On Wednesday, the same day that controversial Postmaster General Louis DeJoy appeared before the House Oversight Committee for a hearing regarding Postal Service operations, President Joe Biden formally announced three new nominees for the Board of Governors for the Postal Service, which is responsible for appointing the Postmaster General. Because of this arrangement, presidents who wish to see a new Postmaster General have to go through the board. Biden’s three new nominees will fill three current vacancies on the nine-seat board, assuming that they’re confirmed by the (currently Democrat-controlled) Senate. The three Democratic picks will also make a Democratic majority on the board.
It's official: Biden has announced three USPS Board of Governors nominees: Anton Hajjar, Amber McReynolds, & Ron Stroman.
Hajjar: Ex-general counsel of the Postal Workers Union
McReynolds: CEO of the National Vote at Home Institute
Stroman: Served as Deputy Postmaster General
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 24, 2021
All six current members of the board are appointees of ex-President Donald Trump, although two of the Trump appointees are Democrats because of a legal demand for a party split. As summarized on Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal, Biden’s new nominees include “Anton Hajjar, the former general counsel of the American Postal Workers Union; Amber McReynolds, chief executive of the National Vote at Home Institute, a nonprofit that advocates for improved mail-in voting; and Ron Stroman, a former deputy postmaster general.”
Besides these qualifications, Hajjar serves on the governing board of the American Law Institute, McReynolds previously served as the Director of Elections for Denver, and Stroman has served in multiple staff positions in the House of Representatives and elsewhere in the federal government. Every current member of the board is a white man, but Biden’s new nominees include two men of color and one woman. Check out their bios below:
Biden makes it official, announces 3 new nominees for USPS board of governors that if confirmed would give him a majority that could oust Louis DeJoy pic.twitter.com/ErdMl6OVnr
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) February 24, 2021
DeJoy took over in 2020, and on-time delivery rates quickly plummeted. These developments posed a serious problem because of the high rate of usage of mail-in voting in the 2020 presidential election because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which made gathering in person at polling places potentially dangerous. Although the presidential election was not significantly disrupted by the Postal Service, concerns remain, because ballots aren’t the only critical items that make their way through the postal system. Americans also receive medications, paychecks, and other items through the mail.
While in charge at the Postal Service, DeJoy has vocally prioritized cost-cutting. Allegedly, he and his team moved to even deny overtime opportunities to postal workers, which would have obviously decreased the work hours available to deal with high volumes of mail, although DeJoy has denied that he cut overtime. Despite DeJoy’s denial, the government watchdog group known as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) recently shared a memo produced by the chief counsel for governmental affairs on the Senate Homeland Security Committee which stated that DeJoy himself ordered the cuts to overtime.
NEW: Louis DeJoy personally ordered cuts to overtime for USPS workers last summer, according to a memo sent to Republican Senate staff and obtained by CREW.
DeJoy denied doing so — under oath — last August.https://t.co/DPMPMIhlEb
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) February 19, 2021
