EDITOR:
The United States Postal Service (USPS) is a lifeline for millions of Americans. Whether you live in Kansas City, Macon, Troy or anywhere else across North Missouri, we all count on the Postal Service to deliver our prescriptions, bills, packages, and checks on time.
It’s so important, that the Postal Service is the only federal agency specifically authorized by our Constitution. Delivering the mail on time is one of the few things the federal government should do—and should do well. Unfortunately, they aren’t.
I continue to hear from folks across North Missouri about all the problems they’re having with the Postal Service—lost packages, delayed bills, missing publications and so much more. It even extends to reopening Post Offices in our rural towns after disasters. In Baring, a tornado took out their Post Office in August. To this day, we can’t even seem to get a timeline in place for rebuilding it.
To add insult to injury, the Postal Service thinks that raising prices on hardworking everyday Americans will solve their problems. Look, I get that costs are going up, but we put things in place in the last few years to enable the Postal Service to afford to hire workers and improve operations. We need the USPS to provide a clear plan to improve their services instead of thinking that blindly throwing more money from your pocketbook at their problems will solve them.
That’s why I joined my colleague Congressman Emanuel Cleaver in sending a letter to the USPS Board of Governors to let them know of our concerns over the negative impact of frequent rate increases. Stamp prices have been raised four times since the implementation since 2021. And it’s not just stamp prices going up. USPS Ground Advantage prices will increase by 5.4%, Priority Mail service prices will increase by 5.7%, and Priority Mail Express service prices will increase by 5.9%.
Increases like these price consumers out of the market and ultimately will result in the permanent loss of customers for USPS. Why should we be paying more to mail things if we can’t even depend on it getting where it’s supposed to go?
There are good folks in the Postal Service. Many are our friends and neighbors. They aren’t the issue. It’s the bureaucrats making the decisions. They need to get this figured out and start actually delivering for America before they go jacking up prices any further.
--Congressman Sam Graves
Sixth District
