Press Releases

For Immediate Release                             Contact: Michael J. McQuerry
September 3, 2021                                                    202-215-8524

PRESS STATEMENT

CONGRESSWOMAN PLASKETT RELEASES STATEMENT ON DELAYED LETTER MAIL IN THE VIRGIN ISLANDS

St. Croix, USVI - Congresswoman Stacey E. Plaskett released the following statement regarding the recent delay on inbound letter mail to the Virgin Islands:

“According to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) regional office in Puerto Rico, between the dates of Friday, August 20 and Friday, August 27, there was a suspension of inbound and outbound mail processing operations for the Virgin Islands at the San Juan, PR facility due to structural issues at the processing center. As a result, there was no letter mail delivered to our territory for a week. My office was not made aware of this issue until my team in the Virgin Islands noted the issue and local constituents reached out with their concerns about not receiving mail. Additionally, I am very concerned that neither the local constituency nor the Virgin Islands USPS employees were advised of this issue until days after the suspension of mail processing at the San Juan facility. This is entirely unacceptable and is a clear reminder of a continually occurring, systemic issue that we have in receiving mail from Puerto Rico—fundamentally it is unreliable.

“Based on the most recent USPS update regarding Virgin Islands mail processing, my office has been informed that until the San Juan processing center is operational, the mail processing operations for Virgin Islands in-bound letter mail from the Continental US, Alaska and Hawaii has been moved to the New York Morgan Station and the processing for out-bound letter mail for all destinations domestic and international has been moved to the Memphis, Tennessee processing center. Additionally, please note that according to the USPS regional office, large packages and inter-island mail processing and delivery for the Virgin Islands have not been impacted.

“I have been in conversations with the Vice President of Retail & Delivery Operations, Southern Area of the U.S. Postal Service and USPS leadership at the regional level to address the immediate problem, what effective solutions can be employed to resolve this issue moving forward, as well as the ongoing issues with the U.S. Postal Service in the Virgin Islands.”

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