: Veteran Rep. Pete Sessions joins Dusty Johnson on postal tour, meeting over delivery snags

The United States Postal Service will install a new-generation package sorting machine in Sioux Falls capable of handling 7,000 packages an hour, Rep. Dusty Johnson said Thursday. 

Johnson, flanked by Texas Rep. Pete Sessions, spoke with reporters after the two congressmen toured USPS’s Sioux Falls Distribution and Processing Center and met with postal officials from the Midwest and the nation. Those officials traveled to Sioux Falls because of Sessions, who is chairman of the subcommittee that has oversight over the USPS. 

“I come from an area that is much like Sioux Falls, South Dakota — pride of ownership, people who have great pride, not only in who they are, but what they’re doing. We saw that at the postal operations center today. We saw people who sincerely care,” Sessions said. 

It was an opportunity for USPS officials to hear concerns from Johnson that have been brought to him by his constituents, and the congressmen learned more about USPS operations in the Midwest. 

“There has been no issue that has emerged more emotionally and more aggressively in the last three years than complaints about the Postal Service,” Johnson said. “It is a relatively new and very hot issue.” 

The new sorting machine can handle packages that weigh up to 30 pounds, and it will replace a machine that is 27 years old while eliminating a lot of hand-sorting that takes place in an era when the Postal Service sees more package volume and fewer letters, Johnson said. 

The two congressmen also learned that Sioux Falls isn’t the problem. The “choke points” are in larger communities that include Kansas City, St. Louis and Chicago, Johnson said. Once packages arrive in Sioux Falls, 90 percent of them are delivered on time. 

“That’s not good enough, but it is materially ahead of what we have seen,” Johnson said. 

Postal Service officials told the congressmen that 190 new employees have been hired for its St. Louis sorting center in an attempt to speed up delivery in the Midwest. 

The USPS did not allow media on the tour or to attend the meeting. Johnson told reporters after the meeting that he made three points to USPS leaders. One of them was better transparency with Postal Service operations. He also told them they need a plan to address the choke points in larger cities, and he requested that they reopen mail service counters at Hy-Vees and Lewis Drug stores. 

“Shutting down the Hy-Vee and Lewis service counters was a massive error,” he said. “I have formally asked for them to reverse that decision.” 

Sessions, who fulfilled a vow he made in January to visit South Dakota, said his staff had been working with people on the ground here to address delivery problems. The Postal Service, he added, is struggling nationwide to adapt to an evolving market with new technologies and workforce problems. People are moving from larger cities to smaller cities, making delivery efficiencies more difficult. 

“These changes mean that the post office needs to adapt themselves, not only in their operations, but also in the number of people, and where they’re located,” he said. 

The USPS has sought to address its problems with more money. It wants to double the amount of debt that Congress allows it to borrow, and there is a “push and pull” about raising stamp prices to a dollar, which Sessions said was “unacceptable.” 

The Texas congressman also lauded Johnson for working to find solutions to the Postal Service’s problems with delivery in the Midwest. 

“I’ve been here 28 years. I’ve seen a lot of people come and go, I’ve seen a lot of people work with the stress of working for their constituents,” Sessions said. “He did a great job in this easy balance today.”