Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is continuing to press the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to address lengthy delays at the processing and distribution center in Palmetto.
Today, in a U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, Sen. Ossoff pressed USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy — under oath — for specific answers and solutions to the months-long delays Georgia families and businesses continue to face getting mail and packages on-time.
“I’ve got constituents with prescriptions that aren’t being delivered. I’ve got constituents who can’t pay their rent and their mortgages. I’ve got businesses who aren’t able to ship products or receive supplies,” Sen. Ossoff said to Postmaster General DeJoy. “Let me be clear: I think postal workers are out there every single day working their hearts out to deliver the mail on time. But if they don’t have the infrastructure and the management competence overhead them to make a transition like this without drastically impairing the core function of the Postal Service, everyone in my state is losing. The amount of distress this is causing my constituents is massive.”
During the hearing, Sen. Ossoff specifically raised that the percentage of inbound mail delivered on time has dropped to only 36 percent in recent months. He also pressed DeJoy for specific answers about what he and USPS will do in the coming weeks to solve these challenges.
“The long run is too long. You’ve got weeks, not months, to fix this,” Sen. Ossoff said.
Last month, Sen. Ossoff launched an inquiry pressing Postmaster General DeJoy to provide detailed answers and explanation amid growing reports of missing and delayed mail processed through the Atlanta Regional Processing and Distribution Center — impacting families’ ability to get life-saving medicine and vital mail services, hurting small businesses, delaying absentee ballots, and more.
Also last month, Sens. Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock and Congressman Barry Loudermilk (GA-11) launched a bipartisan inquiry with Postmaster General DeJoy to provide a detailed explanation for alleged fraud at the Marietta Post Office last year.
Click here to watch Sen. Ossoff’s questioning.
Please find a transcript of Sen. Ossoff’s line of questioning below:
SEN. OSSOFF: “Mr. DeJoy, the core job of the Postal Service is to deliver mail and packages on time, correct?”
POSTMASTER GENERAL DEJOY: “Yes, sir.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “Are mail and packages being delivered on time in Georgia today?”
POSTMASTER GENERAL DEJOY: “No, sir.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “Why not?”
POSTMASTER GENERAL DEJOY: “We have had significant issues, in terms of transitioning from 11 plants in the Atlanta area into 3 … we’ve taken on a big … Atlanta has been one of our worst … the Georgia area has been one of our worst served areas over the last 10 years, mostly because we had 10-12 different locations around the Atlanta area.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “Mr. DeJoy, I don’t want to talk about the last 10 years, I want to talk about the last three months. Do you know, since you made the shift to the new Palmetto facility, what percent of outbound first-class mail was delivered on time in Atlanta?”
POSTMASTER GENERAL DEJOY: “It’s a significantly lower number.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “Yeah, 66 percent. Do you know what share of inbound mail, first-class mail is delivered on time?”
POSTMASTER GENERAL DEJOY: “It’s probably a whole day late.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “Take a guess how much of it’s on time.”
POSTMASTER GENERAL DEJOY: “35 percent?”
SEN. OSSOFF: “You’re pretty much there. 36 percent. 36 percent of the mail is being delivered on time to my constituents. What is the specific nature of the operational failure?”
POSTMASTER GENERAL DEJOY: “The specific nature they operate, we had to move 2,000 people from all these different plants into one location, we have strict requirements as to when they move. It’s a big facility that we opened up, we have inbound transportation issues.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “But you knew was going to be hard and complicated, right?”
POSTMASTER GENERAL DEJOY: “Yeah, and we tried to phase it in over several months, which we did. And we’re gonna fix it, you’re absolutely right.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “When is it going to be fixed?”
POSTMASTER GENERAL DEJOY: “You will start seeing service improve, you should see it start now, and I think we’ll get to where we need to be in about 60 days.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “Do you think that one of your private sector competitors would have rolled out … a new system that would reduce on time delivery to 36%, and then say it’s going to take months to fix it? Months?”
POSTMASTER GENERAL DEJOY: “Private businesses and taking on operations of this nature with the resources that we have, do in fact have these types of problems.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “You don’t have you don’t have months to fix 36 percent of the mail being delivered on time. I’ve got constituents with prescriptions that aren’t being delivered. I’ve got constituents who can’t pay their rent and their mortgages. I’ve got businesses who aren’t able to ship products or receive supplies. I wrote you on March 14, did you get my letter?”
POSTMASTER GENERAL DEJOY: “Uh, My office probably, My office—”
SEN. OSSOFF: “I didn’t write your office, I wrote you. Did you receive my letter?”
POSTMASTER GENERAL DEJOY: “I have not read your letter.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “You haven’t read my letter?”
POSTMASTER GENERAL DEJOY: “I tried to speak to you Friday or yesterday.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “You haven’t read my letter?”
POSTMASTER GENERAL DEJOY: “I have—”
SEN. OSSOFF: “The mail is not on time in Georgia. I’m a member of the Committee of jurisdiction. You haven’t read my letter. Well, that explains why I haven’t received a response to my letter.
“March 14, I wrote you with two specific questions. What update can you provide regarding the aforementioned reported issues at the Atlanta Regional Processing and Distribution Center in Palmetto? Question one. Question two, how is USPS currently communicating with customers in the metro Atlanta area reporting delayed and lost packages? You haven’t read the letter?”
POSTMASTER GENERAL DEJOY: “So, letters come in, people put something together to answer it and get us.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “Let me, let me just give you just a friendly piece of advice. You should personally read letters from members of the U.S. Senate Committee that funds and oversees your operations, particularly where you are failing abysmally to fulfill your core mission in my state.
“And let me be clear, I think postal workers are out there every single day working their hearts out to deliver the mail on time. But, if they don’t have the infrastructure, and the management competence overhead them to make a transition like this, without drastically impairing the core function of the Postal Service, everyone in my state is losing.
“The amount of distress this is causing my constituents is massive. And I want to know what you are going to do, what specific steps you are going to take to fix this within two weeks?”
POSTMASTER GENERAL DEJOY: “So we have engaged over 50 different management executives on site. We’re finishing up our staffing at all look at the remaining three locations. We are looking at our truck schedules, revamping our truck schedules. We are stabilizing the operation in terms of our machinery that we have deployed there, we are working better on, we have special teams down on site on working on our docks, and we’re working the rest of the transportation aspects of this that have been causing a significant amount of problems and the two plants where we did a lot of transfers within the next 10 days, we should have them fully staffed. We had issues in terms of those transfers. So, the team is working, working very hard, and I can assure you that in the long in the long run that you will have the probably the best service in the country.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “The long run is too long. You’ve got weeks, not months to fix this. And if you don’t fix it, 36 percent on-time delivery, I don’t think you’re fit for this job. I yield to Senator Butler.”
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