Rounds Pushes Postmaster General to Restore Reliable Mail Service in South Dakota
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) sent a letter to Postmaster General David Steiner urging him to restore reliable mail service in South Dakota. Customers across the state are facing persistent delays, with letters and newspapers mailed within the state taking weeks to arrive.
“Feedback from my constituents is clear: USPS service has significantly declined across South Dakota,” said Rounds. “It is therefore clear to me that USPS’s operational changes are failing South Dakota and do not comply with USPS obligations for universal service under federal law.”
“P.S. I am emailing this to you because if I mailed it, you might not receive this letter in time,” concluded Rounds.
Rounds has been a leader on USPS issues in South Dakota, leading the push to keep local processing facilities in South Dakota. In April 2024, Rounds sent a letter to USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy urging USPS to avoid downsizing or significantly reorganizing mail processing operations in South Dakota. As a result, in February 2025, USPS committed to keeping the Dakota Central processing facility in Huron open, as well as investing $3 million in improvements to the facility. Rounds also secured a commitment from former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to keep mail that originates within South Dakota from leaving the state for processing.
In addition, Rounds first introduced the Postal Processing Protection Act in June 2024, legislation that would require USPS to consider consequences for rural areas during their closure or downsizing review process in order to protect rural mail processing facilities. Rounds recently reintroduced this legislation in the 119th Congress.
Earlier this year, Rounds introduced the Deliver for Democracy Act, which would protect rural newspapers and consumers from unjustified price hikes by making certain the Postal Service is held to a standard for on-time deliveries. Rounds is also the Senate lead on the Instituting Notification Formalities on Reorganizing Mail (INFORM) Act of 2025, legislation to require the USPS to post a physical notice within impacted storefronts explaining any proposed changes in service.
Read the full text of the letter HERE or below.
+++
Dear Postmaster General Steiner:
I write to express serious concerns about persistent and widespread United States Postal Service (USPS) delays occurring across South Dakota.
Last year, I expressed significant reservations about USPS not adequately considering the impact of facility realignment/downsizing under the Mail Processing Facility Review on rural states like South Dakota. As a result, Postmaster General DeJoy made a personal commitment to me that South Dakota mail would stay in the state. He also assured me that mail in South Dakota would still meet service standards.
Neither is happening. In recent weeks, I have heard from hundreds of constituents across South Dakota voicing substantial issues with USPS service in my state. These issues are caused by the flawed design of the USPS network, which all but guarantees that mail traveling across or to South Dakota must travel in a circuitous manner through locations around and outside of the state. The result is that mail in South Dakota is delivered well outside of acceptable standards. These delays are worsened by implementation of transportation optimization schemes, which have caused USPS to deliver dozens of local newspapers late.
I have also heard of significant delays from veterans who depend on USPS for vital medications. USPS delays also mean that by the time a veteran’s Community Care Network appointment letter arrives, the appointment date has already passed and results in a missed appointment. Furthermore, a leading private sector regional health care system told me that by the time some delayed medications arrived, they could no longer be used. They also told me that those issues had become persistent and at times reached the “point of jeopardizing patient care.”
Feedback from my constituents is clear: USPS service has significantly declined across South Dakota. It is therefore clear to me that USPS’s operational changes are failing South Dakota and do not comply with USPS obligations for universal service under federal law.
I ask that you immediately investigate these concerns and begin work to make all changes necessary to restore reliable mail service to South Dakota. Within the next seven days, I request a meeting to discuss these issues with you and proposed solutions.
P.S. I am emailing this to you because if I mailed it, you might not receive this letter in time.
###
Sadly, Mike gave away all his negotiating power a long time ago. When you capitulate on every single issue, you will be ignored. Well, at least now Mike can advertise that he’s “fighting for South Dakota” or something like that.
Agree with Senator Rounds 100 percent and appreciate his efforts to address this problem.
Elections have consequences.
And… what about the closing of those 14 satellite postal outlets in the Sioux Falls area? Small towns throughout the state have post offices. Some under one hundred in population. But just TWO post office locations in a town of 210,000 people?
What the hell are they thinking?
P.S. I am emailing this to you because if I mailed it, you might not receive this letter in time.
When did everyone just give up on acting like adults?
