Trump’s Postmaster General wants to stay at work, but his days in the Biden administration can be numbered

However, President Joe Biden faces increasing pressure from fellow Democrats to withdraw DeJoy, amid months of complaints about delays in mail delivery – including prescription drugs.

“(L) hrough the devastating blaze of the Trump regime, the USPS Board of Governors has remained silent,” Rep. Bill Pascrell, a Democrat from New Jersey, wrote in a letter to Biden in January. “Their dereliction can no longer be forgotten.”

Complaints about the Postal Service began shortly after Trump’s appointment with a mandate to cut costs and make things more efficient. The Postal Service gained attention for all the wrong reasons in the months leading up to Election Day, in an election cycle with an unprecedented number of postal ballots.

Now Americans are still complaining about terribly slow delivery. Lawmakers urged the Postmaster General to deal with constituents’ complaints about delays in mail order drug sales and credit card bills. And the public outcry on social media over Christmas cards arriving months after the season, parcel notices warning of “unforeseen delays” and missing tracking numbers that offer no indication of the delivery date continued. to plague the USPS in recent months.

In his letter to Biden, Pascrell noted that the president has the power to fire board members “only for good cause”, although this is not clearly defined. So far, the new administration has not responded to Pascrell’s letter.

With only six out of nine seats filled, the current board of governors consists of two Democrats and four Republicans. Before stepping down in December, Trump tried to consolidate his control over the board by appointing a fifth Republican member, but the nomination was not submitted to the Senate until Biden took office.

Biden now has the power to stack the board with supporters of his agenda and vision for the giant agency. With three seats open and two more members beyond their term limit, Democrats are calling on Biden to do just that and appoint a new roster of board members who could eventually overthrow DeJoy.

David Partenheimer, a spokesperson for the Postal Service, did not respond directly to CNN’s request for comment on the calls to oust DeJoy, instead saying the Postmaster General and others were working from aggressively “to make improvements to” the agency to “provide better service to all Americans in every household.”

The White House declined CNN’s request for comment, but during Monday’s White House press conference, press secretary Jen Psaki dodged a question when asked if Biden thought the Minister for Posts should keep his post and so the president would change the composition of the board to facilitate his removal.

“Well, as I understand it, there are currently a number of vacancies on the post office board, or vacancies … which, of course, would work their way through a personnel management process. I don’t think I have anything more for that, for you, “Psaki told reporters at the White House press conference.

A source close to Biden’s transition team told CNN that the administration was receptive to suggestions from board members, but no sort of movement on the nominations seemed imminent. Five days after taking office, Biden appointed a Democrat as the new chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission – a role that does not require congressional oversight.

Judges block changes to DeJoy and Biden’s orders

DeJoy emerged from obscurity last summer, sounding the alarm bells with aggressive new strategies that rocked the USPS months before the country was ready to vote by mail in unprecedented numbers. Federal judges across the country have issued unprecedented rulings to temporarily prevent DeJoy’s changes from being implemented ahead of the election.

In such a decision in September, a New York federal judge ruled that the agency must prioritize election mail and reverse certain key policy changes imposed by DeJoy. The judge also denounced “management failures” to the agency which he said undermined public confidence in postal voting.

Critics have linked DeJoy, a Republican megadonor, to Trump and his repeated rhetoric undermining postal voting. Eventually, a beleaguered DeJoy suspended some of the changes until the election was over.

Biden, meanwhile, campaigned to save the Postal Service, and days after taking office, he signed an executive order directing federal officials to come up with a plan to convert the Postal Service’s 225,000 vehicles to “electric vehicles.” zero emissions ”. A USPS source told CNN that the move would save USPS millions of dollars in maintenance costs, but there was still no clear indication of where the money was coming from to implement the change.

Some people close to the Postal Service are also concerned that further steps to help the agency may not happen quickly enough, as the administration has promised so much to go after the whole government. But time is running out – a disastrous financial report by USPS estimated a net loss of $ 9.7 billion in 2021, another huge achievement for an already crippled agency.