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# SD postal problems largely unchanged as Congress weighs legislation
- URL: https://www.sdnewswatch.org/south-dakota-postal-service-mail-congress-legislation/
- Published: 2026-08-30T09:00:59.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-30T09:00:58.000Z
- Description: U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds began his pressure on the U.S. Postal Service in December. Among the feedback received: Post office employees asked to hide piles of mail.
- Author: Molly Wetsch
- Tags: News/Investigations

Nine months after U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds urged the U.S. Postal Service to take action on shoddy postal delivery services in the state, some South Dakotans experiencing long waits are seeing incremental improvements while most regions still lag far behind.

The slight improvements are limited to mail sent from elsewhere to some parts of the state, and most outbound mail delivery has gotten worse or not changed at all, according to USPS data. 

Rounds, a South Dakota Republican who's up for re-election this year, has largely led the charge to reform USPS operations in the state. 

Beyond the data, he has shared anecdotal evidence indicating the problem is far from solved, even as USPS begins investigating its own performance in South Dakota. 

## Legislation would tie postal staff bonuses to delivery times

Rounds started his effort in December [when he asked the organization's inspector general, Tammy Hull](https://www.rounds.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/rounds-requests-investigation-into-postal-service-issues-in-south-dakota?ref=sdnewswatch.org), to "determine the root cause of mail issues impacting South Dakota." In April, Rounds [confirmed via X](https://x.com/SenatorRounds/status/2042256882136666382?ref=sdnewswatch.org) that representatives from the inspector general's office were in South Dakota to investigate the delivery service in the state. In June, he asked South Dakotans to send their complaints with USPS to the inspector general's office.

And this month, Rounds sponsored the [USPS Executive Benefit and Bonus Removal Act](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/5373/text?ref=sdnewswatch.org), which passed a hearing with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and will now head to the Senate floor. That legislation would prohibit bonuses for high-level postal service staff as long as issues with delivery continue.

“The (Office of the Inspector General) reiterated to my team and to me that they had to do this investigation (in South Dakota) clandestinely. If Postal Service leaders caught wind of where OIG representatives were going to be on which days, they could try to manipulate the results. Turns out, they were correct,” Rounds said in a speech on the Senate floor earlier this month.

“As soon as it was announced that the OIG team would be heading to South Dakota, my team heard from local post office employees that they were being asked to hide piles of mail.”

In July, USPS petitioned for a waiver to raise rates early next year, which was [shot down by the Postal Regulatory Commission](https://prc.arkcase.com/api/prc-dockets/filing/downloadFile?fileId=256225&inline=true&ref=sdnewswatch.org). The postal service asked for the waiver in order to "transition to a January rate change cycle in 2027 in a financially responsible manner." 

In response, the commission said that it "recognizes the Postal Service's challenging financial situation," but the request "creates a situation where the risk of overestimating rate authority is a financial burden on households and businesses." 

The USPS did not respond to a request seeking comment. 

"Over the past year or so, my team has heard from thousands of South Dakotans expressing their frustrations and frankly, anger, with poor mail delivery in our state," Rounds said on the Senate floor.

## Service improves in some regions, stays stagnant in others

Reporting from News Watch in June showed that newspaper publishers across the state struggled with both the cost and speed of their paper's delivery to subscribers, which often disproportionately affected small-town papers. 

The same was true for regular mail delivery to areas in rural South Dakota, as packages made circuitous journeys across the United States that, in some cases, take multiple weeks.

Don Ravellette, who publishes newspapers in Philip, told News Watch in June that he feels like decisions are being made at the national level that aren't considering the needs of rural America.

"They just won't listen. They just won't," he said.

[‘They just won’t listen:’ Rural SD’s USPS frustrations growPostal service tries to modernize but has significantly hindered day-to-day life and operations.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/cb/ab/cbabab5e-2dc6-462c-94a0-b72956c0d224/content/images/icon/SDNW-Logo-Vertical-1330163c-e98f-4f15-9038-1a34af39e030.jpg)South Dakota News WatchMolly Wetsch![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/cb/ab/cbabab5e-2dc6-462c-94a0-b72956c0d224/content/images/thumbnail/postbox-1-636ca48d-2697-4991-9ccb-d037634c46c7.JPG)](https://www.sdnewswatch.org/usps-postal-delays-newspaper-delivery/)

The [U.S. Postal Service tracks its on-time](https://spm.usps.com/?ref=sdnewswatch.org#/main) inbound and outbound delivery stats for certain types of mail for every ZIP code in the country, tracking by week, month, quarter and year. In June, that data showed that rural South Dakota ZIP codes saw staggeringly slower delivery rates of newspapers than the more urban eastern portion of the state.

The percentage of inbound periodicals delivered on time improved or stayed the same in Q3 for nearly every ZIP3 region in the state, except for the 577 ZIP3 region in the far west, which saw a decrease from 80% to 78% on-time delivery. 

Outbound delivery also saw slight improvement or relatively similar rates in most regions. But ZIP3 regions 577 and 570 saw significant decreases in on-time delivery. In the 570 ZIP3 code, 76% of periodicals arrived on time from April 1 to June 30, compared to 85% in the first part of the year.

The average days it takes to deliver periodicals – both in- and out-bound – remain relatively high, especially in central and northern South Dakota, where times reach as long as 5.4 days in the 574 region.

In June, South Dakota NewsMedia Association executive director Dave Bordewyk told News Watch that several newspapers in the state are struggling with retaining subscribers amidst longer delivery times. He said subscribers expect to receive papers when the news is still current.

"All the newspapers mail us copies of their paper to the (SDNA) office here in Brookings," Bordewyk said. "One-hundred newspapers are sending them to us. It used to be by the end of the week, by Friday – because most weeklies would be printing and mailing on a Tuesday or Wednesday – we would see more than 90% of the newspapers. Today, by Friday, less than half of them are showing up."

[Share your thoughts on this story](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScdTmGFf24Uhwiwd%5FndSxHkv6oBGSAy1LxF9BbwRbhBK5KflA/viewform?usp=sf%5Flink&ref=sdnewswatch.org)

**South Dakota News Watch* is an independent nonprofit. *Read*, *subscribe* for free and *donate* at* [*sdnewswatch.org*](http://sdnewswatch.org/?ref=sdnewswatch.org)*. *Contact* reporter/*[*Report for America*](https://www.reportforamerica.org/?ref=sdnewswatch.org) *corps member Molly Wetsch: 605-531-7382/*[*molly.wetsch@sdnewswatch.org*](mailto:molly.wetsch@sdnewswatch.org)*.*