[Two more members of the Postal Service Board of Governors finish
their terms in December. Biden could replace them with members willing
to fire the postmaster general.]
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DEJOY’S CONTINUED JOB SECURITY DEPENDS ON BIDEN’S NEXT MOVE  
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David Dayen
August 17, 2022
The American Prospect
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_ Two more members of the Postal Service Board of Governors finish
their terms in December. Biden could replace them with members willing
to fire the postmaster general. _

Postmaster General Louis Dejoy talks after President Biden signed the
Postal Service Reform Act of 2022, in the State Dining Room at the
White House in Washington, April 6, 2022., Susan Walsh / AP Photo

 

Perhaps no question inspires more frustration, anger, and genuine
disbelief within the Democratic base than “Why is Louis DeJoy still
running the U.S. Postal Service?” Postmaster General DeJoy, the
former logistics CEO who was appointed during the Trump presidency,
has long been criticized for a series of actions that have both
degraded the quality of the venerable institution and raised costs.
Yet he continues to serve and implement his agenda during Joe
Biden’s presidency. Rank-and-file Democrats cannot seem to fathom
this.

It is technically true that the decision on whether DeJoy retains his
position is not up to the president. The Postal Service Board of
Governors, a nine-member collection of directors, is responsible for
hiring and firing the postmaster general. Last year, the
administration expressed
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about the postmaster general’s leadership” and “serious issues
with the job he’s doing running the Postal Service,” just two of a
host of comments from administration officials about DeJoy. But at
that time, press secretary Jen Psaki insisted that “it’s up to the
board to make a determination about leadership.”

That was a bit disingenuous. Presidents nominate and the Senate
confirms the board members. So there’s only one degree of separation
between Biden and the end of the DeJoy era at USPS. The current
composition of the board, which includes holdovers from the Trump
years, maintains majority support for DeJoy. However, the terms for
two DeJoy allies expire in December, and if Biden were to install
replacements in those seats who wanted to see DeJoy removed, they
would have enough support to do so, according to close observers.

_MORE FROM DAVID DAYEN_ [[link removed]]

Last week, 83 public-interest groups wrote to the president
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him to find board members “who will hold the current Postmaster
General Louis DeJoy accountable for his destructive leadership and
advocate strongly for the expansion of USPS services.” The
coalition, known as Save the Post Office, has secured a meeting with
the Biden administration to discuss the board situation,
the _Prospect_ has learned.

Yet there is no guarantee that Biden will replace those members with
DeJoy opponents, or even at all. Board members have the ability to
hold their seats for up to a year even after their terms expire, and
recent history has seen multiple vacancies on the board more often
than not. With a scramble for floor time during the remainder of this
Congress’s current term, dealing with postal governor positions may
not be a priority item.

That would be a mistake, says Porter McConnell, co-founder of the Save
the Post Office coalition. “I know the grassroots is still very
pissed about DeJoy and doesn’t understand why he’s there,”
McConnell said. “[The administration] could decide to take the
political win. Or decline to do so for reasons unknown.”

A White House official said there were no personnel announcements to
be made at this time.

THE MEMBERS WITH EXPIRING TERMS are William Zollars
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a Republican, and Donald Lee Moak, a Democrat. Both were confirmed in
June 2020 and both have terms that expire on December 8, 2022. Both
Zollars and Moak have expressed support for DeJoy
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the recent past. In February 2021, Zollars specifically said that
DeJoy had “support on both sides of the aisle”; he was referring
to both Moak and Ron Bloom, the former chair of the board, who was
ousted
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November of last year when his term expired.

Politically, there is probably no greater and easier victory for the
White House than ending the service of Louis DeJoy.

Moak’s presence has been one reason why DeJoy has continued in his
position, despite Biden having appointed a majority of the board and
all of its other Democrats. Roman Martinez, a Republican, serves as
board chair, despite the fact that Republicans only hold four of the
board’s nine slots.

The Save the Post Office letter states that the current Board of
Governors has failed to perform proper oversight while DeJoy has
degraded the quality of the USPS. The coalition criticizes Biden’s
November 2021 appointments, Republican Derek Kan and Democrat Dan
Tangherlini, as having “close ties to the predatory private equity
and real estate industries” and failing to show “a credible
commitment to defending USPS or ousting DeJoy.” (Tangherlini was the
chief operating officer of Artemis Real Estate Partners, a private
equity real estate firm.)

