{"id":40268,"date":"2026-09-25T09:38:36","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T14:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=40268"},"modified":"2026-09-25T09:38:36","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T14:38:36","slug":"senator-rounds-issues-statement-following-release-of-usps-oig-report-on-south-dakota-mail-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2026\/09\/25\/senator-rounds-issues-statement-following-release-of-usps-oig-report-on-south-dakota-mail-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator Rounds Issues Statement Following Release of USPS OIG Report on South Dakota Mail Service"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rounds requested OIG investigation in December 2025<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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WASHINGTON <\/strong>\u2013 9\/24\/26 – U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today issued a statement following the release of the United States Postal Service (USPS) Office of the Inspector General\u2019s (OIG) report on the status of mail service in South Dakota. This investigation was requested<\/a> by Rounds in December 2025. The report comes following USPS\u2019s announcement that the Sioux Falls processing facility will be upgraded to a regional facility at Rounds\u2019 request, keeping more intrastate mail in South Dakota.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s encouraging and unsurprising that the Inspector General\u2019s report studying the mail service in South Dakota shows evidence to back up what we\u2019ve been hearing and seeing for years: the United States Postal Service is not adequately serving South Dakotans,\u201d said Rounds<\/strong>. \u201cWe\u2019ve heard from thousands of South Dakotans who have real concerns about their mail service. Veterans aren\u2019t getting prescriptions on time, bills are arriving after they\u2019re due and newspapers are old news by the time they make it to your doorstep. At the same time, Postal Service executives are receiving bonuses and airport lounge memberships while telling South Dakotans there are no problems. Today\u2019s report states otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m grateful to Inspector General Tammy Hull and her team for their thorough review process in South Dakota and their thoughtful recommendations for improvements,\u201d continued Rounds<\/strong>. \u201cI\u2019m also grateful for all of the South Dakotans who have sent feedback and contributed to this report. We\u2019ll be watching the USPS\u2019s team closely to see if and how these recommendations are implemented, and whether they actually make meaningful improvements in delivery time. Until then, we\u2019ll keep the pressure on and continue to fight for a return to service standards that not only meet but exceed expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the report HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

BACKGROUND<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

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<\/a> 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<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

In September 2025, Rounds sent a letter<\/a> to Postmaster General David Steiner urging him to restore reliable mail service and requesting a meeting. Rounds and Steiner met<\/a> in 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

In December 2025, Rounds requested<\/a> an investigation into persistent issues with USPS delivery in South Dakota. In April 2026, Rounds was notified<\/a> that 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. As a result, two Postal Service Board of Governors nominees were removed from the legislative calendar in August 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rounds requested OIG investigation in December 2025 WASHINGTON \u2013 9\/24\/26 – U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today issued a statement following the release of the United States Postal Service (USPS) Office of the Inspector General\u2019s (OIG) report on the status of mail service in South Dakota. This investigation was requested by Rounds in December 2025. […]<\/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-40268","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\/40268","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=40268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40269,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40268\/revisions\/40269"}],"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=40268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}