ATLANTA (AP) — Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia said Wednesday he wants Congress to have more control over the selection of the U.S. postmaster general after a postal service outage in his state.
Ossoff’s proposed Postmaster General Reform Act would require the U.S. Senate to confirm a president’s appointment to the position. Currently, the position is filled by the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors without congressional confirmation. The legislation would also allow postmasters general to serve for up to two five-year terms. The position is currently not time-limited.
“The enforcement debacle by the U.S. Postal Service in Georgia was a failure of leadership and a failure of management, and it reflected the incompetent leadership and incompetent management of the Postmaster General himself,” Ossoff said at a news conference Wednesday.
Lawmakers across states have criticized DeJoy for his handling of the Postal Service. The legislation comes as DeJoy tries to allay concerns from election officials across the country that the postal system is not prepared to handle a surge of mail-in ballots ahead of the November election.
Georgia lawmakers have blamed most of the delivery problems on operational issues at the suburban Atlanta postal center. USPS consolidated several facilities into one in Palmetto, which was supposed to make the delivery process more efficient.
Similar centers have been set up in Richmond, Virginia, and Portland, Oregon, as the Postal Service struggles to cope with delivery slowdowns and financial losses nationwide. First-class mail volume has fallen 80% since 1997 due to the surge in parcel shipping, leading to losses of $87 billion between 2007 and 2020.
But Georgia was ranked as the worst-performing state in a report on the Postal Service’s performance for the second quarter of 2024, which tracked transit times for mail delivery. Ossoff has regularly asked DeJoy for updates on how he plans to improve the agency’s operations, a concern that has also been echoed by a number of Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia.
“This is about whether seniors are getting their medications in the mail,” Ossoff said Wednesday. “This is about whether citizens are getting essential court notices — summonses, eviction notices. This is about whether small businesses can operate. High-quality postal service cannot be a luxury. It is a necessity.”
After the Palmetto plant opened, delivery rates slowed. Georgia had a 90% on-time delivery rate for first-class mail for most of 2023. That rate fell below 40% in March, but has since rebounded to above 80%.
Ossoff visited Palmetto in June. He criticized DeJoy for mismanagement as employees from across the state were forced to move to the Palmetto site.
DeJoy told local leaders he plans to add staff and noted that the state’s postal service is improving.
Ossoff said Wednesday that Georgians deserve better, saying he expects bipartisan support for the legislation.
“This is such an important job that there must be a real interview with those whom the people will elect to confirm the most important officials in the federal government,” Ossoff said.
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Charlotte Kramon is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to cover undercovered issues. Follow Kramon on X: @charlottekramon
