With his perpetual sneer, Louis DeJoy gives the impression that if we touched him, our hands would feel slimed. He is the perfect sum of all that was wrong (that we know of) with the former occupant of the White House. Now, an invigorated Democratic party is bearing down on the man who is trying to take down our precious United States Postal Service (USPS).
The ex-president installed DeJoy as the postmaster general less than a year ago, and he immediately started dismantling a valued service that has been with us since 1860. He had the very expensive rapid-sorting machines dismantled for parts. The Scientific American reported:
‘The American Postal Workers Union filed a grievance against the U.S. Postal Service over the agency’s plans to decommission 671 mail-sorting machines at facilities across the country. Although a few such machines are normally replaced each year because of wear and tear, this mass removal would involve a significant percentage of the more than 8,500 pieces of automated processing equipment that the USPS uses nationwide.’
President Joe Biden cannot fire DeJoy, as smarmy as he is. But the president can install three people to the USPS governing board, whom he has already nominated. Then, they will be able to fire him.
Chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) liked the idea of having President Biden involved. This committee oversees the president’s nominees’ confirmations, according to The Washington Post:
‘I’m pleased the Biden administration is making the postal board of governors a top priority,” said We need to get qualified nominees in these seats who will work with Congress to ensure the Postal Service is focused on strong service performance — and we need to do it quickly.’
Chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Representative Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), said:
‘I applaud President Biden’s nominations of three new members to the Postal Service Board of Governors. It is crystal clear that the Postal Service’s performance and its financial condition have deteriorated significantly, and new and better leadership is urgently needed. I also commend the President for his continuing commitment to appoint individuals who represent the diversity of America. The board nominations today reflect that commitment.’
Representative Cori Bush (D-MO) asked the postmaster general:
‘Do you see it as a problem that the board of governors of the United States Postal Service looks like a millionaire White boys’ club? [M]ore than 35 percent of postal workers are people of color.’
DeJoy answered that the White House and the Senate were totally in control of the nomination process:
‘[T]he Postal Service would love to have a diverse board that reflects its population. The quicker we get some new board members from the administration, the less we can talk about this and move on to the plan and the real, real problems that we need to fix here.’
Art Sackler is in charge of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service. This is an industry group consisting of commercial mailers such as Amazon, eBay, and other like organizations. DeJoy managed one of this sort of organization and owned stock in it. The man who began Amazon, Jeff Bezos, also owns The Washington Post. Sackler said:
‘We’re very encouraged that the administration moved this fast. We hope there will be a speedy confirmation process.’
DeJoy slid past most of the committee’s questions about his strategic plan for the USPS. Thus far, all he has offered is slower service and higher prices, which fits neatly into a Republican concept of privatizing the Post Office. For example, he wanted to did not want to end two-day delivery windows for local mail:
‘[But he was] evaluating all service standards [and] some percentage of where the reach is right now may change. [Y]ou need to define local. If we in fact get the relief that we need in terms of time, we will put more mail on the ground.’
Then, he said there were issues with the USPS’ air transportation network, and that caused the holiday delays. It could not have been the destruction of the rapid-sorting machines, of course.
Representative Jamie B. Raskin (D-MD) pointed out that mailing and logistic experts believed that DeJoy’s changes would “gridlock the entire postal network:”
‘It sounds like your solution to the problems we’ve identified is just surrender.’
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
