USPS to deliver weekly performance data

The same day House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) announced she intended to issue a subpoena to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy for documents related to mail delays caused by recent changes to postal policies and operations, DeJoy sent a letter to congressional oversight leaders detailing the latest service improvements and pledging to provide weekly service updates.

In an Aug. 31 memo declaring her plans to subpoena DeJoy, Maloney wrote that in July and August lawmakers requested data regarding overtime, sorting machines, the potential for election mail delivery problems, along with information about DeJoy’s relationship to the Trump campaign. Those requests were reiterated when DeJoy recently testified before House and Senate oversight committees, but no information has been delivered. “He has not produced a single additional document since the House and Senate hearings were held despite multiple conversations between Committee staff and Mr. DeJoy’s office over the past week,” Maloney wrote.

Others are also calling for more delivery details. Steve Hutkins, a retired New York University English professor and editor of the “Save the Post Office” blog, filed a request with the Postal Regulatory Commission in August for weekly rather than quarterly reports of USPS on-time performance. He wrote that DeJoy’s operational changes have caused delays in mail deliveries and that the public needs a “clearer picture of the extent and geography of the delays and the Postal Service’s progress toward returning to previous performance levels.”

“Under normal circumstances, quarterly reports and the annual review are sufficient to satisfy the relevant statutes,” Hutkins told GovExec. “And under normal circumstances, the extent to which performance is meeting targets and standards does not change dramatically on a week-to-week basis. The current moment is different, however.”

In his Aug. 31 letter and slide deck sent to leaders of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on service performance levels, DeJoy touted operational improvements across all mail categories and said would provide the oversight committees with weekly performance updates through the end of 2020. He also stated that his staff would provide weekly performance data at the district, area and national levels going back to the start of the year.

“I am ultimately accountable for the decisions I have made as Postmaster General and will provide the data necessary for members of the committees to assess ongoing performance improvements,” DeJoy wrote.