Sam Graves: Problems with U. S. Postal Service impact all of us

(From Sixth District Congressman Sam Graves)

The United States Postal Service is one of the only agencies authorized by the Constitution. In fact, the agency can trace its roots back even further to 1775, when Benjamin Franklin was named the first Postmaster General.

For some 247 years, the men and women of the United States Postal Service have been delivering the mail—rain or shine. It doesn't matter where you live—downtown Kansas City, the suburbs, or rural North Missouri—they deliver the mail six days a week. That's the promise.

Unfortunately, they don't always live up to that—especially not in recent years. I've heard complaints from all over about packages being delayed, mail only being delivered a couple times a week, or potential changes at some local post offices.

For years, the Postal Service’s justification for these failures was that they were losing money and had to cut costs. That's no longer the case. In April, Congress passed the Postal Service Reform Act, which lifted a huge financial burden off the agency. As a result, the Postal Service posted a $60 billion net profit last quarter.

Despite their new financial situation and the fact that federal law now requires the Postal Service to deliver the mail six days a week with few exceptions, I'm still hearing from folks that aren't getting their mail delivered more than once or twice a week. That's unacceptable. Seniors depend on the mail to get prescriptions, small businesses depend on the mail to get payments, and many of us still get bills in the mail. These things need to be delivered on time.

The Postal Service has ignored or brushed off complaints from many Missourians, so I teamed up with Congressman Emanuel Cleaver to write the Postmaster General directly and demand some answers. That's the very least these people deserve.

I want to be very clear that my problem is not with the dedicated public servants delivering the mail every day. They do an excellent job, but it's clear there's a leadership problem. For some reason, there are some folks in Washington that have forgotten that the Postal Service is supposed to work for Americans—not the other way around.

This, like many problems we face today, isn't a Republican or Democrat issue. It's something that impacts all of us. That's why we're going to keep pushing until we get some answers.

In the meantime, I want you to know that if you have problems with the Postal Service—or any other federal agency—my office is here to help.