As Delivering for America proceeds, bipartisan lawmakers create caucus focused on improving postal operations

While the bulk of House Democrats were speaking on the Capitol steps on Friday to express their opposition to the GOP-backed measure to avoid a government shutdown, a bipartisan quintet of lawmakers gathered a couple yards away to launch a new caucus dedicated to stopping certain U.S. Postal Service reforms, improving on-time mail delivery rates and supporting the postal workforce.

“It's a definite sign that in a time of great division here in Congress and in this country that so many people, Republican and Democrat, agree on the importance of keeping the Postal Service strong and making sure that the service remains a blessing,” said Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., one of the members of the Congressional Postal Service Caucus.

Lynch was joined by caucus co-chairs Reps. Chris Pappas, D-N.H.; Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill.; Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y.; and Jack Bergman, R-Mich., alongside newly elected Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va.  

Several of the speakers criticized planned closures of mail sorting facilities in their districts, which are part of the Delivering for America modernization plan that was spearheaded by former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. The reform plan has tasked the postal agency with setting up 60 centralized processing and distribution centers that DeJoy argued would provide for more effective delivery. 

The lawmakers, however, contended that this plan would result in mail intended for a nearby address needlessly being sent first to a relatively faraway distribution center. 

New Postmaster General David Steiner, in his first appearance before the USPS Board of Governors in August, voiced support for his predecessor’s plan, saying that it is needed to put the agency on sustainable financial footing. 

Members of both parties have had longstanding concerns with Delivering for America, namely that processing facility consolidation, slowed delivery and stamp price increases haven’t yet yielded financial benefits. 

Most recently, USPS reported a net third quarter loss of $3.1 billion, which is an increase from a net $2.5 billion loss for the same quarter during the previous year. 

Pappas touted the bipartisan Protect Postal Performance Act (H.R. 2103), sponsored by Budzinski, which would put limits on the USPS’ ability to close processing and distribution centers. 

“Our Postal Service caucus is about increasing on-time mail delivery, and I have very real concerns around the implementation of the [Delivering for America] plan and how that's not going to help with on-time mail delivery,” Budzinski said on Friday.

During the first quarter of this fiscal year, Hawaii was the only state to have exceeded the USPS target of 93% of first-class single-piece mail being delivered on time, according to data from the postal agency’s inspector general. For the third quarter, half of the states were above target, but after the goal was reduced to 87% on-time delivery. 

“If you can’t support the mail, then you’re not supporting your constituents,” Bergman said at Friday’s press conference. 

The lawmakers also cited incidents of postal workers being robbed and otherwise attacked, including two who were robbed last week in Rochester, N.Y. 

The Government Accountability Office reported last year that there were about 600 robberies against postal employees in fiscal 2023, which is a nearly sevenfold increase compared with fiscal 2019. 

Budzinski highlighted the bipartisan Protect Our Letter Carries Act (H.R. 1065) that would assign federal prosecutors to investigate postal crimes, lengthen sentencing for assaulting USPS workers and authorize funding for high-security collection boxes and electronic versions of universal mailbox keys.