1. Complain the USPS should be privatized
2. Install Dejoy, who guts the USPS and makes a functional system a broken one.
3. Complain the system is broken.
The next step is privitization. This is such a tired trope.
Rounds can go eat a bucket of feculence, he giddily helped create this mess.
It’s great Senator Rounds wants to fix the USPS. But what about what’s happening in this country with free speech. When is he going to find the courage to stand up to what’s happening in this administration, that he is part of, and shout from the rooftops. THAT’S ENOUGH
Exactly what I was thinking.
Then I read this headline a few minutes ago from NBC News: Military Leaders Consider Recruiting Campaign Centered Around Charlie Kirk
They go on to say… “Possible slogans discussed include ‘Charlie has awakened a generation of warriors.’ There is talk of using Turning Point USA chapters as recruitment centers.”
This makes post office issues seem pretty minor. Outright government censorship coupled with the military now openly recruiting loyalists. But our Washington representatives will likely do nothing about this. What a fool I was for voting for this bunch.
I sincerely believe our democracy is in its last days.
Kimmel was horrible but the idea the gov’t is going to run the media is even worse. Republicans have gone off the deep end.
Agree. Even Ted Cruz called it “unbelievably dangerous” yesterday.
Kimmel was suspended by Disney, not the government. The sponsors were threatening to run, the broadcast affiliates were going to drop the show. :
It’s interesting that the people who are celebrating the fact Charlie Kirk lost his life for the things he said don’t think it’s fair they should lose their jobs for the things they have said..
elK old bean i can’t say i disagree. too bad only our half of the country gets to witness it happening, while the other half gets angry enough about their pretend problems to just finally wipe us out.
This is so… familiar.
Just today, in the news – they are putting up massive banners of Trump’s face on federal buildings in DC. For real.
And some of you are still clueless.
Aberdeen PO is the worst
“Elections have consequences.”
Hmmm I believe “restore reliable mail service” is starboard side deck chair B-63, to be carefully rearranged on the GOP Titanic. PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE ICEBERG WHO BECAME POTUS LAST JANUARY. All is welllllll.
He votes to cut USPS spending and to close distribution centers and then blames the Postal Service. BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. You literally cannot make this shit up!
I believe in cutting our spending. I think we can achieve this by common-sense planning. Sending an invitation to someone in your own town should not require sending it from the local post office to a large city in another state and then having it sent back to the local post office for delivery. A newspaper from a small SD town to another SD town should not take 6 days to be delivered when it used to take 3 days. How cost-effective is it to send a letter from Yankton to Watertown and have it go to Fargo before it reaches Watertown?
so the problem is that the VA is using a carrier so overwhelmed with junk mail that medications are being delayed?
Have you ever had junk mail delivered by FedEx or UPS? Ever wondered about that?
Caremark, the CVS specialty pharmacy, uses UPS. I have been on an infusion therapy for five years now and in five years, only one package of supplies has gone missing. The refrigerated boxes containing the medication have always arrived every 4 weeks on the exact day they are expected with the ice packs still frozen, The trouble with UPS is that the drivers have to keep such a tight schedule that they race down gravel roads at high speeds and throw parcels from their trucks without stopping, destroying the contents, but the last straw was when the driver ran over the neighbors’ dog, and rather than run to their house to tell them the dog was lying injured in the ditch, he sat in the truck and waited for his supervisor to arrive from town to tell them. That’s their corporate policy. The dog died on its way to the vet. We don’t want UPS terrorizing our neighborhood so everything carried by them goes to the UPS store and we pick it up there. So we got that straightened out.
Amazon has their own delivery operation and the only trouble was the drivers had to use a proprietary GPS which resulted in everything being consistently delivered to the wrong side of the road. We got that straightened out, too, but not before raccoons enjoyed the 60 pounds of cat food they left in our yard by mistake.
Walmart uses FedEx. The only problem with FedEx is the drivers leave their trucks open while they make deliveries and they now operate a cat redistribution system. The one cat we were able to reunite with its owner had travelled 14 miles. We are still hoping for a resolution of that problem.
The one thing USPS has going for them is that they don’t kill dogs, feed raccoons, or redistribute cats. So let’s give them some credit for the job they do.
But maybe the VA should choose a different carrier for medications.