New internal U.S. Postal Service (USPS) documents uncovered by House Democrats show widespread delays in the agency’s performance started in July about a month after Louis DeJoy took over as its new chief.
When DeJoy appeared before a Senate committee Friday, he failed to disclose the internal report, dated Aug. 12, with the senators conducting oversight. The report refutes two key talking points advanced by DeJoy and his GOP allies: that there haven't been any service delays, and that any delays were a result of the coronavirus.
According to the documents, as House Oversight Committee chair Carolyn Maloney noted: "These steep declines did not start in April or May when the corona crisis hit us, but in July when Mr. DeJoy came on board and began making his changes."
The report specifically notes a "marked decline" in service performance for priority mail starting the week of July 11, about a month after DeJoy assumed the reins as Postmaster General. At the beginning of July, priority mail was delivered on time more than 90% of the time, but by the start of August, priority mail deliveries were on schedule less than 80% of the time. DeJoy really worked some magic there.
But mail services also slowed across the board: While priority mail service declined 7.97% compared to its baseline number, first-class mail service fell 8.1% below baseline, marketing mail saw an 8.42% decline from baseline service, and periodical deliveries dipped 9.57% below baseline.
Check out the internal USPS graphs created below showing DeJoy had almost an immediate negative impact on agency efficiency. Yet for some reason, DeJoy didn't voluntarily share any of these internal documents with the congressional committees.
First-Class Mail
Marketing Mail
