Baltimore Congressional Delegation Presses Postmaster General to Develop Plan to Fix Mail Delays in Baltimore Region and Across Maryland
U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin and Congressmen C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, John Sarbanes, and Kweisi Mfume today asked Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to address the widespread mail delays affecting residents across the Baltimore region and take immediate steps to deliver mail on time.
In a letter to DeJoy, the delegation described complaints from constituents who have not received mail for weeks, including seniors who have been waiting for prescriptions and small businesses experiencing delayed deliveries. The lawmakers expressed concern for the thousands of Marylanders who plan to vote absentee in the upcoming presidential election to stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“While we recognize that some of the problems we’ve outlined existed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we believe that your recently announced policy changes on the national level will only cause them to be further exacerbated,” the Members wrote. “As such, we are specifically requesting that you reinstate and continue paying overtime, develop measures to keep employees safe, allow more flexibility with regard to start and end times for routes, and develop a plan to address staffing shortages as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”