{"id":39678,"date":"2026-06-23T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T20:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=39678"},"modified":"2026-06-23T15:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T20:30:00","slug":"senator-rounds-requests-south-dakotans-submit-complaints-with-postal-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2026\/06\/23\/senator-rounds-requests-south-dakotans-submit-complaints-with-postal-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator Rounds Requests South Dakotans Submit Complaints with Postal Service"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"RawHTML Paragraph--variant--intro\">\n<p><strong><em>Office of the Inspector General is requesting first-hand accounts of poor mail service in South Dakota<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"js-press-release RawHTML mb-5\">\n<p><strong>WASHINGTON<\/strong> \u2013 6\/23\/26 &#8211; U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) is requesting that South Dakotans submit comments to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) detailing the issues they are having with the United States Postal Service (USPS). As part of their investigation in South Dakota at Rounds\u2019 request, OIG is asking for first-hand accounts of poor mail service.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy office continues to hear from South Dakotans on a daily basis about the issues they\u2019re experiencing with mail delivery,\u201d\u00a0<strong>said Rounds<\/strong>. \u201cAt my request, the Office of the Inspector General has opened an investigation into South Dakota\u2019s postal service. They are currently soliciting feedback from South Dakotans as a part of this investigation. I encourage anyone experiencing issues with their postal service to submit a comment to help paint a full picture of USPS problems in our state.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>OIG is taking comments from South Dakotans until July 26, 2026. Click\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.uspsoig.gov\/feedback?source=Network%20Changes:%20Impacts%20in%20South%20Dakota%20-%209873&amp;source_type=upcoming_audit\">HERE<\/a>\u00a0to submit feedback.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BACKGROUND<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p>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\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rounds.senate.gov\/newsroom\/press-releases\/rounds-thune-and-johnson-urge-postmaster-general-to-keep-huron-usps-processing-facility\">sent a letter<\/a>\u00a0to 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\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rounds.senate.gov\/newsroom\/press-releases\/after-rounds-push-usps-announces-huron-mail-processing-facility-will-remain-open\">committed<\/a>\u00a0to 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.<\/p>\n<p>In September 2025, Rounds\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rounds.senate.gov\/newsroom\/press-releases\/rounds-pushes-postmaster-general-to-restore-reliable-mail-service-in-south-dakota\">sent a letter<\/a>\u00a0to new Postmaster General David Steiner urging him to restore reliable mail service and requesting a meeting. Rounds and Steiner\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SenatorRounds\/status\/1978491552654557361\">met<\/a>\u00a0in October. Steiner followed up on the meeting with a letter dismissing the issues raised by Rounds, claiming that the mail delays were caused by issues at processing facilities in Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City despite none of these facilities handling South Dakota\u2019s intrastate mail. USPS leadership continues to deny any issues with South Dakota\u2019s mail service despite the first-hand accounts from South Dakotans that say otherwise.<\/p>\n<p>In December 2025, Rounds\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rounds.senate.gov\/newsroom\/press-releases\/rounds-requests-investigation-into-postal-service-issues-in-south-dakota\">requested<\/a>\u00a0an investigation into persistent issues with USPS delivery in South Dakota. In April 2026, Rounds\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SenatorRounds\/status\/2042256882136666382\">was notified<\/a>\u00a0that the Office of the Inspector General was on the ground in South Dakota to investigate mail service. In June 2026, Rounds sent a letter to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs announcing his intention to place a hold on all USPS nominees until South Dakota\u2019s issues are resolved.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PEN-NEWS.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-29060 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PEN-NEWS-300x176.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"176\" srcset=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PEN-NEWS-300x176.jpg 300w, https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PEN-NEWS.jpg 478w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Office of the Inspector General is requesting first-hand accounts of poor mail service in South Dakota WASHINGTON \u2013 6\/23\/26 &#8211; U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) is requesting that South Dakotans submit comments to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) detailing the issues they are having with the United States Postal Service (USPS). As part [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39679,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39678\/revisions\/39679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}