WASHINGTON — 7/22/26 – Today, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) announced he will introduce the No Bonuses for Bad Service Act to prohibit United States Postal Service (USPS) leadership from receiving bonuses or additional compensation until mail service and delivery meet the standards that the American people deserve. The bill comes after Senator Hawley launched an investigation into USPS’ failure to deliver Missourians’ mail on time.
“While Missourians don’t receive their mail on time, the Postmaster General receives a hefty bonus each year. I am introducing the No Bonuses for Bad Service Act to ensure postal service leadership isn’t receiving bonuses while Americans’ mail goes undelivered. It’s time for the Postmaster General to do his job and put Americans first,” Senator Hawley said.
The No Bonuses for Bad Service Act would:
- Prohibit the USPS Board of Governors from approving any additional compensation for the Postmaster General and Deputy Postmaster General for a fiscal year in which the Postal Service does not meet or exceed an on-time delivery rate of 95% for all market dominant mail products.
- Require the Postal Service to submit its annual delivery rate report to the Postal Regulatory Commission.
The United States Postal Service (USPS) has posted staggering financial losses in recent years, including $25 billion over the last three fiscal years, more than $6 billion beyond USPS’s own internal projections. At the same time, USPS has repeatedly raised postage rates on American households and businesses while consistently missing its own service standards. On-time delivery has continued to slip. Residents in rural areas wait weeks to receive mail. Recently in Missouri, a massive pile of undelivered mail was discovered in a vacant lot without explanation from the Postal Service. These delays and missing mail are becoming a real financial burden for those Americans who don’t receive their bills or paychecks.
Despite these failures, Postal Service executives have been rewarded with lavish bonuses. Over the past ten years, Postmasters General have received more than $2 million in additional compensation, even as delivery performance declined and the budget numbers got worse. During the last three years of Louis DeJoy’s tenure alone, the Board of Governors approved more than $567,000 in additional bonus compensation. Postmaster General David Steiner, who assumed office just a year ago, has already pocketed a $170,000 bonus. Senator Hawley directly confronted Steiner about these bonuses in a recent committee hearing, and the Postmaster refused to forgo bonuses until the mail is delivered on time.
Read more about Senator Hawley’s ongoing investigation here.
Watch Senator Hawley’s full exchange with Postmaster General Steiner here.
It’s about time someone pulled back the veil on what really goes on inside the management of the USPS, and it’s not a pretty sight. We can only hope that this is the beginning of an extensive housecleaning that’s long overdue. The American people have suffered too long and the Steiner-Tulino regime have plummeted service scores towards the bottom, all the while citing phony numbers that are “going up.” This is an insular bunch that’s always thought themselves untouchable and thrived on unaccountability, while treating their employees poorly, going so far as to change and delete their clock rings, effectively stealing from them. Their cozy relationship with the NALC has lead to a near revolt on the grass roots level of the union, sparking real concern that the next election results may be rigged if not properly monitored. It’s probably going to be difficult to get the USPS on the right track as long as Steiner and Tulino are there, and it’s also going to be difficult to get the NALC back on track as long as Renfroe is there. Hopefully, we’ll see emails among these three that will expose what’s been going on. Hawley should subpoena them.