Postmaster General grilled during US Senate hearing after months of mail delays in Atlanta metro

Tyisha Fernandes
·2 min read

Relief could soon be coming to mail delays in metro Atlanta, according to the head of the U.S. Postal Service.

Channel 2 Action News has been telling you about the problem with mail for months, and that it’s connected to a distribution center that opened in Palmetto two months ago.

The head of the U.S. Postal Service was grilled in a U.S. Senate hearing Tuesday.

The hearing started at 10 a.m. in the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee.

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“Atlanta has been one of our worst. The Georgia area has been one of our worst-served areas over the last 10 years,” U.S. Postmaster Louis DeJoy said during the hearing.

Elected officials from across the country pressed DeJoy in Washington on Tuesday morning.

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia was one of them. He demanded to know what went wrong when USPS opened the Palmetto facility.

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“We had to move 2,000 people from all these different plants to one location and we had strict requirements as to when they move. It’s a big facility we opened up, we had inbound transportation issues,” DeJoy said.

Ossoff demanded to know when the problems would be fixed.

“You’ll see service improve starting now and I think we’ll be where we need to be in about 60 days,” said DeJoy.

Every elected official who spoke during the hearing said that 60 days was unacceptable.

Dejoy said he’s working on it, and said he’s already made the following improvements:

  • Bringing in new management

  • Revamping truck schedules

  • Stabilizing machine operations

  • Put special teams on docks now

  • Improving transportation

U.S. Rep Mike Collins has a one-on-one meeting with Dejoy on April 26 and said he wants to tour the Palmetto facility after their meeting.

Separately, U.S. Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock has also pushed USPS to provide answers, giving them a May 10 deadline, as reported by Channel 2 Action News.

Collins isn’t the only lawmaker who wants to have DeJoy tour the Palmetto facility. Rep. Barry Loudermilk made a similar request last week.

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