Rep. Cleaver Joins Colleagues Calling on President Biden to Fill Postal Board Seats to Address Mail Delays, Stop Harmful Price Hikes
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver, II (D-MO) joined Congressmen Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), along with more than 75 other House Democrats, in urging President Biden to quickly fill two open vacancies on the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) Board of Governors to address unacceptable mail delays and halt harmful price hikes caused by Postmaster General Dejoy’s Delivering For America Plan.
In a letter to the President, the lawmakers wrote:
“America deserves a postal service that serves all our communities and prioritizes needs of those who are too often forgotten, including rural Americans, tribal communities, seniors, and small businesses. The actions of current postal leadership are deeply concerning.”
The lawmakers continued:
“Now more than ever, it is important that the Board of Governors have a full, diverse, and future-oriented Postal Board of Governors in place that will uphold its mission of public service. In filling the Board vacancies, we urge you to nominate Postal Governor candidates who will hold leadership accountable and advocate strongly for the protection and expansion of Postal Service services—services that are essential to working class families and small businesses who depend on prompt, reliable, affordable delivery no matter their ZIP code.”
In 2021, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced his Delivering for America Plan to make the USPS more efficient, competitive, and profitable, forecasting the agency to break even in Fiscal Year 2023. Despite the reforms and rate increases included in the Delivering for America Plan, not only did the USPS not break even, the agency lost $6.5 billion last fiscal year. Furthermore, the USPS expects to lose another $6.3 billion in Fiscal Year 2024, even after accounting for additional price increases on stamps.
Since the Postmaster General’s appointment, Congressmen Cleaver and Sam Graves (R-MO) have voiced numerous concerns with the USPS about performance issues in Western Missouri. Last week, Congressmen Cleaver and Graves led a cohort of lawmakers calling on the USPS to halt price increases on stamps, following the agency’s record-breaking fourth rate increase in the last eighteen months.
In October 2022, Reps. Cleaver and Graves sent a letter to Postmaster General Dejoy expressing concerns about the agency’s failure to fulfill their congressionally mandated duty to provide six-day mail delivery. In December 2022, the Postal Service responded with complaints about low unemployment rates in the Kansas City region and encouraged residents to apply to work on the USPS, without offering a plan for the agency to meet their mandate. This must be addressed and a plan in place prior to raising prices for consumers.
In March 2023, Reps. Cleaver and Graves called on Postmaster General DeJoy to deliver a plan to address mail delivery delays, fulfill the USPS’s legal obligation to deliver mail 6 days per week, and listen to the concerns of Kansas City residents that had been frustrated with the performance of their local USPS branches. Following that letter, the USPS OIG announced they would conduct an audit of delayed mail and delivery operations in the Northland and the Kansas City area. The audit was completed in August of last year.
The official letter from lawmakers is available here.
Emanuel Cleaver, II is the U.S. Representative for Missouri's Fifth Congressional District, which includes Kansas City, Independence, Lee's Summit, Raytown, Grandview, Sugar Creek, Greenwood, Blue Springs, North Kansas City, Gladstone, and Claycomo. He is a member of the exclusive House Financial Services Committee and Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance.