[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 49 (Tuesday, March 16, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1536-S1537]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      United States Postal Service

  Mr. President, let me start this statement by saying I am a fan of 
the U.S. Postal Service. I have been throughout my life. I believe the 
men and women who make the Postal Service work do a great service to 
this country and distinguish us from many countries in the world that 
don't have anything near our service or reliability in delivering the 
mail. Having said that, and believe it to my inner being, the Postal 
Service needs to take a hard look at what is going on within their 
ranks today.
  Last month, the U.S. Postal Service Great Lakes area sent out the 
postal equivalent of an SOS. It put out the call to mail carriers in 
five surrounding States asking for letter carriers to come to my State 
of Illinois to help deliver a huge backlog of undelivered mail. It also 
called for mail carriers to help deliver Chicago's mail on Sundays.
  Ken Labbe is one of the mail carriers who answered that call for 
help. Mr. Labbe has been a mail carrier in Mount Prospect, IL, just 
outside of Chicago, for 28 years. He is the president of the local 
letter carriers union. He is also quite an athlete. In 2002, he was the 
only male mail carrier on the USPS-sponsored professional cycling team
  He volunteered for the last Sunday in February. He figured he had the 
knowledge and endurance to help reduce the mail backlog that had 
plagued the Postal Service in Chicago. What he discovered, he said, 
stunned him. At every home he delivered to, he stuffed 20 to 30 pieces 
of mail in the mailbox. He worked 12 hours on that Sunday, from 6 a.m. 
to 6 p.m., sunup to sundown, without a break, even for lunch. Still, he 
couldn't complete the assigned workload; the sheer volume of backlogged 
mail was too great. Inside the local post office, Ken said, he found 
packages stacked everywhere. Some appeared to have been there for a 
month or more. The entire situation looked, in his words, ``like an 
episode of `Extreme Hoarders.''' ``A crisis.''
  Chicagoland is not the only postal chaos location. Nearly 9 months 
after a new Postmaster General unveiled his surprise reorganization 
plan, postal service in much of the Nation is erratic. Delays are 
longer than ever.
  The delivery times have shrunk to historic lows since Louis DeJoy 
took over last June. At the end of December, the Agency had an on-time 
rate of 38 percent for nonlocal mail. What was it 1 year earlier? 
Ninety-two percent. A 92-percent on-time rate descended to 38 percent 
under Postmaster General DeJoy.
  Before Louis DeJoy took over, 91 percent of Postal Service customers 
gave USPS high marks--one of the highest approval ratings of any 
government Agency. Today, postal customers across America--certainly in 
my State of Illinois--customers wait anxiously for important checks and 
bills that arrive weeks late, if at all. They check tracking websites 
to search for delayed packages, only to read that the package is ``out 
for delivery.''
  In some neighborhoods in Chicago, residents have given up hope of 
receiving mail at home. They stand in line for hours at the local post 
office to try to retrieve their mail themselves. Often, even that 
doesn't work.
  Tracey Otis is one of those people. One day last month, she was one 
of 40 customers--40--waiting in line at the Postal Service station in 
the Gresham neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. Ms. Otis hadn't 
had regular mail delivery since Christmas. She waited in line for 
hours, hoping to retrieve a package of diabetic test strips before her 
current supply ran out. She told a Chicago Sun-Times reporter that she 
would volunteer to sort the mail if it would help. She went home 
emptyhanded that day, still not sure where her package was or when, if 
ever, she might see it.
  Last month, my staff in Chicago estimated that there might be 300 
pieces of mail sitting undelivered in four Chicago postal facilities. 
We based that on the number of complaints we received in our office. 
After that, the Postal Inspector General released a report that showed 
we were wrong. There weren't 300 letters in postal limbo in these 
facilities; there were 19,000 undelivered pieces of mail in those four 
facilities.
  Since then, in my State, the chaos has stretched way beyond Chicago. 
We hear from all over the State: Springfield, Champaign-Urbana, 
Belleville, East St. Louis, Quincy, Peoria, the Quad Cities, and 
Rockford. These delays in Illinois and across America are causing real 
hardship for tens of millions of Americans waiting for mail delivery. 
Patients and pharmacists complain about late medication. People are 
getting dinged for late mortgage and utility payments and forced to pay 
late fees. Insurance policies are being canceled because of late 
payments. Small business owners are forced to wait weeks or months for 
payments. Others are flooded with calls and emails from customers 
wondering where their packages are--a good way to lose business.
  Who is Louis DeJoy, the mastermind of this mess? Did he come through 
the ranks of the Postal Service, like four Postmasters General before 
him? No. His qualifications? He is a former logistics executive who 
donated millions of dollars to Donald Trump and the Republicans--no 
experience working at the Postal Service before Donald Trump tapped him 
to head this Agency last June.
  One month later, in the middle of a pandemic that turned postal 
deliveries

[[Page S1537]]

into a lifeline for many, Mr. DeJoy unveiled a radical plan to 
reorganize the Postal Service, after only 1 month in the job and no 
experience in the Department. He slashed overtime hours, prohibited 
late and extra mail delivery trips, and set stricter delivery 
schedules.
  In August, with no public explanation, the Postal Service began 
removing mail-sorting machines from postal facilities around the 
country, reducing their ability to process mail. Amazingly, the Postal 
Service Inspector General determined that the changes were ordered with 
no analysis and no understanding of how they might affect timeliness of 
mail delivery. A Federal lawsuit forced the Agency to put the changes 
on hold until after the election.
  On February 6, Mr. DeJoy was quoted in the Washington Post saying 
that his new plan for reorganizing the Postal Service would be ready 
for public release ``as early as next week.'' He said that on February 
6. We are still waiting for it, waiting for the DeJoy plan to shape up 
the Postal Service. It is like waiting for a lost package.
  We know some of the biggest changes he intends to propose because he 
has confirmed them publicly. The DeJoy plan for shaping up the post 
office is expected to call for the following: more service cuts, higher 
prices, and slower mail delivery. If that sounds like a winning 
combination to you, I have some vintage computers to sell to your 
business. In short, this is not a solution; this is sabotage of an 
essential public service, and we shouldn't tolerate it.
  Well, America has a new President who understands that affordable, 
efficient postal service is essential to America. Five days after 
taking office, President Biden replaced the Chair of the Postal 
Regulatory Commission. Late last month, he filled three vacancies of 
the Postal Service Board of Governors, the body that hires the 
Postmaster General and oversees the Postal Service.
  I encourage President Biden to make all the changes necessary to 
rescue the Postal Service. Mr. DeJoy has offered a stream of excuses 
for the chaos that has fallen the Postal Service since he showed up. He 
says it is the pandemic, the Christmas holidays, bad weather, an 
election that saw a record number of Americans vote by mail. He has a 
list as long as your arm.
  I would remind him that in 1864, we held a national election in the 
middle of a Civil War, and 150,000 Union Army troops voted absentee 
from the field. The Postal Service is as old as America itself. It has 
proven that it can adapt to crises with the right leadership. If Mr. 
DeJoy cannot or will not provide that leadership, I respectfully 
suggest he step down.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. LEAHY. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.