MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Today, U.S. Senators Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar (both D-MN) sent a letter pressing Postmaster General Louis DeJoy for answers on recent mail delays across Minnesota, particularly in the Rochester area. The follow-up comes after both Senators led the entire Minnesota and North Dakota Congressional delegations in a bipartisan letter pressing the Postmaster General to improve service following an Inspector General report. That report found nearly 130,858 missing or delayed pieces of mail at six post offices over the course of only two days.
“Letter carriers, especially in rural areas, work extremely hard to make deliveries on time, especially around the holidays. But without support from district management and the Postmaster General in Washington, their jobs go from difficult to nearly impossible,” said Senator Smith. “These new reports only confirm what we’ve already been hearing, which is that USPS leadership is not doing enough to support their workers and deliver mail on time. The Postmaster General needs to take accountability for service issues and do something about it.”
“Minnesotans rely on the Postal Service to deliver their prescriptions, Social Security checks, and more, and they need and deserve timely service,” said Senator Klobuchar. “We have heard reports of mail being delayed for four days or more in Rochester. That’s why Sen. Smith and I are calling on Postmaster General Dejoy to address these issues, ensuring that Rochester and the rest of Minnesota’s residents receive reliable service.”
You can read the full letter to the Postmaster General here.
Senators Smith and Klobuchar 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 DeJoy for better service in June of 2024. Senators Smith, Hoeven and Klobuchar 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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