WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Representative Pete Stauber (R-MN) announced the introduction of the Rural Mail Delivery Improvement Act. This legislation would require the United States Postal Service (USPS) to implement all of the recommendations made by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) following their audit of the Bemidji Post Office, which uncovered operational problems at the facility.
“Minnesotans rely on the Postal Service to deliver their prescriptions, Social Security checks, and more, and they need and deserve timely service. The recent Inspector General’s report that I called for confirmed significant delays and service disruptions for those who rely on the Bemidji Post Office,” said Klobuchar. “That’s why Rep. Stauber and I are leading bipartisan legislation that requires the Postal Service to act on all of the Inspector General’s recommendations, which will improve operations for Bemidji residents, those in the surrounding communities and beyond.”
“I have been deeply concerned by the reports about postal issues in Bemidji and Greater Minnesota,” said Stauber. “Rural Minnesotans rely heavily on mail delivery and any disruption in this service is unacceptable because it can have a detrimental impact on people’s businesses, livelihoods, and health. The USPS has been having problems for a while and I have repeatedly asked their leadership to fix these issues, but my requests seem to fall on deaf ears. Enough is enough. Decisive action must be taken immediately to improve the efficiency and reliability of mail delivery, which is why I am proud to introduce legislation requiring USPS to enact all five of the recommendations made by the OIG after their comprehensive audit of the Bemidji Post Office. I thank Senator Klobuchar for joining me in this effort.”
The OIG performed an audit of the Bemidji Post Office during the week of December 12, 2023, to evaluate mail delivery in northern Minnesota after community members and postal employees in the area publicly expressed concerns about the disruptions in mail delivery.
According to the audit report, the OIG found 78,948 pieces of delayed mail in the mail processing area, which was attributed to the lack of an adequate training program for staff.
According to the OIG report, USPS headquarters also failed to ask the Bemidji Post Office if they could handle the expected increase in volume due to third-party shipments folding into operations. They also failed to tell the Bemidji Post Office about this agreement until eight days before third-party packages would start arriving.
The recommendations from the OIG report are as follows:
- Develop and execute a plan to verify that all delayed mail volume is entered into the proper system for the Bemidji Post Office.
- Obtain and consider district and local management input on their ability to deliver all mail when assessing new opportunities for new projected drop shipment package volume.
- Develop and implement procedures to promptly communicate to district and local management any expected new drop shipment mail volumes and start dates for large shippers.
- Coordinate with Headquarters and Central Area Human Resources personnel to identify and implement additional strategies to fill carrier vacancies at the Bemidji Post Office.
- Provide mail processing training that includes proper mail staging processes, managing critical mail entry and clearance times, scheduling extra trucks, staffing policies, and reporting delayed mail for all district and local managers who are responsible for mail processing operations in a delivery unit.
The USPS disagrees with recommendations 2 and 3.
Senator Klobuchar previously called on Postmaster General DeJoy to address staffing shortages and mail delays at the Bemidji Post Office in November 2023. Senators Klobuchar and Smith requested an audit of the USPS’s Minnesota-North Dakota District operations in December 2023.
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