H.R. 8599 — St. Louis Postal Accountability and Reform Act

This section states congressional findings regarding operational deficiencies of the U.S. Postal Service in the St. Louis metropolitan area, as identified in two 2025 Office of Inspector General audit reports (No. 25-097-R25 on the St. Louis Processing and Distribution Center and No. 25-100-R25 on Kansas-Missouri District delivery operations). The findings include the Kansas-Missouri District's ranking of 4th out of 50 lowest-performing districts nationwide for mail delivery (and below average for packages) from May through July 2025; over 89,000 pieces of delayed mail across seven delivery units on a single morning in June 2025 (mostly unreported); the St. Louis center's failure to meet letter processing clearance targets on more than half of reviewed days from February through April 2025 and millions of delayed mailpieces during a June 2025 site visit; staffing shortfalls due to high turnover, elevated vacancies, and workforce availability below agency goals; and consistency of these issues with a prior 2022 audit.

This section directs the Postmaster General to submit to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, not later than 60 days after enactment, a report evaluating First-Class Mail service performance in the St. Louis region for FY2023–2025. The report must include (1) comparisons of on-time delivery performance for First-Class Mail, Marketing Mail, Priority Mail, and Ground Advantage products in the St. Louis region against the national average, similarly sized postal processing districts, and the Kansas-Missouri District’s prior-year performance; (2) explanations of causes for any District performance lagging national averages; (3) analysis of workforce conditions at the St. Louis Processing and Distribution Center and Kansas-Missouri District delivery units, including vacancy rates by position type (clerks, mail handlers, carriers, maintenance personnel, supervisors), turnover rates for carriers and clerks, absenteeism and unscheduled leave rates, and operational impacts of shortages on processing, transportation, and delivery; (4) assessment of delayed mail reporting accuracy in the Delivery Condition Visualization and Mail Condition Visualization systems across the Kansas-Missouri District, including systemic underreporting and corrective steps; and (5) status of corrective actions responding to Office of Inspector General Audit Reports 25-097-R25 (12 recommendations) and 25-100-R25 (2 recommendations), covering progress on St. Louis and District vacancies, preventative maintenance completion rates, load/unload scan compliance, outbound trip on-time/cancellation/extra-trip rates, package scanning accuracy, and recommendation implementation.

This section requires the Postmaster General, in the report required under section 3, to describe management accountability systems at the St. Louis Processing and Distribution Center and Kansas-Missouri District delivery units to prevent recurrence of operational deficiencies identified in Office of Inspector General Audit Reports 25-097-R25 and 25-100-R25, including (1) performance metrics and oversight structures used to monitor mail processing, transportation, and delivery operations on an ongoing basis at those facilities; (2) steps to ensure delayed mail is accurately reported in the Delivery Condition Visualization and Mail Condition Visualization systems across all Kansas-Missouri District delivery units, and mechanisms to verify reporting accuracy at the district, area, and headquarters levels; and (3) processes to identify and address staffing shortfalls in a timely manner, including recruitment, retention, and workforce planning strategies specific to the St. Louis region.