MINNEAPOLIS, MN – U.S. Senators Tina Smith (D-MN) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) are demanding answers from U. S. Postal Service Postmaster General Louis DeJoy after several Minnesotans in Cook County reported not receiving mail delivery since last year. Residents were also turned away from local post offices when attempting to retrieve undelivered mail. Minnesota-North Dakota District leadership reportedly didn’t know of the issue until Senator Smith inquired on January 8. On December 19, USPS staff assured the Senators that service in Minnesota was stable – a claim that is contradicted by the Cook County problems. The Senators are demanding answers on steps USPS plans to take to rectify the issue and prevent it from happening again.
“We are deeply concerned by reports from residents that mail has not been delivered since last year. Minnesotans rely on the Postal Service for essential needs like medications, Social Security benefits, and paychecks. This disruption is unacceptable and must be resolved immediately and steps taken to prevent similar issues,” wrote the Senators.
“… We appreciate the hard work of postal workers in Minnesota who serve their communities despite the pressures of staffing shortages, weather events, and ever-growing parcel volumes. But without accountable, honest leadership, they struggle to do their jobs,” they continued.
“Like all communities, Minnesota’s North Shore relies on the Postal Service as an essential public service. We urge you to not only address this failure, but to work to prevent these repeated issues from occurring again,” wrote the Senators.
The Senators requested answers to the following questions no later than January 16, 2025.
- Is it true that leadership of the Minnesota-North Dakota District were unaware that a number of Cook County residents went over a week without mail until we notified them?
- How did oversight measures fail to notify leadership of addresses going so long without a delivery?
- When will all outstanding mail be processed and delivered to affected residents?
- Why were residents not permitted to pick up mail from local post offices?
- What are the current staffing levels for letter carriers, career and non-career, for Minnesota and Cook County?
- Did the Postal Service’s Service Performance Dashboard fully capture and report these delays?
- What steps are you taking to prevent future lapses in contracted delivery service?
You can read the full letter to the Postmaster General here.
Senators Smith and Klobuchar have been pressing the Postal Service for improvements and answers for delays in Minnesota for several years. They pressed Postmaster General DeJoy in December 2024 for answers about mail delays in Minnesota, particularly in the Rochester area. They also requested the audit of the Minnesota-North Dakota Postal District in December of 2023, and led the entire Minnesota and North Dakota delegations in pressing Postmaster General DeJoy for better service in June of 2024. Senators Smith, Klobuchar and Hoeven introduced the bipartisan Postal Delivery Accountability Act, which would address USPS’ failure to accurately track when mail routes do not receive deliveries. The legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives by Congresswoman Angie Craig (MN-02).
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