspectors are
akin to uniformed police officers and plain-clothed detectives
in a municipal police force.
Postal inspectors are among the best criminal investigators
working today. However, they show up after crimes have been
committed and the scene secure.
By contrast, PPOs deter postal crimes so that costly
followup investigations become unnecessary.
In short, PPOs specialize in crime prevention, not after-
the-fact criminal investigations.
In fact, protecting postal workers and the U.S. Mail, away
from postal property was once the core function of the Postal
Police Force.
Despite the well documented success of Postal Police
patrols, in 2020, the Postal Service stripped Postal Police
officers of their law enforcement authority and began gutting
the Postal Police Force.
This was done during a pay dispute with the PPOA and three
months before a national election.
Once 2,700 officers strong, Postal Police ranks have been
decimated to approximately 350 rank-and-file officers. In fact,
our police force has been reduced by 20 percent since 2020.
During his recent state of the Union Address, President
Biden said, we should all agree, the answer is not to defund
the police. The answer is to fund the police with the resources
and training they need to protect our communities.
Apparently, the Postal Service thinks the President is
wrong. Indeed, the Postal Service is actively defunding its
uniform police force. Here are the facts.
After 50 years, the Inspection Service revoked the policing
power of Postal Police officers while they are away from postal
real property.
After 50 years, all proactive, Postal Police mail theft
prevention and letter carrier protection patrols have been
eliminated.
After 50 years, the Inspection Service has prohibited PPOs
from responding to any and all postal-related crimes occurring
away from postal realestate.
Nineteen of 21 Postal Police divisions are severely below
the budgeted complement. Nationwide rank-and-file PPOs are at
less than 62 percent of the budgeted complement.
The Inspection Service has eliminated entire Postal Police
tours in Detroit, Memphis, Oakland, San Francisco, St. Louis,
Washington, DC, and even here in Philadelphia.
In other words, for the first time in 50 years, Postal
Police operations no longer support 24-hour policing coverage.
Since 2020, the PPO attrition rate has far exceeded the
hiring rate, and there is absolutely no plan to reverse the
trend.
In March 2021, the Postal Service paid for a private
contractor, Booz Allen Hamilton, to rubber-stamp the absurd
recommendation to eliminate nearly all Postal Police divisions
and positions.
Given our attrition rate, in all likelihood, there will be
fewer than 300 rank-and-file PPOs by the year 2024 unless
changes are made. The current structure of the Postal
Inspection Service has almost four times the number of postal
inspectors as bargaining unit PPOs.
Plainly, the Inspection Service has it backward. It is
simply better, in every respect, to prevent crime than
investigate crime. For every postal inspector hired, the Postal
Service could've hired two PPOs are drastically less cost.
Many of the crimes targeting our Nation's letter carriers
and the U.S. Mail could be prevented by simply having PPOs
patrol specific areas with high rates of postal crime.
This is not a novel idea. Local Postal Inspection Service
managers have continuously expressed the need to hire more PPOs
and then utilize those officers to protect postal employees and
the mail away from postal facilities.
In other words, the people on the ground, the people who
actually manage local Inspection Service operations, believe
that deploying PPOs away from postal facilities can and will
make a difference.
The Postal Service, perhaps America's most beloved Federal
institution, is in peril. Postal crime has spiraled out of
control, postal workers are being attacked, and mail is being
stolen at unprecedented levels.
It is obvious that the Postal Inspection Service is doing
very little about it. In fact, the Inspection Service has begun
the process of defunding its uniform police force during an
unparalleled postal crime wave.
Americans deserve to have their mail protected, and postal
employees deserve to feel safe while they're at work. The
Postal Service must effectively utilize all of its resources to
stop the plague of mail theft and stop the attacks on postal
workers.
It is obvious to everyone, except the Postal Service, that
Postal Police officers are the most effective resource to
accomplish this goal.
In 1772, Pennsylvania's own Benjamin Franklin, in effect,
created the Inspection Service, making it America's first and
oldest law enforcement agency. It's time that the Inspection
Service realign its priorities and enter into the 21st century
of policing and law enforcement.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Mr. Albergo. And it is indeed an
odd law enforcement strategy to have skyrocketing crime rates,
both personal violence and theft rates among customers, and the
solution is to shrink the police forces charged with trying to
solve those crimes and deter them. We'll explore that during
this hearing.
Before we get into questioning--and Ms. Norton will go
first--I want to recognize George Kenney, representing Temple
University. We want to thank Temple University for their
extraordinary hospitality. They're providing refreshment,
they're providing extraordinary staff support, and your welcome
could not be warmer and more hospitable.
George, what would you like to say on behalf of Temple
University?
Mr. Kenney. Chairman Connolly, thank you for visiting
Temple, I know this is your first visit, and welcome back to my
friends of the Pennsylvania delegation. They've all been here
before.
Temple, one of Pennsylvania's largest public research
institutions, happy to have you here, you're welcome back
anytime. You and your staff have been great to work with.
Just for a fun fact, we have about 40,000 students. I hope
you get a chance to spend a little time on campus today and see
the activity. But most of all, thank you for the support the
Pennsylvania--U.S. House of Representatives has given higher
ed, both for the benefited students and the research dollars
you send across America to benefit all Americans. So thank you
for your work. Thank you.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you so much, George, and thank you
again to everybody associated with Temple University for your
extraordinary hospitality. We could not do this today without
your support and help, and it's been wonderful, so thank you.
The chair now recognizes the Congresswoman from the
District of Columbia, Eleanor Holmes Norton, for her five
minutes of questioning.
Ms. Norton. Thank you again, Chairman Connolly, for holding
this important hearing.
Mail theft has become a large issue in the Nation's
capital, right here in the District of Columbia, particularly
the theft of checks through stolen universal keys. My questions
are going to be for Mr. Albergo.
I understand that several regions of the Postal Service--of
the Postal Police rather, had believed they had the statutory
authority to protect the mail, postal property, and postal
employees wherever they are located.
However, the Postal Service has recently told all Postal
Police officers they do not have this authority, but instead
their police powers are limited to Postal Service real
property.
According to the Postal Police's authorizing statute, they
have--and I'm quoting here--duty in connection with the
protection of property owned or occupied by the Postal Service
under the charge and control of the Postal Service and persons
on that property.
Mr. Albergo, am I correct that that authority does not
appear to limit the Postal Service's authority to Postal
Service real property, but could include protecting mail trucks
and postal staff as they travel, and, of course, the mail
itself?
Mr. Albergo. Yes. The Inspection Service has historically
interpreted statute as meaning that PPOs could protect mail,
postal workers, postal assets no matter location.
In the summer of 2020, they decided to restrict that
jurisdiction. It's inexplicable.
What sort of law enforcement agency doesn't want their
police officers protecting employees? What sort of law
enforcement agency doesn't want their law enforcement officers
to have the power to do their jobs?
It's--it's--it's--I'm as confused as anyone else. It
doesn't make any sense.
Ms. Norton. Well, we must correct that right away.
Mr. Albergo, could you explain why it is important for the
Postal Police to have the authority to protect the mail and
postal property and employees even off of Postal Service real
property?
Mr. Albergo. PPOs, or Postal Police officers, are uniform
police officers. There's no dispute that police officers deter
crime. Everyone accepts that fact except, apparently, the
Postal Service.
If we are deployed to specific areas where there is mail
theft, where there are attacks on postal workers, it will deter
crime. It's just a fact. People will not--or I should say
criminals--criminals will not see a postal police officer in a
conspicuously marked vehicle and say, oh, I think today's a
good time to rob a letter carrier. It just doesn't happen.
It's--it's inexplicable. I know I'm saying that a lot, but
I just can't explain why the Inspection Service did this.
Ms. Norton. Actually, I'm very concerned because I thought
I heard witnesses say there weren't any Postal Police here in
the District of Columbia. If so, I've got to attend to that
right away.
I thank you again, Mr. Albergo, and I thank you, Chairman
Connolly. This is an important issue as we confront the
widespread mail theft throughout the country. Thank you again.
Mr. Connolly. I thank the distinguished Congresswoman from
the District of Columbia, and I would ask unanimous consent,
following up on her line of questioning, to insert in the
record several articles dealing with this issue: One headed,
did the U.S. Postal Service pave the way for a surge in thefts
by muzzling its own police; another, the stolen mail scheme now
targeting a wealthy D.C. suburb; and a third, how cyber
criminals turn paper checks stolen from mailboxes into Bitcoin.
And I would ask, without objection, that they be entered
into the record at this point.
Without objection, so ordered.
The gentleman from Philadelphia, Mr. Fitzpatrick, is
recognized for his line of questioning.
Mr. Fitzpatrick. Thank you, Chairman Connolly, to all of
our witnesses, thank you for being here today. My first
question for Mr. Vaccarella, thank you, sir, for joining us,
and I want to start by thanking you for your response to our
letter that myself and several of my colleagues here had sent
you last month, specific to postal delivery issues in our
communities and related hiring practices in USPS.
Several months ago, as the chairman had indicated, Congress
passed the Postal Reform Act. I wanted to focus specific on the
recruitment and retention issues that I referenced in my
opening statement, and specific to those issues but also even
more specifically in the D.A.--I'm sorry--DE-PA2 postal
district, which many of us represent.
How will that piece of legislation impact, positively or
negatively, recruitment and retention, which is really the
genesis for a lot of the challenges that have encompassed the
postal delivery service and its employees and also its
customers?
Mr. Vaccarella. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Congressman. You
know, we recognize the need for much more energy and attention
on our retention of our employees, and we have initiatives that
are addressing retention of our employees.
Our new employees, you know, we are giving them extra
training. We are limiting their work hours within the first two
weeks, within the first 30 days, within the first 60 to 90
days.
And then even after their 90-day probation period, we are
limiting their work hours as well. We have much oversight on
that, and we do recognize the importance of addressing the
retention of our new employees.
Mr. Fitzpatrick. Thank you, Mr. Vaccarella.
Mr. Albergo, ensuring the secure delivery of letters and
packages obviously needs to be a top Federal priority. Our
Problem Solvers Caucus recently endorsed porch pirates
legislation to make it a Federal crime to remove packages from
porches through theft or other means.
Obviously, Americans must be able to rely on the post
office to deliver essentials and also while protecting privacy
and safety in the process.
What do you believe the greatest challenges are facing
Postal Police officers right now, and what can we do, moving
forward, to guarantee and improve both postal inspection and
postal security?
Mr. Albergo. The Postal Police Force has been decimated. We
need more PPOs. I mean, that's right off the bat.
Second, we need our jurisdiction restored.
Third, the Inspection Service--and I can't believe I have
to say this--the Inspection Service needs to understand that
policing, a law enforcement officer, a uniformed police
officer, deters crime.
They seem to be more interested in investigating crime than
deterring it. Investigations are costly. Prosecutions are
costly. Incarceration is very costly. It's much more cost-
effective to deter the crime in the first place.
