Tammy Baldwin

After Sen. Tammy Baldwin demanded that the U.S. Postal Service respond to complaints of mail delays in Wisconsin, the agency defended its transition to an “optimized” delivery program and boasted of increased staff retention.

In a letter to Baldwin that her office shared with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Michael J. Gordon, a director and government liaison for USPS, said the changes have improved “the efficiency and sustainability” of postal services.

Over the past three years, USPS has implemented and adapted a new cost-saving program – known as the Regional Transportation Optimization program – that eliminated afternoon mail delivery at select post offices.

The change was intended to reduce the number of trips that delivery trucks had to make to and from regional processing facilities. Nearly 400 locations in the Wisconsin region were impacted.

But the project drew criticism for slowing the delivery of First Class mail like bills, absentee ballots, business and legal correspondence, and other time-sensitive documents.

Gordon denied that the program was causing delays, writing that the one-trip-a-day structure adds "hours – not days – to how long it takes that mail to be transported for processing.”

However, Baldwin said that since USPS' response, constituent complaints have continued to grow. Both rural and metropolitan constituents are reporting spotty service, going days without receiving letters and waiting weeks or months before packages arrived at intended destinations, she said.

“In recent years, I’ve heard from hundreds of Wisconsinites who are fed up with the delays, staffing shortages, and unreliable service that seem to be the new normal at the Postal Service,” Baldwin said in a statement.

In a recent survey conducted by the Journal Sentinel, several respondents complained of letters or mail packages that were delayed.

The Postal Service has been at risk of running out of money for years. In April, it paused payments to worker retirement funds, staving off its cash crisis until sometime between 2031 and 2034.

In his letter, Gordon said that eliminating the need to make multiple trips per day to pick up and drop off mail reduces costs significantly for post office locations that serve ZIP codes more than 50 miles from a regional processing facility.

Wisconsin has three regional processing facilities in Madison, Milwaukee and Green Bay.

“All First-Class Mail will still be delivered within the service standard maximum of five days, with the vast majority being delivered in the same time frame or faster than it is currently,” Gordon wrote.

USPS says Wisconsin staffing vacancies have improved

Aside from shipping delays, Baldwin described widespread staff shortages at USPS facilities across Wisconsin over the past five years.

In response, Gordon said that as of this spring, Wisconsin had 11,058 field employees and 343 vacancies – a vacancy rate of just 3%. Over the past year, the agency has hosted more than 99 job fairs, he said.

He also shared data that showed improvement from 2024 to 2025 in employee retention rates.

In his letter, Gordon said the agency has strengthened its recruiting and hiring practices, standardized its onboarding process, and improved how it manages employees in their first 90 days of employment.

He encouraged Baldwin to support the agency's efforts by sharing job openings and hiring fairs.

But Baldwin said she expects more from the federal agency.

She raised concerns that mail delays could impact Wisconsinites’ ability to vote in elections this November, which will determine the governorship and the lean of the Wisconsin Senate and Assembly.

Earlier this year, Baldwin called on the USPS to reverse its new rules for postmarking mail, arguing that many consumers rely on the postmark to prove that ballots and taxes are completed on time. She also pushed for an investigation into mail delays during the 2026 Wisconsin spring election.

In June, ahead of the midterm elections, Baldwin called on USPS not to implement the Trump administration's recent executive order to restrict voting by mail in states that do not provide voter lists to the federal government.

“It is simply unacceptable. The USPS can and must do more to protect this vital service for Wisconsinites who rely on it to pay bills, get their medications, and cast their ballots," she said.

Consumers can track USPS service delays through the agency’s service alerts webpage at https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/.

Tamia Fowlkes is a Public Investigator reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She can be reached at [email protected].

Have you experienced recent USPS mail delays in Wisconsin? Let us know.