Congress to consider legislation to prevent mail theft

Legislation seeking to crack down on increasing mail theft is expected to debut on the House floor later this week, according to a report by the Associated Press.

Is increasing mail theft a problem? In May, the United States Postal Service implemented Project Safe Delivery, laying out measures to prevent thieves from holding up postal workers and taking their master keys to mailboxes, where they could access public mail. The USPS said it would upgrade its box locking systems to prevent such thefts. It later issued an update to Project Safe Delivery, increasing the monetary rewards for information leading to the capture of mail thieves.

But Congress hasn’t done anything about this? In May last year, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, proposed legislation in the House and Senate simultaneously. Bills H.R. 3456 and S. 1641 each ordered the Comptroller General of the United States to investigate the matter and submit a report to Congress.

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read Harvest Prude’s report about how the USPS proved a sticking point in government COVID-19 relief efforts.