I think they need to realign their priorities. I think they
need to invest more heavily in crime prevention rather than
investigations.
The mission statement is very clear. It's crime prevention,
it's protection, it's security, in addition to investigations.
Mr. Fitzpatrick. Thank you, Mr. Albergo, and I will give a
personal plug to the postal inspectors. As an FBI agent, it was
a complete joy to work with them, true professionals, always
advanced their investigations, always so cooperative. So I'm a
big supporter of that program.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Connolly. If the gentleman would yield just for one
second, I completely support what he just said, and I would
point out to Mr. Albergo's response to your question, there
were over 300,000 theft complaints by constituents, by
consumers, in the last reporting period. Less than one-half of
1 percent were investigated. And as Mr. Albergo said, that's
expensive.
I'd love to see what the statistic is, well, how many
ultimately got prosecuted and how many convictions were there.
But essentially, we're now approaching a point where this
is a cost-free crime. You know, your chances of being
investigated, being prosecuted, being pursued, being convicted,
and ultimately serving any kind of either jail time or
compensation is close to nil. And that is a very dangerous
situation in which to be, and it certainly does not protect our
constituents.
I thank my friend for yielding.
Mrs. Lawrence, did you wish to go next?
Mrs. Lawrence. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Connolly. You're recognized for your five minutes.
Mrs. Lawrence. Thank you. I would like to direct my
question to Mr. Butts.
Being a former postal employee and being a supervisor,
there were times when, in the processing facilities, I had to
ask for the support and backup of Postal Police to adhere to a
situation, to diffuse a situation.
Because we are the second largest employer in the United
States, we have a massive diverse work force. So my question to
you, when we start having this discussion about the support of
our Postal Police, where does the postal supervisors weigh in
on this? And I would like to hear your opinion on that.
Mr. Butts. Thank you for that question, Congresswoman. The
postal supervisors are 100 percent in favor of a strong Postal
Police officer work force, not just available in the plants but
also doing the routine things that they always were doing
before they were directed not to do so.
And that was make routine patrols, that was to go out to
some of the--the offices that were in more challenging areas,
to provide periodic visits or periodic support. Right here in
Philadelphia in some, and right here around in this
neighborhood, we have offices that, prior to Postal Police
being shut down, were not allowed to open or close unless the
Postal Police were on premise because of the crime rates in
those areas.
So they've lost that protection by this initiative. So NAPS
fully supports having a strong Postal Police officer work force
out in the field, working and protecting our personnel, our
property, and the mail.
Mrs. Lawrence. I just want to add, Mr. Chairman, one of the
duties that were performed by our Postal Police was the
securing of people who entered our building, the security of
employees coming in and out of the building.
In large urban areas, the vehicles that we parked on postal
facilities were subject to auto theft, and just their
patrolling of the area as employees--massive number of
employees walking back and forth throughout the streets outside
of the facility, was a deterrent.
And I just want to be clear the expectations that are there
for our employees who are first responders, we found out during
the pandemic, that they are needed to work regardless of the
situations, and that we have that sense of when our loved ones
and our citizens go to work that they're in a protected and
safe environment.
And the issue that I'm concerned about, when I, as a
supervisor, could not call the Postal Police to diffuse a
situation or to be there for multiple reasons.
We know mental health is real, and we are very diverse
employer in the Postal Service. And we have to deal with day-
to-day issues. Is that now the responsibility of the
supervisor? How do we--and then when we, the Postal Inspection
Service, as is stated, they investigate.
So I am very concerned that we are leaving our postal
supervisors in an area where they are exposed to deescalating
or dealing with situations that happen in work environments.
And I'm also concerned about my workers who are going and
walking in communities in high urban areas where there are data
that shows that crime is very high. This is a very, very
important issue, and I thank you and I yield back.
Mr. Connolly. I thank the gentle lady.
Mr. Boyle is recognized for his five minutes of
questioning.
Mr. Boyle. Yes, well, thank you. I want to thank all of the
witnesses. I especially want to welcome Ivan back home, my
fellow die-hard Philadelphia Eagles fan. He and I both carry
the banner in Washington, DC, for our home team.
On a different note, I have to say, I'm thinking back to
the number of press conferences and meetings that my two
colleagues also representing Philadelphia, Dwight Evans, Mary
Gay Scanlon, and I had in the fall of 2020--and I was reminded
by this actually when you were giving testimony, Ms. Perez--
that just coincidentally, the fall of 2020 is when we started
to see the enormous disruptions, and the statistics bear that
out, in terms of mail delivery in the Philadelphia area.
I can't recall what else was happening fall of 2020, but
could you please speak more to that and just how our statistics
were so out of whack with the national average?
Ms. Perez. Sure. As I mentioned in my opening statement, we
found that in the Philadelphia area, the mail delivery had--was
below the national average. So as I also mentioned in my
opening statement, the averages have improved here in the
Philadelphia area, but we are continuing to conduct work and
oversight in this area to ensure that they stay that way.
And we will be actually conducting work in the Philadelphia
and Delaware regions in the beginning of Fiscal Year 2023,
conducting those cluster audits that I mentioned, which will
look at areas around the delivery, the processing, and the
transportation of the mail to see if there's a nexus with
regards to any issues up or downstream.
Mr. Boyle. Thank you, Ms. Perez.
