00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. General, welcome. Good to see you. I want to show you a picture, if I could,
00:04just to start.
00:06This is North St. Louis, Missouri. This is April 29th of this year. This is right around North Taylor Avenue.
00:15This is a pile of mail. Thousands of pieces of mail. Tax documents, prescription drugs, bills, utility, communications from companies.
00:28Thousands and thousands of documents. As you might imagine, the residents of St. Louis, when this was discovered on April
00:3629th, were absolutely outraged, not least because the mail has been slow and not delivered and missing targets for years
00:43now.
00:44And here we have thousands of pieces of mail. Some of the postmarks here, this wasn't going across the country.
00:51You have letters here that were just going across town that had been dumped in this pile.
00:55Now, the Postal Service promised the public and me, when this was discovered, that there'd be a full accounting of
01:03this, we would find out what happened, and we'd have a full and total investigation and complete transparency.
01:10And since that time, I've heard nothing. That was April. I've heard nothing. What's the answer?
01:18My answer would be, when you put up that in front of me, I'm outraged.
01:22What have you done about it?
01:23And I think everybody in the Postal Service that bleeds postal blue would be outraged.
01:31Well, but what have you done about it? That was months ago. What have you done since then?
01:34Since this is the first time I've heard about it, I can't tell you that I have done anything about
01:39it.
01:39Members of the delegation have written to you.
01:42Listen, I get thousands of pieces of mail a week about the Post Office.
01:47People's mail not being delivered.
01:49Here it is in a pile.
01:52And you're telling me this is the first time you've heard about it?
01:54It's June.
01:55It is the first time I've heard about it.
01:57Don't you think that's kind of exceptional?
02:00What's going on in the management of the Postal Service?
02:02I don't, Senator, because I don't think I have heard about it.
02:05What's going on in the management of the Postal Service that you've got a pile of thousands of pieces of
02:11mail in a major city,
02:14and this is the first time you're the Postmaster General.
02:16You're telling me it's the first time you've heard about it.
02:18Who works for you?
02:20What's going on?
02:21640,000 people.
02:23Well, maybe you want to fire some of them.
02:25Do you think that this is doing the job?
02:28I think that's outrageous.
02:29You're missing your targets all over my state.
02:31Let's take a look at another picture.
02:34Your targets for on-time delivery in my state, which were not good to begin with, are just in the
02:3990s,
02:39meaning that you could miss it 10% of the time and give yourself an A grade.
02:42But start looking there in 2024, 2025.
02:45You're hitting your on-time delivery targets 76% of the time maybe.
02:50That means fully a quarter of the time.
02:52Best case scenario, people's mail in my state is not being delivered to them on time.
02:57Is this acceptable?
02:58It's absolutely not acceptable.
02:59Well, why is it not changing?
03:01It is changing.
03:02If you actually look at the numbers, you'll see the numbers have been increasing.
03:08It is not changing.
03:10That's this year.
03:12That is April of this year.
03:14Just last year, the inspector general, when I asked him to do an audit of the St. Louis Distribution Center,
03:19the inspector general told me it was the worst case of lack of on-time delivery,
03:25the worst case of distribution problems he had ever seen ever in an audit that he had done.
03:29Ever.
03:30What's been changed since then?
03:32If you look at the service scores, I would commend you to go online.
03:36We publish our service scores.
03:37No, I don't want to go online.
03:38I want you to come here with answers because you're the postmaster general of the United States.
03:42I don't want to have you come here and be told you don't know what's going on in my home
03:46state.
03:47When I have written to you, when I have called you, when my residents have called you and asked you,
03:51when they're paying their taxes and they're paying these postal service marks and increases,
03:55I don't want to be told go online.
03:56I want answers.
03:58And the other thing I want to know is, why are you getting bonuses and members of your staff getting
04:03bonuses for this kind of performance?
04:05Let's take a look.
04:06Just look at the numbers.
04:08The postmaster generals of this country in the last 10 years have gotten bonuses over $2 million.
04:14You got a bonus last year, $305,781.
04:20Why?
04:22Why are you getting bonuses when my constituents can't get the mail?
04:30Senator, I don't control bonuses.
04:32Our board of government controls bonuses.
04:33Will you pledge not to take them?
04:34Pardon me?
04:35Will you pledge not to take them?
04:38Will you pledge to reward our people?
04:41Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
04:42Don't turn it around.
04:43You are in charge of the postal service, and we have given you everything you've asked for.
04:48Just three years ago, this Congress allotted tens of billions of dollars to the postal service.
04:54I'm glad you think it's funny, Postmaster General.
04:57You think that this situation is funny.
04:59Let the record reflect the Postmaster General is laughing as he gets asked why he's taking bonuses
05:03while there's piles of undelivered mail in my state.
05:06It's a disgrace.
05:07It is an absolute disgrace.
05:09Let the record reflect that I was laughing when you said,
05:11we've been given everything we've asked for.
05:14You have been given an opportunity to deliver the mail, and you're here laughing about it.
05:19You are here telling me you don't know, you're unprepared, and let the record reflect you won't pledge not to
05:24take bonuses.
05:25So you're going to keep on taking them?
05:26Is that what you're telling me?
05:27Yes or no.
05:28Will you refuse bonuses so long as the mail goes undelivered?
05:33Any piece of mail?
05:34Yes or no.
05:35Will you refuse bonuses until the mail gets delivered?
05:39Yes or no?
05:40What mail?
05:41This is extraordinary.
05:42In other words, you don't know.
05:43You want the money.
05:45Unbelievable.
05:46Unbelievable.
05:48Unbelievable.
05:49I am absolutely astounded at this today, General.
05:52As am I.
05:53Well, you should be.
05:54And frankly, if things don't get better, you ought to resign because you're not doing the job.
05:59You're leaving your good postal workers out there.
06:01You're hanging them out to dry.
06:03They don't make near what you do.
06:05They're working their butts off.
06:06They're getting blamed, and you're getting the bonus.
06:09We got a big problem.
06:10Time has expired.
06:11Based on what I've seen today, you're part of it.
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