In the News

U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright called Thursday for a shakeup in leadership at the U.S. Postal Service, saying problems with the nation’s mail service will not improve until there is change at the top.

An informal survey about the postal service that his 8th District office conducted this week produced more than 6,700 responses from constituents in 72 hours, with 94% complaining they had experienced slow or delayed mail, Cartwright said in announcing the findings during a virtual press conference.

Postal officials told him the delays were caused by COVID-19-related staffing shortages along with the crush of mail during the election and the holidays, the Moosic Democrat said.

“But we are six weeks past that now and things are getting worse, not better,” Cartwright said.

Asked about delays in the mail delivery, the postal service emailed a brief statement saying holiday season mail backlogs at the Scranton processing and distribution center “have been cleared and mail deliveries are back to normal.”

Cartwright said Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, whose controversial operational changes last summer have been blamed for many of the current delivery woes, appears ready to propose another round of changes that would reduce service, increase prices and lower delivery expectations.

“I think we can all agree that doubling down on these failed policies would be the wrong approach,” he said.