D.C.'s Congressional Delegate Asks Postal Service about Late Deliveries

WASHINGTON -- The District of Columbia’s delegate to Congress is making inquiries to the U.S. Postal Service about why residents in some neighborhoods are not getting their mail.

Theft is expected in many cases but late deliveries or damaged mail also are common, she said in a letter last week to Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan.

“I understand customers often do not even receive their mail at all on certain days,” Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton wrote in her letter.

One of her posts on X republished a message from a constituent that said, “Our carrier dumps whatever he/she doesn't feel like delivering into my box. I often get misdelivered DMV letters, bills, medical lab results (based on the label) in my box!”

Another constituent complained about not receiving mail for as long as a week.

Norton has said she is considering holding a public meeting to discuss mail delivery problems.

“Especially troubling is the repeated lack of responsiveness by station managers to customers,” she wrote in her letter to the Postmaster General. “I understand that phones are frequently not answered when my constituents call to make complaints, and, when they go to the post offices themselves, they are not allowed to speak to managers or are told they are unavailable and managers do not return messages.”

Norton has raised her concerns about mail service with the Postal Service at least twice in the past 10 years.

In addition to citizen complaints, her interest was fueled by Postal Service inspector general reports in 2014 and 2016 that found deliveries in the Washington, D.C., were among the worst nationally for delays and misdirected mail.

Postal Service officials said they place a high priority on prompt delivery and are trying to address issues raised by Norton and the inspector general.

For more information, contact The Legal Forum (www.legal-forum.net) at email: [email protected] or phone: 202-479-7240.