I do want to point out, as you're aware but many others
might not be, when we compare these statistics, we do have to
be careful because one of the reasons--one of the ways in which
Postmaster General DeJoy has been able to play with these stats
is that before, First Class mail delivery used to mean 2 to 3
days, and now, correct me if I'm wrong, Chairman Connolly, but
it now means 4 to 5 days.
So when we're comparing had statistics to yesteryear, we're
not comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges.
Would you, from your vantage point, be able to discuss why
it is that in this year, 2022, my office has received far more
complaints than even the pandemic years?
And I believe when my colleague from Montgomery County, Ms.
Dean, gave her testimony, she cited the exact same thing, and
she happens to represent the suburbs. So that points to the
fact that there is something going on here that, again, is
independent of the pandemic.
Ms. Perez. So we are aware that there is an uptick in
customer complaints. I don't believe Philadelphia is unique in
that, and unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to discuss
specifically as far as what the causes--the root causes are to
that increase, but again as I mentioned, we'll be doing work in
the Philadelphia and Delaware regions coming up in 2023, and
those are some of the things that we can look into.
Mr. Boyle. Well, thank you, I appreciate that and look
forward to staying in touch with you and your office for an
update because as I mentioned, I mean, this is--we're three
years, we're in the third year into dealing with some of these
issues that have been chronic, obviously, in our region.
Mr. Butts, I wanted to turn it over to you, and if you
could talk from the perspective of someone who represents the
postal supervisors, and you talked about this a little bit in
your opening statement, but I wanted to give you the
opportunity to elaborate on the sort of changes the postal
supervisors have seen because they're right there, day in and
day out, and can speak to it in a way that perhaps the
statistics don't do justice.
Mr. Butts. Thank you for that, Congressman. As you stated
with the service scores and that the changing of the service
scores has still brought upon still parity, not really
achieving service that you would have expected that it would.
So we have to keep in mind that over 600 pieces of mail
processing equipment were taken out of the system a few years
ago, so that was fire power that's going to impact the Postal
Service forever in trying to maintain service standards because
now we just don't have that capability anymore, to process the
mail timely. So that's going to be a challenge.
We do have a challenge with employee--I heard some mention
about employee, I heard some mention about employee retention.
We have a serious issue with employee retention that I think is
not being addressed as aggressively as it should.
Again, to take a new employee and then put them on a
guaranteed route with guaranteed hours does not serve
operations and getting America's mail delivered.
What we need is a change in our onboarding process, and
that's what we've been calling for since this process has been
initiated. Our onboarding process is too long. It ends in a
couple month period of employee just walking into a workstation
without having any real knowledge of the work that's in front
of them. And it can be a culture shock if you spend two months
getting ready for a job and that--and when you get there,
that's not the job that you need to be doing.
So we need to have an onboarding process that puts these
candidates in front of their--in front of their leaders, in
front of their managers, as soon as possible, so they can bond
with them, learn what their jobs are with them, and then deploy
out into the field. And that will be a positive impact to the
retention that the post office is looking for, we feel.
Again, there are--there are a lot of issues that go into
where we are, but retention being the one that's really a
stickler for us because, again, it's denying us the resources
that we need to get the work--get America's mail delivered.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Mr. Butts, and thank you Mr.
Boyle.
Mr. Evans, you are recognized for your five minutes of
questioning.
Mr. Evans. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I kind of want to
followup on my colleague to Ms. Perez. My office has received
countless complaints of checks being stole at USPS drop boxes,
and these are fraudulent cash, wash out, or otherwise lost or
stolen.
These thefts are hitting my low-income constituents the
hardest, and I have yet to hear a good plan of what is being
done to address this. Why is USPS doing the increased report of
checking thefts and fraud in Philadelphia, and I really close
with this one, will the Postal Service provide data on how many
people have been caught and charged for stealing checks in
Philadelphia?
Ms. Perez. So as I mentioned in my opening statement, we do
have an Office of Investigations who focuses on mail theft. And
we have over 500 agents, and 40 percent of our agents actually
focus on the area of mail theft.
So I don't have statistics for you at this point. I don't
know if my colleague from the Postal Service, Mr. Vaccarella,
would have those statistics, but we'd be happy to look at our
statistics and get back to you.
Mr. Evans. But the question--some of that, will the Postal
Service provide data on how many people have been caught and
charged for stealing checks in Philadelphia?
Ms. Perez. Right. I would have to--again, I would have to
go back with my colleagues from the Office of Investigations
and see what kind of statistics we have to get back to you on
that.
Mr. Evans. OK. But you will provide that to----
Mr. Connolly. Well, would my friend----
Mr. Evans. Yes.
Mr. Connolly [continuing]. If we could pause his
questioning just one second, Ms. Perez, are you telling us you
don't know how many--how many violations or suspicions of theft
have been prosecuted or pursued with 500----
Ms. Perez. In the Philadelphia area?
Mr. Connolly. Is that your question, Philadelphia?
Mr. Evans. That was specific to mine, Philadelphia.
Mr. Connolly. All right. Because one is looking at the
overall statistics, and one is not impressed that we're very
aggressive at pursuing anything.
Ms. Perez. Right. And one other thing to note is that the
Office of Investigations within the Office of Inspector
General, we investigate crimes that are committed by postal
employees. So if there's a crime that's committed that is a
non-postal employee, that would be with the Postal Inspection
Service, so we do work closely with the Postal Inspection
Service.
And, again, statistically overall, we would have to
coordinate to ensure that we have those--that right information
to provide.
Mr. Connolly. OK. All right. I just want to make sure it
was clarified.
Thank you, my friend, for yielding.
