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The suspension of inbound and outbound mail processing in Puerto Rico has led to delivery delays of U.S. Virgin Islands mail, and Delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett said Friday her office has been working with USPS officials to rectify the matter, even as the congresswoman expressed concerns and dissatisfaction with the manner the situation was handled.
Governor Albert Bryan said Friday the delivery of Income Tax refunds and the Child Tax Credit, which started going out last week, may be impacted.
Ms. Plaskett said that according to the U.S. Postal Service regional office in Puerto Rico, between the dates of Friday, August 20 and Friday, August 27, there was a suspension of inbound and outbound mail processing operations for the Virgin Islands at the San Juan, PR facility due to structural issues at the processing center.
"As a result, there was no letter mail delivered to our territory for a week. My office was not made aware of this issue until my team in the Virgin Islands noted the issue and local constituents reached out with their concerns about not receiving mail. Additionally, I am very concerned that neither the local constituency nor the Virgin Islands USPS employees were advised of this issue until days after the suspension of mail processing at the San Juan facility. This is entirely unacceptable and is a clear reminder of a continually occurring, systemic issue that we have in receiving mail from Puerto Rico—fundamentally it is unreliable," she said.
Ms. Plaskett added, “Based on the most recent USPS update regarding Virgin Islands mail processing, my office has been informed that until the San Juan processing center is operational, the mail processing operations for Virgin Islands in-bound letter mail from the Continental US, Alaska and Hawaii has been moved to the New York Morgan Station and the processing for out-bound letter mail for all destinations domestic and international has been moved to the Memphis, Tennessee processing center. Additionally, please note that according to the USPS regional office, large packages and inter-island mail processing and delivery for the Virgin Islands have not been impacted."
The congresswoman said she has been in conversations with the vice president of Retail & Delivery Operations, Southern Area of the U.S. Postal Service and USPS leadership at the regional level to address the immediate problem, what effective solutions can be employed to resolve this issue moving forward, as well as the ongoing issues with the U.S. Postal Service in the Virgin Islands.
