H.R. 8599

119 HR 8599 IH: St. Louis Postal Accountability and Reform Act
 U.S. House of Representatives
 2026-04-30
 text/xml
 EN
 Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.
 I  119th CONGRESS  2d Session  H. R. 8599  IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES   April 30, 2026   Mr. Bell  (for himself,  Mrs. Wagner ,  Mr. Cleaver ,  Mr. Bost , and  Ms. Budzinski ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the  Committee on Oversight and Government Reform    A BILL
To direct the United States Postal Service to submit a report to Congress on mail and package delivery service performance in the St. Louis region, and for other purposes.
1.
Short title
This Act may be cited as the   St. Louis Postal Accountability and Reform Act  .
2.
Findings
Congress finds the following:
(1)
The United States Postal Service serves as a critical piece of social and economic infrastructure for millions of residents and businesses in the St. Louis metropolitan area.
(2)
In August and September of 2025, the United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General published two audit reports in response to congressional inquiries from Senators and Representatives from Missouri and Illinois: the Office of Inspector General Audit Report 25–097–R25,  Efficiency of Operations at the St. Louis Processing and Distribution Center, St. Louis, MO  and the Office of Inspector General Audit Report 25–100–R25,  Kansas-Missouri District: Delivery Operations—St. Louis, MO .
(3)
The Office of Inspector General found that the Kansas-Missouri District ranked among the lowest-performing postal districts in the country for mail delivery from May through July 2025, averaging 4th out of 50 districts nationwide, and below average for package delivery during the same period.
(4)
The Office of Inspector General identified over 89,000 pieces of delayed mail across seven audited delivery units on a single morning in June 2025, the majority of which went unreported in the United States Postal Service’s internal tracking system, limiting management’s ability to identify and address service failures.
(5)
The Office of Inspector General found that the St. Louis Processing and Distribution Center missed its letter processing clearance time target more than half of the days reviewed between February and April 2025, and identified millions of delayed mailpieces during a site visit in June 2025.
(6)
The Office of Inspector General found that staffing shortfalls, including high turnover, elevated vacancy rates, and workforce availability below the United States Postal Service’s own goals, contributed to operational challenges at both the St. Louis Processing and Distribution Center and Kansas-Missouri District delivery units.
(7)
The operational challenges identified in the 2025 audits are consistent with deficiencies documented in a prior Office of Inspector General audit of the St. Louis Processing and Distribution Center in July 2022, and Congress has an obligation to ensure that corrective actions are implemented and that St. Louis-area residents and businesses receive the reliable postal service they are entitled to.
3.
Report on mail and package delivery service performance in the St. Louis region
Not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Postmaster General shall submit, to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate, a report evaluating First-Class Mail service performance in the St. Louis region for fiscal years 2023, 2024, and 2025. Such report shall include—
(1)
a comparison of on-time delivery performance for First-Class Mail, Marketing Mail, Priority Mail, and Ground Advantage products in the St. Louis region against—
(A)
the national average;
(B)
similarly sized postal processing districts; and
(C)
the Kansas-Missouri District’s own performance in prior years;
(2)
an explanation of the causes of any service performance in the District that lags behind national averages;
(3)
an analysis of workforce conditions across the St. Louis Processing and Distribution Center and Kansas-Missouri District delivery units, including—
(A)
vacancy rates by position type, including clerks, mail handlers, carriers, maintenance personnel, and supervisors;
(B)
turnover rates for carriers and clerks;
(C)
absenteeism and unscheduled leave rates; and
(D)
the operational impact of workforce shortages on mail processing, transportation, and delivery;
(4)
an assessment of the accuracy of delayed mail reporting in the Delivery Condition Visualization system and the Mail Condition Visualization system across the Kansas-Missouri District, including a description of any systemic underreporting and the steps taken to correct it; and
(5)
the status of corrective actions taken in response to deficiencies identified in the Office of Inspector General Audit Reports 25–097–R25 and 25–100–R25, including—
(A)
progress toward filling vacancies at the St. Louis Processing and Distribution Center and Kansas-Missouri District delivery units;
(B)
improvements to preventative maintenance completion rates on automated equipment;
(C)
load and unload scan compliance trends;
(D)
outbound trip on-time, cancellation, and extra-trip rates;
(E)
package scanning accuracy across Kansas-Missouri District delivery units; and
(F)
implementation of the 12 recommendations issued in the Office of Inspector General Audit Report 25–097–R25 and the 2 recommendations issued in the Office of Inspector General Audit Report 25–100–R25.
4.
Accountability
The Postmaster General shall include in the report required under section 3 a description of the management accountability systems in place at the St. Louis Processing and Distribution Center and Kansas-Missouri District delivery units to prevent recurrence of the operational deficiencies identified in the Office of Inspector General Audit Reports 25–097–R25 and 25–100–R25, including—
(1)
the performance metrics and oversight structures used to monitor mail processing, transportation, and delivery operations on an ongoing basis at the St. Louis Processing and Distribution Center and Kansas-Missouri District delivery units;
(2)
the steps taken to ensure that delayed mail is accurately reported in the Delivery Condition Visualization and Mail Condition Visualization systems across all Kansas-Missouri District delivery units, and the mechanisms in place to verify reporting accuracy at the district, area, and headquarters levels; and
(3)
the processes in place to ensure that staffing shortfalls are identified and addressed in a timely manner, including recruitment, retention, and workforce planning strategies specific to the St. Louis region.