Sen. Hawley calls for USPS audit after growing Northland mail issues

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A U.S. Senator demanded answers Wednesday after a FOX4 Problem Solvers report exposed serious problems with mail delivery in the Kansas City metro.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, has asked the U.S. Postal Service’s inspector general to conduct an audit to determine why people living in the Northland have had so much trouble getting their mail.

“I want to know why we are seeing this uptick,” said Hawley, who serves on the Senate committee that oversees the postal service. “The post office has told us it’s just a staffing issue, having folks not necessarily on the job, sick leave and such. That may be the case, but I need to figure out if there is a deeper system issue here.”

The audit request follows a Problem Solvers report where nearly 20 Northland neighbors detailed the consistent problems they were having getting their mail.

“It started where the mail would get delivered at 8 o’clock at night, and then it progressed to where we were getting mail maybe three days a week,” said Anne Bertolde of Woodbrooke Villas. “Then it went down to two days a week.”

Paul Steidler, an expert on the postal service at the Lexington Institute, said he’s pleased Hawley has requested an audit.

But Steidler said Congress missed an opportunity to improve postal operations when a recent bill Congress passed, which addressed problems facing the postal service, failed to include much in the way of measures holding the postal service accountable for poor mail delivery. Hawley co-sponsored the bill.