Mail Traffic Deaths Reporting Act of 2024

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this legislation introduced by Mr. Connolly.

Between 2021 and 2023, truck drivers contracted by the Postal Service were involved in at least 68 different traffic accidents, and 79 people were killed in them.

On February 27, 2024, the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General found that the Postal Service failed to record all mail transport accidents in a central database, including accidents involving truck driver contractors. As a result, the Postal Service failed to have a complete understanding of traffic accidents and the comprehensive safety performance of its mail transport drivers.

With this new information from the inspector general, it is clear that the level of fatalities across this period could even have been higher.

The Mail Traffic Deaths Reporting Act, the excellent bill brought forward by Mr. Connolly, would resolve these serious oversight deficiencies by increasing transparency, comprehension, and understanding of the full scale of mail transport accidents and ultimately improve safety for postal transport drivers and for the public. The bill would require all Postal Service mail transport drivers, including 4,600 postal trucking contractors, to adhere to a range of reporting, tracking, and accountability measures.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Subcommittee Ranking Member Gerry Connolly from Virginia for his great leadership in strengthening Postal Service mail transport safety, and I am pleased to support this legislation.

Mr. Connolly, is it the case that rules that would clearly apply to USPS trucks carrying postal mail have not been applied to the contractors?

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Mr. RASKIN. In other words, the postal truck drivers who are working for the Postal Service have to have all the proper licensure and all the proper certification and training. Presumably the brakes are checked on their trucks, but because of the contracting out, they somehow have been able to escape all the rules we have with respect to road safety?

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Mr. RASKIN. Well, again, I commend the gentleman for bringing this to public attention. That is an extraordinary number of people to lose their lives on the road to private contractors, who seem to have completely escaped the grasp of the rules that have been adopted under the Postal Service. Additionally, we know that the Postal Service traditionally has taken far more serious interest in public safety and public welfare.

Mr. Speaker, this is excellent bipartisan legislation with Congress acting just as it should to address a serious public policy problem, and let's hope that we pass this quickly, the President signs it quickly, and we don't lose any more Americans or Postal Service workers on the road.

Mr. Speaker, I urge everyone to support it, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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