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“United States Postal Service (Executive Session)” mentioning Amy Klobuchar was published in the Senate section on pages S1536-S1537 on March 16.
Of the 100 senators in 117th Congress, 24 percent were women, and 76 percent were men, according to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Senators' salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
United States Postal Service
Mr. President, let me start this statement by saying I am a fan of the U.S. Postal Service. I have been throughout my life. I believe the men and women who make the Postal Service work do a great service to this country and distinguish us from many countries in the world that don't have anything near our service or reliability in delivering the mail. Having said that, and believe it to my inner being, the Postal Service needs to take a hard look at what is going on within their ranks today.
Last month, the U.S. Postal Service Great Lakes area sent out the postal equivalent of an SOS. It put out the call to mail carriers in five surrounding States asking for letter carriers to come to my State of Illinois to help deliver a huge backlog of undelivered mail. It also called for mail carriers to help deliver Chicago's mail on Sundays.
Ken Labbe is one of the mail carriers who answered that call for help. Mr. Labbe has been a mail carrier in Mount Prospect, IL, just outside of Chicago, for 28 years. He is the president of the local letter carriers union. He is also quite an athlete. In 2002, he was the only male mail carrier on the USPS-sponsored professional cycling team
He volunteered for the last Sunday in February. He figured he had the knowledge and endurance to help reduce the mail backlog that had plagued the Postal Service in Chicago. What he discovered, he said, stunned him. At every home he delivered to, he stuffed 20 to 30 pieces of mail in the mailbox. He worked 12 hours on that Sunday, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., sunup to sundown, without a break, even for lunch. Still, he couldn't complete the assigned workload; the sheer volume of backlogged mail was too great. Inside the local post office, Ken said, he found packages stacked everywhere. Some appeared to have been there for a month or more. The entire situation looked, in his words, ``like an episode of `Extreme Hoarders.''' ``A crisis.''
Chicagoland is not the only postal chaos location. Nearly 9 months after a new Postmaster General unveiled his surprise reorganization plan, postal service in much of the Nation is erratic. Delays are longer than ever.
The delivery times have shrunk to historic lows since Louis DeJoy took over last June. At the end of December, the Agency had an on-time rate of 38 percent for nonlocal mail. What was it 1 year earlier? Ninety-two percent. A 92-percent on-time rate descended to 38 percent under Postmaster General DeJoy.
Before Louis DeJoy took over, 91 percent of Postal Service customers gave USPS high marks--one of the highest approval ratings of any government Agency. Today, postal customers across America--certainly in my State of Illinois--customers wait anxiously for important checks and bills that arrive weeks late, if at all. They check tracking websites to search for delayed packages, only to read that the package is ``out for delivery.''
In some neighborhoods in Chicago, residents have given up hope of receiving mail at home. They stand in line for hours at the local post office to try to retrieve their mail themselves. Often, even that doesn't work.
Tracey Otis is one of those people. One day last month, she was one of 40 customers--40--waiting in line at the Postal Service station in the Gresham neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. Ms. Otis hadn't had regular mail delivery since Christmas. She waited in line for hours, hoping to retrieve a package of diabetic test strips before her current supply ran out. She told a Chicago Sun-Times reporter that she would volunteer to sort the mail if it would help. She went home emptyhanded that day, still not sure where her package was or when, if ever, she might see it.
Last month, my staff in Chicago estimated that there might be 300 pieces of mail sitting undelivered in four Chicago postal facilities. We based that on the number of complaints we received in our office. After that, the Postal Inspector General released a report that showed we were wrong. There weren't 300 letters in postal limbo in these facilities; there were 19,000 undelivered pieces of mail in those four facilities.
Since then, in my State, the chaos has stretched way beyond Chicago. We hear from all over the State: Springfield, Champaign-Urbana, Belleville, East St. Louis, Quincy, Peoria, the Quad Cities, and Rockford. These delays in Illinois and across America are causing real hardship for tens of millions of Americans waiting for mail delivery. Patients and pharmacists complain about late medication. People are getting dinged for late mortgage and utility payments and forced to pay late fees. Insurance policies are being canceled because of late payments. Small business owners are forced to wait weeks or months for payments. Others are flooded with calls and emails from customers wondering where their packages are--a good way to lose business.
Who is Louis DeJoy, the mastermind of this mess? Did he come through the ranks of the Postal Service, like four Postmasters General before him? No. His qualifications? He is a former logistics executive who donated millions of dollars to Donald Trump and the Republicans--no experience working at the Postal Service before Donald Trump tapped him to head this Agency last June.
One month later, in the middle of a pandemic that turned postal deliveries into a lifeline for many, Mr. DeJoy unveiled a radical plan to reorganize the Postal Service, after only 1 month in the job and no experience in the Department. He slashed overtime hours, prohibited late and extra mail delivery trips, and set stricter delivery schedules.
In August, with no public explanation, the Postal Service began removing mail-sorting machines from postal facilities around the country, reducing their ability to process mail. Amazingly, the Postal Service Inspector General determined that the changes were ordered with no analysis and no understanding of how they might affect timeliness of mail delivery. A Federal lawsuit forced the Agency to put the changes on hold until after the election.
On February 6, Mr. DeJoy was quoted in the Washington Post saying that his new plan for reorganizing the Postal Service would be ready for public release ``as early as next week.'' He said that on February 6. We are still waiting for it, waiting for the DeJoy plan to shape up the Postal Service. It is like waiting for a lost package.
We know some of the biggest changes he intends to propose because he has confirmed them publicly. The DeJoy plan for shaping up the post office is expected to call for the following: more service cuts, higher prices, and slower mail delivery. If that sounds like a winning combination to you, I have some vintage computers to sell to your business. In short, this is not a solution; this is sabotage of an essential public service, and we shouldn't tolerate it.
Well, America has a new President who understands that affordable, efficient postal service is essential to America. Five days after taking office, President Biden replaced the Chair of the Postal Regulatory Commission. Late last month, he filled three vacancies of the Postal Service Board of Governors, the body that hires the Postmaster General and oversees the Postal Service.
I encourage President Biden to make all the changes necessary to rescue the Postal Service. Mr. DeJoy has offered a stream of excuses for the chaos that has fallen the Postal Service since he showed up. He says it is the pandemic, the Christmas holidays, bad weather, an election that saw a record number of Americans vote by mail. He has a list as long as your arm.
I would remind him that in 1864, we held a national election in the middle of a Civil War, and 150,000 Union Army troops voted absentee from the field. The Postal Service is as old as America itself. It has proven that it can adapt to crises with the right leadership. If Mr. DeJoy cannot or will not provide that leadership, I respectfully suggest he step down.
I yield the floor.
Mr. LEAHY. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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