HOUSTON — KHOU 11 News was the first to report on massive mail delays across the Greater Houston area beginning in mid-December. We alerted Congressman Al Green who began looking into the frustrating postal problems that left thousands of customers waiting for packages containing everything from important prescriptions to wedding gowns.
Months later, we’re continuing our coverage with the latest updates on efforts to ensure USPS delays don't happen again.
Back in February, staff members for Green, Rep. Pete Sessions and Rep. Sylvia Garcia toured the Missouri City facility, one of the distribution sites where piles of packages were stuck in limbo.
After the tour, they met with USPS to discuss the problems and what they're doing to fix them. USPS said future outgoing operations will be in one site with state-of-the-art technology to speed delivery.
Green is also demanding changes in the way USPS communicates with the public.
“I thought it would be -- and Congresswoman Garcia agreed -- appropriate to have a town hall meeting and let us hear from the masses of people who have these concerns,” Green said.
The postal service declined.
"Regarding your request for a "town hall" - style meeting, please know it has been considered and we must respectfully decline the suggestions," USPS said in their written response.
“They've said no to a town meeting, they said no to having somebody on site who's going to provide information,” Green told us. “But they have said that they'll let the press come in. So, I’m anxious to see if they'll honor that request.”
If customer communication doesn't improve, Green said he'll take action.
“Then we have to consider whether we're going to ask Congress to have an official hearing, a congressional hearing, or whether we should ask them to rearrange their communications department, restructure the communication department so that they can better communicate with the public by way of the press,” he explained.
Despite hearing fewer complaints, the congressman still has concerns.
“We have to have some degree of concern for the election that will take place in November, which will be much larger in terms of the volume of mail associated with it,” the congressman explained.