BALTIMORE, Md. — Slow delivery and missing packages have plagued Baltimore residents mail service throughout the pandemic.
A congressional committee is headed to Baltimore on Monday to take a look at the root causes of the problem and find solutions to fix it.
Last fall, the United States Postal Service Office of the Inspector General released an audit of Baltimore mail service and found delivery and service issues at nine Baltimore-area post offices.
Some of the problems included delayed mail, inaccurate reporting of mail conditions, and improper scanning. It caused customers who relied on the timely delivery of their mail to complain about missing paychecks or life-saving prescriptions.
Another audit found job vacancies, attendance issues, and broken equipment caused productivity to drop and 70 million fewer pieces of mail getting processed at the Baltimore USPS distribution center.
Congressman Gerald Connolly (D-Virgina) is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations.
The subcommittee recognizes Baltimore residents experience some of the worst postal service performance in the country.
They found a single-piece of first-class mail designated for three-to-five-day delivery in the Baltimore area arrived on time only about 63 percent of the time in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2021.
The subcommittee is taking a field trip to Baltimore Monday morning for a hearing to talk about fixing these issues.
They also blamed the Postmaster General and postal service senior staff for making consequential operational changes to mail and package delivery throughout 2020.
The subcommittee said these changes led to poor performance and disrupted critical delivery services in the Baltimore area during the pandemic.
They pointed out recent performance in Baltimore has improved, but more often than not, Baltimore underperformed the nationwide average for a decade, since fiscal year 2012.
The hearing is set for 11 o'clock Monday morning at the University of Baltimore.
Senator Chris van Hollen, along with congressmen Kweisi Mfume, Dutch Ruppersberger, and John Sarbanes are expected to be in attendance.
The hearing may be viewed online on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform website or on YouTube.