Mr. Evans. OK. Thank you. I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Connolly. I thank the gentleman. And let me just say,
Mr. Evans, we will work with you and obviously other members of
this delegation, and the whole issue of crime and theft, no
postal worker should be subject to violent crime in the pursuit
of his or her responsibilities, and no consumer should fear
that by using the Postal Service I'm putting myself and that
check or that payment at risk because professionals are
outwitting us in the process of criminal activity.
So thank you for bringing that issue up, and we'll pursue
it.
Ms. Scanlon, you are recognized for your five minutes of
questioning.
Ms. Scanlon. Thank you very much.
Mr. Butts, you spoke to an issue of consolidations of
sorting and delivery centers, and this is something that just
in the past few days my office has gotten a number of questions
about from agencies--or from post offices in our area.
As I understand it, this means that sorting and delivery
functions are going to be removed from many of our local post
offices and consolidated in certain places.
So letter carriers will no longer go to their local
facility to pick up mail. They'll have to drive someplace else
and pick up the mail. Can you explain a little bit about this?
Because it seems to me that that's going to create additional
time for those letter carriers. It's going to mean we need more
letter carriers, that we are going to need more vehicles
because many of these folks now pick up from the local place
and then walk. So that seems to have environmental impact as
well as some issues with an aging postal fleet. So can you just
fill us in a little bit about this?
Mr. Butts. Yes, certainly, Congresswoman. Although we just
been in the beginning stages of being briefed by the Postal
Service on this S and DC initiative they are undertaking, we do
have some kind of--at least a glimpse of how it rolls out with
the Tri-County facility.
Tri-County facility near King of Prussia already is doing
this type of work where they have brought in five associate
offices into that facility. So now the carriers, they no longer
report to whatever station they were. Whether it was Devon or
Berwyn, they now report to Tri-County to begin their day, and
they pick up their mail, and then they leave from Tri-County,
go travel back to their town, deliver their route, bring their
mail, and then bring back--and then come back to Tri-County.
So what we see in that facility is increased, obviously,
windshield time because you increase the carriers out on the
road and in the vehicles, and you made mention of our vehicle
fleet, and so that has some challenges to it also.
And I think now with this S and DC, where it's expanded out
to a half hour, you're creating more of that time out on the
streets driving now.
And for those of us from Pennsylvania and this area, we can
understand the challenges of trying to drive on Lancaster
Avenue or Montgomery Avenue or the Schuylkill Expressway at
rush hour. So it may be a half hour away, but in the traffic at
rush hour, that half hour could easily turn into an hour.
So then you have those things that we don't know if the
agency has taken into consideration. But we also know that a
half hour away is going to require that some of these routes
now have to be split. So now you'll have--instead of one route,
it may be two routes. So now that's an additional person,
additional vehicle, additional support equipment.
You have some places, I believe in the mid-Hudson area,
where they're doing--they're S and DC. They currently have nine
routes that are currently walking routes. That means they don't
have vehicles. So now you have to have a vehicle to even start
out moving these carriers out.
So there's a lot of pieces in here that we really don't
have a understanding of what the cost is going to be. I know
we've seen something from Protect the Postal Service that
projected it could be from $2 to $3 billion in additional costs
to roll out these facilities, but we don't know because we
haven't heard from the agency on that.
Ms. Scanlon. That really feeds into my concern that some of
these efficiencies really aren't efficiencies in terms of
service or even actual savings for the post office.
Ms. Perez, your agency has studied a number of service
issues. Has there been an effort to audit unscheduled office
closures, the kind of thing that I think several of us have
mentioned, that people go to the post office and they see a
sign, a handwritten sign up taped up, sorry, no one's here,
we'll be back in an hour?
Ms. Perez. So unscheduled office closures, I don't believe,
off the top of my head, we have, but as Mr. Butts mentioned, we
are finalizing our audit plan for 2023, and we'll be looking at
this issue around the sorting and delivery centers, and I can,
you know, take back the issue on the unscheduled office
closures and get back to you.
Ms. Scanlon. OK. I mean, I am very curious to find out
whether this consolidation in the King of Prussia area, how
that has played out as we're seeing it supposed to start in the
next, you know, few weeks.
And also concerned that your audits may not take place
until 2023, when of course we have a midterm election coming up
right as, once again, we have a slew of new changes coming in,
would seem to at least have the potential for slowing down our
mail-in ballots. So very concerned about that impact, so thank
you. I yield back.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Ms. Scanlon. Thank you for raising
that issue, and let me just say, it seems to me, unscheduled
closures ought to be so rare as to be exceptional.
And let me ask, Ms. Perez--if I may, Ms. Scanlon, followup
to your question--is there a policy in the Postal Service with
respect to unscheduled closure?
Ms. Perez. I don't know that off the top of my head. I
don't know if a colleague from the Postal Service could answer
as to whether or not there's a policy, but, you know, again, if
we were to receive information with regards to unscheduled
office closures, and we felt it was a priority to look at,
that's something that we would prioritize and review.
Mr. Connolly. Well, you might at least concede there ought
to be a policy if there isn't one?
Ms. Perez. Yes.
Mr. Connolly. And that it ought to be a rare event, not a
kind of frequent occurrence?
Ms. Perez. Again, I would--I would defer to the Postal
Service on whether or not there would be particular causes or
reasons for making unscheduled office closures, but, yes, as
far as informing the public and ensuring that they know that
alternative actions with regards to----
Mr. Connolly. Well, I certainly agree with you, there could
be reasons----
Ms. Perez. Sure.