Like many independent commissions and government boards, the Postal
Service Board of Governors has a requirement that only a bare majority
of its members, in this case five out of nine, be affiliated with the
president’s own party. However, board member Amber McReynolds, whom
Biden appointed in 2021, is a registered independent. Therefore,
it’s technically possible for Biden to replace Moak and Zollars with
Democrats who align with the vast majority of the Democratic base in
opposing DeJoy. That would ensure enough votes to fire DeJoy, even if
McReynolds or one of the previously serving Democrats (like
Tangherlini) opposed it.

Critics of DeJoy say there’s ample reason for his removal. Under his
leadership, the USPS has instituted a controversial ten-year plan
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explicitly calls for longer delivery schedules, shorter hours at some
postal facilities, consolidation of mail and package sorting
facilities, and higher rates for some first-class mail. On-time
delivery continues to lag behind the USPS’s self-imposed standards
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and the next set of rate hikes are scheduled for January, even after
DeJoy used his own authority
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multiple occasions to raise prices.

A reform law passed this year that ended the prefunding of postal
workers’ retirement benefits and moved retired employees onto
Medicare more than halved
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USPS’s long-term structural deficit. But DeJoy has stressed that the
agency must break even by 2030, a goal he intends to achieve by
reducing transportation and workforce costs, with the loss of 50,000
employees through attrition
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for the coming years.

Additionally, package revenue dropped in the latest quarter, a
significant reversal from the growth it had seen in previous years.
Critics see this as a sign of the USPS losing its reputation and
loyalty under DeJoy.

“Basically, there’s no other place for [DeJoy’s reductions] to
lead to than ultimately privatization,” said McConnell. “If you
piss off enough customers, they’re going to leave.” She added that
DeJoy sees the USPS as a business rather than a service, even as it
continues to hold universal service obligations that are not
profitable in nature. “You won’t be able to meet both masters over
time,” she said.

McConnell and other critics have also savaged DeJoy for effectively
sabotaging a postal banking pilot program that began last October
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Since the launch, only seven people have used the pilot
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which involves cashing checks onto reloadable gift cards with a $500
limit. (One of them was a _Prospect _staffer, who tested it out at
launch.) The USPS has been criticized
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failing to promote the pilot, which is limited to just four post
offices nationally, and for charging high fees for the service. The
Postal Service has defended the rollout
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merely a change in the type of payment available for the existing line
of gift cards.

“A poorly done pilot is maybe worse than no pilot,” said
McConnell. “If you were into self-sabotage, that would be a very
smart strategy.”

Finally, a deal to replace aging postal trucks
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gas-powered vehicles built with non-union labor also created
significant outcry. Under pressure, DeJoy did relent and allow
a greater number of electric postal trucks
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be purchased. The recent Inflation Reduction Act includes $3 billion
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invest in electric postal vehicles.

ONLY ONE OTHER BOARD POSITION, the Republican seat held by chair
Martinez, will come available during President Biden’s first term.
The coalition calls it “one of the last opportunities” Biden will
have to signal a change in leadership at the USPS.

Moak and Zollars have the ability to stay on the board for a year
after their expiration date. In addition, the December 8 end to their
terms could give Congress little or no time in the lame-duck session
to confirm nominees.

However, McConnell pointed out that last year, Biden announced
nominees in November
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before the December 8 end of the terms of the outgoing board members
then. He could do the same here, readying nominees in September who
could be confirmed in the lame-duck before this Congress ends. That
would be critical, as it’s unclear who will control the Senate in
the next Congress.

Politically, there is probably no greater and easier victory for the
White House than ending the service of Louis DeJoy, for whom the
president has never expressed support. It would continue the goodwill
the president has gained with the party base over the past couple of
months with a series of legislative victories. And with the Postal
Service an important player in both election security and
now reproductive rights
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there is ample interest in having a postmaster general who puts the
obligation for reliable service first.

“Now is the time for a Board that will invest in building the Postal
Service of the future,” the letter concludes.

DAVID DAYEN is the executive editor of _The American Prospect_. He
is the author of _Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate
Power_ (2020) and _Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans
Uncovered Wall Street’s Great Foreclosure Fraud_ (2016), which
earned the Studs and Ida Terkel Prize. He was the winner of the 2021
Hillman Prize for excellence in magazine journalism.

_Read the original article at Prospect.org._
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_Used with the permission. © THE AMERICAN PROSPECT, Prospect.org,
2022. All rights reserved._

_Support the American Prospect [[link removed]]._

_Click here [[link removed]] to support the Prospect's
brand of independent impact journalism_

* Postal Service
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* Louis DeJoy
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* Postal Banking
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* Electric vehicles
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* postal workers
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* Joe Biden
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