Sen. Josh Hawley Grills Postmaster General

[0:00] thank you mr chairman uh general welcome good to see you i want to show you a picture if i could [0:04] just to start this is north st louis missouri this is april 29th of this year this is right [0:14] around north taylor avenue this is a pile of mail thousands of pieces of mail tax documents [0:22] prescription drugs bills utility communications from companies thousands and thousands of [0:30] documents as you might imagine the residents of st louis when this was discovered on april 29th [0:37] were absolutely outraged not least because the mail has been slow and not delivered and missing [0:42] targets for years now and here we have thousands of pieces of mail some of the postmarks here this [0:49] wasn't going across the country you have letters here that were just going across town that had [0:54] been dumped in this pile now the postal service promised the public and me when this was discovered [1:02] that there'd be a full accounting of this we would find out what happened and we'd have a full and total [1:07] investigation and complete transparency and since that time i've heard nothing that was april i've heard [1:14] nothing what's the answer my answer would be when you put up that in front of me i'm outraged what have [1:23] you done and i think everybody in the postal service that that bleeds postal blue would be outraged [1:30] well but what have you done about that was months ago what have you done since then since this is the [1:34] first time i've heard about how is this possibly the first time you've heard about it since i've written [1:38] to you members of the delegation have written to you listen i get thousands of pieces of mail a week [1:45] about the post office people's mail not being delivered here it is in a pile and you're telling me this [1:53] the first time you've heard about it it's june time i've heard about it don't you think that's kind [1:58] of exceptional what's going on in the management of the postal service senator because you don't know [2:04] i don't think i have heard about it what's going on in the management of the postal service that you've [2:09] got a pile of thousands of pieces of mail in a major city and this is the first time you're the postmaster [2:16] general that you're telling me it's the first time you've heard about it who works for you [2:18] what's going on 640 000 people well maybe you want to fire some of them do you think that this [2:26] is doing the job i think that's outrageous you're missing your targets all over my state let's take [2:31] a look at another picture your targets for on-time delivery in my state which were not good to begin [2:38] with are just in the 90s meaning that you could miss it 10 of the time and give yourself an a grade [2:42] but start looking there in 2024 2025 you're hitting your on-time delivery targets 76 of the time maybe [2:50] that means fully a quarter of the time best case scenario people's mail in my state is not being [2:55] delivered to them on time is this acceptable it's absolutely not acceptable why is it not changing [3:01] it is changing if you actually look at the numbers you'll see the numbers have been increasing it is [3:09] not changing that's this year that is april of this year just last year the inspector general when i [3:16] asked him to do an audit of the st louis distribution center the inspector general told me it was the worst [3:22] case of lack of on-time delivery the worst case of distribution problems he had ever seen ever in [3:28] an audit that he had done ever what's been changed since then um if you look at the service scores i [3:34] would commend you to go online we publish our service no i don't want to go online i want you to come [3:39] here with answers because you're the postmaster general of the united states i don't want to have [3:43] you come here and be told you don't know what's going on in my home state when i have written to you [3:48] when i have called you when my residents have called you and asked you when they're paying their taxes [3:52] and they're paying these postal service marks and increases i don't want to be told go online [3:57] i want answers and the other thing i want to know is why are you getting bonuses and members of your [4:02] staff getting bonuses for this kind of performance let's take a look just look at the numbers the [4:08] postmaster generals of this country in the last 10 years have got 10 years have gotten bonuses over [4:12] two million dollars you got a bonus last year three hundred five thousand seven hundred and eighty one [4:19] dollars why why why are you getting bonuses when my constituents can't get the mail senator i don't [4:31] control bonuses our board will you pledge not to take them pardon me will you pledge not to take them [4:38] um will you pledge to reward our people oh no no no no no no no don't turn it around you are in [4:44] charge of the postal service and we have given you everything you've asked for just three years ago this [4:50] congress allotted tens of billions of dollars to the postal service i'm glad you think it's funny [4:56] postmaster general you think that this situation is funny let the record reflect the postmaster [5:00] general is laughing as he gets asked why he's taking bonuses while there's piles of undelivered [5:05] mail in my state it's a disgrace it is an absolute disgrace let the record reflect that i was laughing [5:11] when you said we've been given everything we've asked for you have been given an opportunity to [5:16] deliver the mail and you're here laughing about it you are here telling me you don't know you're [5:21] unprepared and let the record reflect you won't pledge not to take bonuses so you're going to keep [5:25] on taking them is that what you're telling me yes or no will you refuse bonuses so long as the mail goes [5:31] undelivered any piece of mail yes or no will you refuse bonuses until the mail gets delivered yes or no [5:40] what mail oh this is extraordinary in other words you don't know you want the money unbelievable unbelievable [5:47] unbelievable unbelievable i am absolutely astounded at this today general well you should be and frankly [5:55] if things don't get better you ought to resign because you're not doing the job you're leaving [5:59] your good postal workers out there you're hanging them out to dry they don't make near what you do [6:05] they're working their butts off they're getting blamed and you're getting the bonus we got a big problem [6:10] time has expired based on what i've seen today you're part of it