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United States Postmaster General Louis DeJoy speaks during a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on legislative proposals to put the Postal Service on a sustainable financial footing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, February 24, 2021.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
House Democrats on Tuesday called on the Biden administration to end the US Postal Service’s $ 482 million contract with Oshkosh Defense to help modernize the service’s aging fleet of delivery trucks until an investigation can prove that there was no “inappropriate political influence” in the award.
Democratic Reps Marcy Kaptur and Tim Ryan of Ohio and Jared Huffman of California have introduced a resolution that would suspend the contract until an investigation is conducted. Kaptur said in a statement that the investigation would also determine whether the contract is “in line with the presidential decree to electrify the federal fleet.”
The USPS announced on February 23 that it had awarded the first part of the 10-year, multibillion-dollar contract to update the fleet of postal delivery vehicles to Oshkosh Defense. Shares of Workhorse Group, an Ohio-based electric vehicle company that competed for the contract, fell nearly 50% the next day and have barely recovered since then. Shares jumped nearly 8% on Tuesday, closing at $ 16.35.
Under the contract, Oshkosh would manufacture up to 165,000 postal vehicles over the next decade, or about a third of the federal government’s fleet, according to the announcement. However, USPS chief Louis DeJoy recently told lawmakers that only 10% of the new fleet will be electric, which “would be incompatible” with President Joe Biden’s efforts to electrify the entire federal fleet. , said lawmakers.
According to the statement, lawmakers are also concerned about reports of “suspicious” stock transactions that were placed just hours before DeJoy’s announcement of the deal.
“Ten percent makes no sense and goes against President Biden’s recent order to electrify the federal fleet,” said Kaptur, who chairs the House appropriations subcommittee on the development of Energy and Water and co-chairs the House Auto Caucus.
Shares of Oshkosh Corporation, the parent company of Oshkosh Defense, fell slightly on Tuesday.
– CNBC’s Pippa Stevens contributed to this report.
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