Mr. Connolly [continuing]. But our focus is on the impact
on consumers. We're trying to regularize service and make sure
it's predictable and certain and reliable, and not subject to
the vagaries of other people's schedules, including postal
workers.
Ms. Perez. Sure.
Mr. Connolly. And so that gets to Mr. Butts' and Mr.
Albergo's point about, frankly, levels of employment and
whether we're at full complement, and whether we're really
accurately assessing what resources have to go behind what
tasks. All right. We look forward to your pursuing that. Thank
you.
And thank you, Ms. Scanlon, for bringing that up.
Ms. Dean, you are recognized for your five minutes of
questions.
Ms. Dean. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to our
witnesses. As I said, I represent Montgomery and Berks
Counties, so my questions are going to focus on my constituent
concerns.
Last year, USPS provided a briefing to staff, outlining the
plans to address staffing shortages to alleviate the broader
disruptions. As I said, three times the number of constituent
complaints and we're not three quarters into the year.
We have problems in what is the geographic middle of
Montgomery County, King of Prussia, delays in delivery,
Bridgeport, complaints of delays in delivery, Conshohocken,
complaints of the condition of the Postal Service property.
Let me start maybe with Mr. Vaccarella. We know that work
force shortages is a big problem. What are we doing to attract
more folks to the work force and to address some of the
concerns that Mr. Butts talks about in the onboarding of new
postal employees?
Mr. Vaccarella. Yes, thank you, Congresswoman. We are very
aggressively addressing our hiring practices within the
district, not only within this district, nationwide.
I can tell you within this district, we have district-led
job fairs, at least 20 per month, and then additional
postmaster--such as the postmaster of Philadelphia holds
additional job fairs. So we are, you know, we are well above 20
job fairs each month----
Ms. Dean. Are the job fairs producing candidates? Are you
getting record numbers of candidates coming forward?
Mr. Vaccarella. I don't know that I'd say record numbers,
but we have hired more than 2,000 carriers, both city carriers
and rural carriers over the past 12 months in this district.
Ms. Dean. And yet we still struggle with work force
shortages, am I correct?
Mr. Vaccarella. We do, for various reasons, yes.
Ms. Dean. And, Mr. Butts, in terms of what you were talking
about, I apologize, I don't know the acronym, S and DC
initiative. Can you tell me what that is?
Mr. Butts. That's the sorting--sorting and delivery center.
Consolidation.
Ms. Dean. Consolidation. I hate acronyms. Forgive me.
Mr. Butts. Yes. We have plenty of them.
Ms. Dean. Whose initiative is that?
Mr. Butts. That initiative is under this administration as
led by PMG DeJoy.
Ms. Dean. And the goal of that initiative, as it was
explained, is what?
Mr. Butts. Is to consolidate the mail-processing operations
of a number of facilities into one central location. And I
believe it's supposed to help address with logistics, and it's
aligning--realigning the operations.
Ms. Dean. And yet I have a feeling that, at least
anecdotally, what we are all experiencing, what our
constituents are experiencing, it's probably contributing to
the delays, the disruptions, the problems of mail delivery.
Mr. Albergo, I'm very interested in whatever initiative has
been taken to defund Postal Police Service. Where did that come
from?
Mr. Albergo. I don't actually know. I don't know who in the
Postal Service made that decision. Whether it's PMG DeJoy,
whether it was the chief postal inspector, Barksdale, I don't
know who made this decision.
What I do know is that Mr. DeJoy hasn't done anything to
rectify the problem. He hasn't--he hasn't spoken to the
Inspection Service telling them, hey, you have police officers,
let's use them, we have a mail theft epidemic. So that hasn't
happened, as far as I know. So, unfortunately, I can't answer
your question.
Ms. Dean. What a shame. As I said, all these things just
going in opposite directions. We're hiring and we're
consolidating, we're delaying folks getting out on their routes
because they're now having to travel 30 minutes into King of
Prussia and then upon travel back, or whatever amount of time.
It just seems like a very bad set of strategies, and of
course to leave the Postal Police Force so understaffed
connects to what Mr. Connolly was talking about in terms of
prevention and prosecution of theft.
Mr. Butts, what does the process of prioritizing a route
for service look like? Because I know we have households that
are going multiple days without delivery, despite some of the
statistics we're hearing. How do you prioritize a route, what's
it look like, and how do we get to daily delivery for
everybody?
Mr. Butts. Thank you for that question, Congresswoman. I'm
not sure I can give you the full answer. I believe someone from
Postal Operations would be better suited for that, but I think
the prioritization obviously is based on staffing and employee
availability, what they have on hand.
I think we do have--one thing I know is that the Postal
Service does have the matrix in place where they can ensure
that no one route is missed consecutive days.
I think there needs to be a better operational look at
that, that kind of reporting, to ensure that if a route is
missed one day, that it's not missed the second day. And I
think that would help.
But I think until we address the employee retention--
because employee availability actually is starting to level out
and come back in the Postal Service. So it's the employee
retention that still is a lingering problem.
So until we address that for more of a boots-on-ground
perspective of, you know, what does the field need in order to
engage these employees and then keep these employees working
and engaged, until we start moving into that kind of thinking,
I think we're going to continue to be challenged with employee
retention.
Ms. Dean. I know my time has expired. I thank you, Mr.
Chairman, for the indulgence, and thank you, Mr. Butts.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Ms. Dean, and thank you, Mr.
Butts.
Ms. Houlahan, you're recognized for your five minutes of
questioning.
