Maryland Lawmakers Urge Postmaster To Take Action After Complaints From Constituents About Mail Delays
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Are you still waiting for a package from the U.S. Postal Service? If so, you're not alone.
Senator Chris Van Hollen said he has received a lot of complaints about late mail and is now urging the Postmaster to take action.
"It takes 20, 30 days to get mail," one Marylander told WJZ.
"All the bills that I pay normally through the mail didn't get to where they were supposed to be on-time," another resident said.
The mail still isn't arriving on-time at many Maryland homes, long after the holiday delivery surge, and it's leaving many wondering why it's still a problem.
"Whatever happened to the old adage of comes rain, snow, sleet or hail the mail will always go through?" Forest Hill resident Bob Eagan said.
Some Marylanders have been charged fees for bill payments that are arriving late.
"Don't charge me extra because the post office late. You can send the bill to the post office," Roy Thorne, of Northwood, said.
Senator Van Hollen is calling for answers. He said Congress sent a $10 billion loan to the post office when the pandemic began and it was later converted to a grant. But he's still hearing from a lot of very upset constituents about mail delays.
"We're being flooded with complaints about slow postal delivery," Senator Van Hollen said.
"I wrote a letter and the Maryland delegation, wrote a letter to the Postmaster General you know, saying, 'What's going on over there and how are you spending this money?' Because we need to make sure people's mail is delivered on-time," he added.
The Senator said he would like to see USPS hire more employees and bring back sorting machines in places where they were taken away.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the post office said it delivered a record 1.1 billion packages under some of the most difficult circumstances it has faced.
The statement also said the post office has taken steps to address the issues, like increasing full-time staff, fully utilizing overtime and have made it easier for USPS to respond more quickly to problems.
Senator Van Hollen said he's asked the Postmaster to provide a detailed account of how USPS is using its $10 billion grant by February 28.
