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Hi,
Louis DeJoy has been such a disaster since Donald Trump put him in charge of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) that even Republicans are demanding that he pause the implementation of his 10-year plan to shrink the USPS.1
And to make things worse, DeJoy just announced a new round of cuts that will slow down mail delivery even more — and this time he's specifically targeting rural communities for increased delays.2
There's already been a huge drop in on-time delivery under DeJoy, even as he's jacked up postage rates again and again.3,4 And the rural communities he's targeting for additional cuts are exactly the communities that are most reliant on the Postal Service for basic needs like Social Security checks, medications, and mail-in ballots.5
We need to ramp up the pressure on the Postal Service's Board of Governors to fire Louis DeJoy before he completely runs the U.S. Postal Service into the ground.
Louis DeJoy has no business running the USPS. He doesn't understand or believe in the mission of the post office, which is to provide a necessary public service, not to make a profit like a private corporation. In fact, he was only appointed by Donald Trump after he contributed over $1.1 million to Trump's 2016 campaign.6
The results since he took over have been disastrous.
DeJoy's 10-year so-called "modernization plan" includes shutting down as many as 400 sorting-and-delivery facilities nationwide.7 He has cut operations at more than 200 locations, causing on-time delivery rates to crash through the floor.8 The new cuts he announced last week will, by his own admission, cause increased delays for 1 out of every 4 pieces of mail delivered to rural communities.9
Now, you might think that President Biden could just fire DeJoy, but that's not how it works. Unlike cabinet secretaries and many other agency heads, the postmaster general can only be fired by the Postal Service Board of Governors.
In February, President Biden was finally able to appoint two new members of the Postal Service Board of Governors. In July, the Board called on DeJoy to halt further implementation of his plan to shrink the post office.10
Now that he's openly defying their wishes, it's time for the Postal Service's Board of Governors to pull the plug and fire Louis DeJoy.
With gratitude,
The team at Demand Progress Action
Sources:
1. United States Senate, "Postmaster General DeJoy and U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors," May 8, 2024.
2. CBS News, "USPS says it wants to save $3 billion a year. Some rural mail delivery could get slower.," August 23, 2024.
3. Save the Post Office, "Looking at mail delays by the numbers: USPS Service Performance in Q2 FY2024," May 1, 2024.
4. Axios, "USPS stamp prices are going up again in July," May 31, 2024.
5. Vox, "If the US Postal Service fails, rural America will suffer the most," April 16, 2020.
6. The Washington Post, "FBI investigating Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in connection with past political fundraising," June 3, 2021.
7. The Guardian, "'It's going to delay the mail': the fight over Louis DeJoy's USPS plan," December 15, 2023.
8. Government Executive, "USPS Lists Hundreds of Post Offices and Other Facilities Where It Will Consolidate Operations," August 26, 2022.
9. CBS News, "USPS says it wants to save $3 billion a year. Some rural mail delivery could get slower.," August 23, 2024.
10. Government Executive, "USPS regulator says DeJoy should pause all network reform efforts," July 3, 2024.
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