{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://cleaver.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/reps-cleaver-and-graves-demand-postmaster-general-listen-missourians", "Reps. Cleaver and Graves Demand Postmaster General Listen to Missourians on Poor Mail Service", "2023-03-21", "2023", "2023-03", "Democrat", "House", "MO", "Emanuel Cleaver", "C001061", "cleaver.house.gov", "cleaver", "https://cleaver.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "(Washington, D.C.) \u2013 Today, U.S. Representatives Emanuel Cleaver, II (D-MO) and Sam Graves (R-MO) wrote United States Postmaster General Louis DeJoy requesting the Postmaster General personally host a listening session in Kansas City to hear complaints directly from area residents about the Postal Service\u2019s failure to provide reliable mail delivery six days per week as required by the Postal Service Reform Act and lay out a plan for the agency to address these deficiencies.\n\n\u201cA stable, consistent, and responsive Postal Service is not a Republican or Democratic issue\u2014it\u2019s an essential function of government that hardworking families rely on and have come to expect over the past two centuries,\u201d said Congressman Cleaver. \u201cUnfortunately, under the leadership of Postmaster General DeJoy, we\u2019ve seen this beloved institution quickly devolve into a sad display of constant delays, infrequent deliveries, and endless excuses. I hope that the Postmaster General will accept this opportunity to hear directly from the people of Kansas City, and work with Congressman Graves and myself to ensure the USPS is meeting the needs of Missouri families.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe US Postal Service is one of the few functions the federal government should do\u2014and should do well, but they aren\u2019t,\u201d Graves said. \u201cThe Postal Service has completely abandoned their legal responsibility to provide reliable 6 day mail delivery to Missourians in the greater Kansas City area. Worse still, they\u2019ve offered empty excuses and failed to deliver any real plan to fix this mess. We\u2019re inviting Postmaster General DeJoy to Kansas City to hear the struggles of our constituents firsthand and lay out a clear plan for the agency to live up to its promise.\u201d\n\nThis letter follows an October 11, 2022 letter sent by Reps. Cleaver and Graves to Postmaster General DeJoy, expressing concerns about the agency\u2019s failure to fulfill their Congressionally mandated duty to provide six-day mail delivery. In December, the Postal Service responded by complaining about low unemployment rates in the Kansas City area and encouraging residents to apply to work at the Postal Service, without offering any plan for the agency to fulfill their Congressional mandate to provide reliable six-day mail delivery.\n\nThe official letter from Reps. Cleaver and Graves is available here.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T23:30:02Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://cleaver.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/reps-cleaver-and-graves-demand-postmaster-general-listen-missourians"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6604489646852016, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}