Ms. Houlahan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Is this working?
I feel as though we've sort of beaten this question about
the availability of police and the fact that it's gone from, my
understanding in your testimony, to 2,700 police to 350 over a
course of--a period of relatively short amount of time, which
is an astounding figure.
And let's, for a minute, set that aside because I think
part of what this Committee has learned and heard is that we
need to ask questions about how that decision was made, who has
the authority to change that decision, and can that decision be
changed. Because I think what we're seeing is if there's crime
with no punishment, there's more crime, and so I think that's
something to take away.
But I'd like to, as Ms. Dean said, Representative Dean
said, focus on my constituent, Mr. Joe Dobbins, who you saw in
the testimony today. He was, as you might recall by his story,
assaulted as a letter carrier, on the job.
And despite his injuries and his status as a Federal
employee, his case is only being investigated at the local
level. And so I am trying to understand--I understand that the
likelihood that there are going to be police available to stop
that from happening to Mr. Dobbs is, it's unlikely.
But given that it did happen, perhaps Mr. Vaccarella or
whomever has the ability to answer this question, why is it
that cannot be prosecuted as a Federal crime?
Mr. Vaccarella. Well, I will--first, I'd like to defer to
my colleague, but first I'd like to clarify an inaccuracy by
Mr. Butts. There have been no changes with the S and DC or Tri-
County. No carriers are traveling to Tri-County or delivering
out of Tri-County. Those changes have not happened. There's
been no changes in the state of Pennsylvania.
In answer to your question----
Ms. Houlahan. Well, perhaps with what amounts of my time,
sir, we can clarify that because I was intrigued by that too,
because Devon and Berwyn are in my district. So I'd like to
learn more about that, but I really would like to get to the
answer of why, if a mail carrier is carrying the mail and is
assaulted, it's not a federally prosecuted crime and what we
can to make sure that that is no longer the case while we're
waiting for more police.
And if you're the not the right person to answer, perhaps I
can open it to other people.
Mr. Vaccarella. Yes. I will defer to my Postal Inspection
Service colleague, Peter Rendina.
Mr. Rendina. Good afternoon and thank you very much for the
question. For this particular investigation, it was
investigated federally by U.S. postal inspectors. We worked the
investigation with local police in this matter.
We did present this matter for prosecution to Federal
court. It was--it was declined for Federal prosecution, but it
is now being presented within the local court system for
prosecution at this time.
Regarding why it was declined, that would be better
answered by Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney's office.
Ms. Houlahan. Well, I will definitely be pursuing that,
because it just seems that when you're trying to deter crime,
there's nothing more deterrent than it being a literal Federal
crime. And we all grow up knowing that we can't go into
somebody else's mailbox because it's a Federal crime. I don't
understand why, if a postal worker is touched just like a TSA
worker is touched, that it's not a Federal crime.
With what remains in my question time, I want to talk a
little bit more about the Oxford, Pennsylvania, post office
which we talked about sudden closures and I would like to
pursue the idea that we need to have a metric of office,
unexpected office closures, but the last part of my time, Gay
Street, which is in West Chester, has a very similar issue it
sounds as my colleague Mary Gay has with ADA compliance.
Constituents who have disabilities in West Chester are
being told they need to wait outside for service and that only
is if there are enough staff people who are able to leave the
office and come outside to attend and help them. There are
proposals around for expanding postal banking and other similar
demanding services like that, but if there are places like my
post office in West Chester where people cannot access the
space, how will we accomplish expanding services like postal
banking? Who would be able to help me understand accessibility
and access?
Mr. Vaccarella. Yes, thank you, Congresswoman. As with the
Chester building, the Gay Street building in West Chester is a
historic building and those buildings are exempt from the
Architectural Barriers agreement. So we do go out of our way,
and we will assist customers who call us and ask for
assistance, and we will service those customers at their car.
Ms. Houlahan. So my understanding is this particular place
is, of course, a historic area because Philadelphia is a
historic area, and that there is a ramp in the back that is
only for employees. Is there no way that we can have access to
this particular facility?
Mr. Vaccarella. Not from the rear dock or employee
entrance, no.
Ms. Houlahan. Well, I would love to have a follow-on
conversation with you on that, because I'm certain I'm not
alone with Pennsylvania being as historic as it is or other
places like it, we need to have access opportunities for people
who happen to live in historic locations. Thank you.
I yield back.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you so much, Ms. Houlahan.
Just real briefly, Mr. Rendina, what are arrow keys and why
are they important to the discussion about mail theft? Mr.
Rendina?
Mr. Rendina. Yes, sir. Thank you very much for the
question. Arrow keys are access devices to be able to get into
various repositories for United States mail.
Mr. Connolly. And do ill-doers now have access to arrow
keys?
Mr. Rendina. Yes. There have been thefts of arrow keys.
Mr. Connolly. And that has led to the proliferation of mail
theft, in general. Is that correct, including the sort of re-
signatures of checks consumers have written so that those
checks get inflated and get cashed into the wrong accounts? Is
that correct?
Mr. Rendina. Yes. It's one element that has led to what
we're seeing as an increase in mail theft, and we do have a
multi-layer strategy to address mail theft, and we're not going
to be able to arrest our way out of this issue. I've heard a
lot about prevention, and prevention's incredibly important to
our strategy.
We're communicating with our postal employees, customers,
our Federal, state, and local partners. I want to say thank you
to Congressman Fitzpatrick regarding his service as an FBI
agent. We worked well with all of our law enforcement partners
on prevention and then protection.
