Updated at 5:07 p.m.
Vermont’s congressional delegation has received more than 2,000 complaints from constituents about mail service so far this year, the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Postmaster General David Steiner on Friday.
“As you know, the Postal Service’s Delivering for America ten-year plan was launched in 2021, supposedly to modernize and support the financial self-sustainability of the postal network,” the letter begins. “Five years into this plan, mail delivery service in Vermont is at an all-time low, staffing shortages in the state are pervasive, and USPS has not improved its financial outlook.”
The Postal Service did not respond to a request for comment.
Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., sent the letter to Steiner to share Vermonters’ complaints about the U.S. Postal Service and posed a series of questions to his office that they hope to have answered by Sept. 1.
“It’s clear the national leadership of USPS isn’t delivering for Vermont,” Welch said via email to VTDigger. “The postal service is a critical public service, and we want answers about what steps USPS is taking to improve delivery for Vermonters.”
The letter cited local news coverage about Vermonters receiving only one or two days of mail delivery per week, leading to paperwork mishaps, missed birthdays and gaps in prescription medications.
The issue has also affected state government operations: According to the letter, the Vermont Agency of Administration has reported two separate batches of vehicle titles have been lost in the mail.
“These incidents not only create unnecessary administrative burdens for the state, they also present real security threats to customers’ most sensitive personal information,” the letter said.
Steve Hutkins is a mail quality advocate who tracks Postal Service news on his blog Save the Post Office. He said he wasn’t surprised to hear that Vermonters have been experiencing poor service — because he’s been hearing about it, nationwide, for years.
Data from the Postal Service shows that about 84% of first-class letters in the Maine-New Hampshire-Vermont region get to their destination on time, roughly in line with the national average but far below the Postal Service’s target of 90% to 95%.
But even that “on time” designation is suspect, since the Postal Service has changed its definition, so what was supposed to take two days is now supposed to take three, Hutkins said.
“They slow down the literal standard of what it’s supposed to be, and then they can’t even make the new, more relaxed standards,” he said.
The letter alleges that some Vermont postal workers are being told to prioritize Amazon and United Parcel Service deliveries over traditional USPS mail service, delaying the mail further. That, too, is a national issue, Hutkins said.
Postal workers are “being told at the office, ‘Get those Amazon packages out, because we have to have a high rating with Amazon,’” he said.
Among the congressional members’ questions are several asking about what the Postal Service is doing to address an alleged staff shortage.
“In January 2026, USPS’ NNE District Office confirmed to the Vermont Congressional Delegation that Vermont lags behind its regional neighbors in new employee recruitment numbers,” the letter reads. “What resources or strategies have you committed directly to the NNE District to boost statewide hiring efforts?”
Hutkins said federal reports have shown the Postal Service particularly struggles to retain “pre-career” employees, temporary workers who do not have the same benefits as career employees and are not guaranteed a regular schedule.
“The usual problem is, the job is too hard,” he said. “They don’t like the forced overtime. Then people get burned out really quickly.”
He said rural mail carriers might struggle even further because their routes take them down mountainous dirt roads.
The three congressional members also expressed concern about the possibility of mail-in ballots not arriving in time to be counted for the election, since mail-in ballots must be received by local election officials by the close of polls on Election Day, according to the Vermont secretary of state.
According to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, Vermont has a relatively low rate of mail-in ballots getting rejected, including for late delivery — only 0.2% of returned ballots in 2024.
Hutkins said the Postal Service takes “extraordinary measures” to ensure that mail-in ballots are delivered promptly for November elections. But the rhetoric from the federal government against mail-in ballots has some advocates worried.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March that would require states to share voter information with the U.S. Postal Service in order to utilize mail-in ballots. A group of Democratic states challenged the order, taking the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it is pending.
“This is a huge deal, and the Postal Service is right in the middle of it, and that’s why it’s provoking questions like that from Vermont elected officials,” Hutkins said.
