WASHINGTON – Following advocacy by U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has announced that they have now successfully fixed a quirk in the mail system that resulted in some Missourians along the Iowa and Arkansas borders being assigned non-Missouri postal addresses.
“A system that had people living in one state but having an address in another state didn’t make sense, and I’m glad we’ve made progress in fixing this bizarre and inconvenient quirk once and for all,” said McCaskill, the top-ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which has jurisdiction over USPS. “Government oversight is about making things—big and small—work better for Missourians, and it’s what I’ll continue to do.”
“Thank you for your continued focus on rural postal matters,” wrote Postmaster General Megan Brennan to McCaskill. “Working with individual customers, Postal officials in the Hawkeye, Gateway, and Mid-America Districts successfully converted the addresses. Missouri customers who previously were required to use an Iowa or Arkansas state designation in their mailing address are now able to use their correct state designation of Missouri. It has been several months since the conversion has been in place and there have been no reported problems. … Thank you for bringing this to our attention and for providing the opportunity to better serve our customers.”
After discovering that some Missourians living near the Iowa and Arkansas border had mailing addresses for Iowa or Arkansas instead of Missouri, McCaskill called for USPS to resolve the issue, discussed the issue directly with the Postmaster General, and introduced a bill to fix it.
McCaskill has long worked to improve postal service and hold the agency accountable, particularly for Missourians in rural communities. Earlier this year, she sent a letter to the Administration’s Postal Task Force, urging it to prioritize reliable access in rural communities and improved delivery times. She called for postal reforms after a Postal Service Inspector General report found that mismanagement led to up to two billion pieces of delayed mail.
McCaskill has also called for answers from the Postmaster General following reports from Missouri postal managers that their staffing needs have been disregarded. She joined a bipartisan group of Senators to introduce a comprehensive postal reform bill that will put the Postal Service on firm financial footing, improve performance in rural communities, and allow for the development of new products and services. McCaskill is widely credited with having waged a successful campaign over several years to save rural post offices in Missouri and maintain delivery standards.
Read the full text of the letter from Postmaster General Brennan to McCaskill HERE.
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