We're increasing the security of those blue boxes that you
see across the country. We have various strategies to make it
much more difficult to get into those boxes, to include
addressing the key and lock situation. We're looking to use
technology to make it less valuable to have one of these arrow
keys. And we do also understand that the perpetrators of mail
theft are becoming more sophisticated.
They're using dark web online chat rooms to organize, and
postal inspectors are working to investigate that. So we've
talked a lot about investigation. We've talked about enforcing
the laws, but, again, preventions very important. That's why we
work with our local police departments who are charged with
protecting communities where our letter carriers are and where
those blue boxes are so that your constituents, our customers
can use the United States mail.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you. And I'm glad to hear about the
progress, but I will point out that one of the articles from
The Washington Post that I entered into the record earlier,
which was written on April or published on April 30th of this
year, focused on these blue boxes and arrow keys, all of which
could trace to the fact that consumers trusted that box and
they were euchred by ill-doers who then took advantage of the
system and were able to engage successfully in theft.
You talked about prevention, and I think all of us would
agree, an effective prevention strategy, if it's 100 percent,
means we don't have to worry about crime because we're
preventing it. But the fact of the matter is, you had 300,000
mail theft complaints between March 2020 and February 2021,
less than a year period, 300,000.
It's only gone up since, and yet only 1,090 mail theft
cases were pursued, and you said we can't prosecute our way out
of this. Well, of the 1,090, which is less than one half of 1
percent of the total that were pursued, well, how many
convictions did we have?
Mr. Rendina. For last year, sir, if I can re-ask the time
period?
Mr. Connolly. Yes. OK.
Mr. Rendina. So we're looking at just over 1,200
convictions. And those convictions don't always line up year to
year because it takes time for the court process.
Mr. Connolly. Yes. Just to make sure I get it right on the
record, 1,200. Is that right?
Mr. Rendina. Just over 1,200, sir.
Mr. Connolly. OK. Well, you know, that's great, but what we
all worry about here is that's still less than one half of 1
percent. And, obviously, you're right that prosecution and
conviction aren't the only way out of this, but some
prosecution and conviction is a deterrent. People have to know
there is a cost if their caught that we're going to be
aggressive about this.
Can you reassure us that that is, in fact, the policy we
are pursuing or part of the policy we're pursuing?
Mr. Rendina. Yes. We're going to--we are aggressively
pursuing mail thieves. Not only that, but, again, the talking
to our customers about how they can protect themselves and
protect the mail. Like this morning, I mailed a check to
Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, from my residence here in
Washington, DC, mailed that at a blue collection box here in
D.C.
One of the things I did was, I looked at when that last
pick up time was at that blue box to ensure that the letter was
not going to sit in the blue box overnight. Now, the particular
blue box I went to, I know has high security devices inside to
keep the mail safe.
We continue to work on securing those blue boxes and
hardening the target, making it harder for criminals to take
our customers, our American citizens' mail. They trust the
Postal Service.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you. I will point out, though,
parenthetically some of the changes Mr. DeJoy made when he took
over as postmaster general was actually to make less frequent
the pickup on a lot of mailboxes. I can remember going through
Quincy, Massachusetts with my brother who happens to live there
and every single mailbox we went to, the time of pickup of mail
had been changed.
And in many cases, it went from two times a day to one time
a day, and in some cases, there was no pick up on Friday and,
you know, that confuses consumers and I think underlines the
problem we face in terms of making it easier to steal, to take
advantage of that system.
Mr. Albergo, my final question, I just want to make sure I
get it for the record. And Ms. Houlahan said we don't want to
beat a dead horse and nor do I, but let me beat a dead horse.
We have seen theft go up targeting consumers and we have seen
violence against postal workers, including letter carriers also
go up on their routes and so forth.
Is that correct?
Mr. Albergo. Absolutely.
Mr. Connolly. Significantly?
Mr. Albergo. Significantly. It has exploded.
Mr. Connolly. And certainly in response--now here I am
beating a dead horse, but I want to make sure we get it right.
And certainly in response, the postmaster general and the USPS
has beefed up the police service and broadened its jurisdiction
to protect people on carrier routes and to make sure that we
are deterring and preventing, as Mr. Rendina said, theft.
Mr. Albergo. No. They did the exact opposite. They started
defunding us. They revoked our jurisdictional authority. They
confined us to postal property. They--they did the exact
opposite what common sense would dictate. That's what they did.
Mr. Connolly. Hum. Well, that's something we're certainly
going to pursue. And Ms. Perez, I think you'll be hearing from
us as well in terms of your office in pursuit of that. But that
not only makes no sense, but it, frankly, puts postal workers
and the public at risk.
And that's unacceptable to this subcommittee, to Members of
Congress, on both sides of the aisle. And if there's one
takeaway from this hearing for me that's it.
I want to thank everybody. Is there anything else for the
good of the order?
Again, thank you to the members of the delegation. As soon
as we adjourn the hearing, we're going to move immediately to a
press availability for members of the Pennsylvania delegation
to share with your local media your take on this set of issues.
I want to thank all of our witnesses. I want to thank our
committee staff, one of whom has a birthday. Melanie. Melanie,
thank you for being with us today. She gave up her birthday to
be with us today, wonderful committee staff. Thank you so much.
And thanks to everybody and my staff for making today possible.
If there are any questions that members want to continue to
pursue, if you could do it through the chair and we'll make
sure we get it to our witnesses. We would ask our witnesses to
try to get that answers back in a timely fashion.
And with that, we are adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 1:12 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]