While Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is reportedly preparing to announce plans for another round of service reductions and operational changes, President Joe Biden is facing increasing calls from lawmakers, postal service providers and others to take urgent steps to protect the U.S. Postal Service. of further damage, paves the way for DeJoy’s removal, and strengthens the agency’s finances for the near and distant future.
The Washington Post reported over the weekend that DeJoy – a Republican megadonor of former President Donald Trump – soon intends to set out ” a new vision for the agency, one that includes more service cuts, higher and region-specific prices and lower delivery expectations. ‘
“We want a board of governors that fundamentally understands that it’s not called the United States Post Office. It’s not a for-profit enterprise. It’s here to serve the people.”
—Mark Dimondstein, American Postal Workers Union
Meanwhile, the Post noted, “Congress Democrats urge President Biden to install new board members, creating a majority bloc that could oust DeJoy, a Trump loyalist whose aggressive spending cuts over the summer have been singled out for much of the performance -daling. “
Appointed unanimously by the Trump-appointed postal service board of governors in May, despite his total lack of experience with the postal service in May, DeJoy wasted no time in making professional operational changes to the postal service, leading to a decline in performance coming weeks. from, during and after the November presidential election – which led to accusations of politically motivated sabotage of the country’s most popular government institution.
While DeJoy was forced to suspend some of its operational changes last year in the wake of a nationwide uproar and numerous court orders, it seems the postmaster general now intends to continue with his plan to paralyze the agency – a plan with democratic legislators and postal workers campaigning for the action of the Biden administration.
Because Biden has been banned by law from dismissing DeJoy outright, Democrats in Congress are urging the president to end every incumbent governor – including those who have publicly welcomed the postmaster – general’s changes because they are nationwide delays with packages and delays the delivery of prescription drugs and mail in ballot papers – and replaces them with officials willing to remove the postmaster general and protect the agency.
“My solution starts at the top: to oust the entire board that chaired Trump and DeJoy’s destruction of USPS. Clean house,” Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (DN.J.) tweeted Sunday.
Late last month, as General dreams reportedly, Pascrell became the first congressional Democrat to ask Biden to remove the sitting members of the Board of Governors, which currently consists of four Republicans and one Democrat – all appointed by Trump. Under federal law, the president has the power to remove post governors “for a cause.”
“The refusal of the councilors to resist the worst destruction inflicted on the Postal Service was a betrayal of their duties and is undoubtedly a good reason for their removal,” Pascrell argued.
Days later, Representative Tim Ryan (D-Ohio.) Upheld Pascrell’s claim and accused board members of complicity in “unprecedented sabotage” of the email service.
“The response of the USPS leadership to the unscrupulous delays we are experiencing with the post is unacceptable,” Ryan wrote in a letter to Biden on January 29. “We must do right by the American people, and we must do right by our postal workers and postmen.”
Last week, USA TodayThe editors joined the growing chorus and demanded that Biden remove the incumbent governors, pointing out that “beyond the appointment of DeJoy, the Board of Governors is chaired by a former Republican National Committee chairman appointed by Trump. be used. “
The USPS board meets on Tuesday for the first time since Biden’s election victory. Like the Post Saturday reported: “DeJoy told postal industry officials he intends to remain in office to institute a reorganization of the agency … The plan, parts of which were set out to a Senate panel in August, contains “Geographic prices and longer delivery windows. He is entertaining rental properties in the postal service and offering non-postal services, such as private financial services.”
Biden could not terminate the incumbent governors, but rather could fill the three remaining vacancies in the House of Commons – a move that would give Democrats a majority and possibly the number of votes needed to oust DeJoy. Candidates for the postal council must be confirmed by the Senate.
In the interest of protecting USPS from DeJoy and strengthening the postal agency as a civil service, Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), calls on Biden to make ‘brave appointments’ to the Board of Governors.
“We want a board of governors that fundamentally understands that this is not called the United States’ postal business,” Dimondstein told the Associated Press on Sunday. “It’s not a profitable business. It’s here to serve the people.”
Democratic lawmakers and the APWU are also demanding that the USPS Fairness Act be implemented swiftly, legislation that will require the heavy mandate that requires the postal service to pay benefits to retirees decades in advance. The House passed the bill last year, but then-Senate leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Refused to allow a vote on the measure in the upper house.
“Congress needs to pass the USPS Fairness Act again,” Pascrell tweeted Sunday. “We did it last year and McConnell blocked it for 333 days. Let’s ordain it again. ‘