10/21/2020 Washington, D.C.- Today, U.S. Representative Brenda L. Lawrence (MI-14), who held various roles in the United States Postal Service prior to serving in Congress, issued the following statement regarding the United States Postal Service Inspector General’s (USPS IG) newly released report on Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s operational changes. The report was undertaken by USPS IG Tammy Whitcomb upon request from Rep. Lawrence and other members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate on August 7, 2020.

“The Inspector General’s conclusions were predictable, yet avoidable: an analysis of service standards and service performance targets revealed significant declines for all mail products the Inspector General reviewed. Amid a global pandemic, and as the Postal Service had already been dealing with employee availability issues, Mr. DeJoy’s initiatives lacked analysis on the potential service impacts they may have, and were primarily disseminated orally, leading to confusion in the field. I also have serious concerns with the Board of Governor’s assessment of the Inspector General’s report, as its comments further lead me to question their fitness to oversee Mr. DeJoy and the Postal Service.

“Since the pandemic began, the Postal Service has played a critical role delivering essential medical supplies, benefits, and e-commerce to millions of Americans. Each day, the more than 600,000 employees at USPS heroically reported to work to ensure every household received their mail and packages in a timely and efficient manner. Unfortunately, shortly after taking office and with no understanding of the dangerous effect his actions would have, Mr. DeJoy enacted heavily flawed policies that undermined Postal Service employees’ abilities to do their jobs and caused unacceptable, preventable mail delays. The Inspector General’s report highlights that ignorance; instead of completing a study or analysis of the changes, or even conducting a pilot test to assess the impact, Mr. DeJoy pushed forward, nonetheless.

“The American people deserve—and demand—a Postmaster General who upholds their oath to protect the independence of the Postal Service and defend the agency from partisan attacks aimed at undermining its core mission as a service to this country. The Postal Service is the only federal agency to touch every household in America. Any efforts to undermine its ability to do so is a gross abuse of the oath of office each employee—including the Postmaster General—takes upon joining the agency. I sincerely hope that Mr. DeJoy now understands the ramifications of his dangerous actions and sees why so many of my colleagues and I continue to sound the alarm on his activities.”