Democratic lawmakers issued fresh calls late Monday for President Joe Biden to remove all six members of the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors to enable the ouster of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy after the board declared its “full support” for the Republican megadonor accused of openly sabotaging the agency.
“Instead of holding DeJoy accountable, the USPS Board of Governors confirmed what I always suspected was true: The six current members are all DeJoy loyalists,” tweeted Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.).
Duckworth was reacting to the response she received from the postal board regarding her March 25 letter demanding it fire DeJoy for cause, citing his “pathetic 10-year plan to weaken USPS” as evidence that “he is a clear and present threat to the future of the postal service and the well-being of millions of Americans, particularly small business owners, seniors, and veterans, who depend on an effective and reliable USPS to conduct daily business, safely participate in democracy, and receive vital medication.”
A little over a week ago, I called on the USPS Board of Governors to fire DeJoy.
Today, I received the letter below informing me that, "DeJoy continues to enjoy the Board's full support…"
RT to tell them how unacceptable this is. pic.twitter.com/0QDIxnVJQa
— Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) April 5, 2021
The letter to Duckworth signed by postal board chairman Ron Bloom described DeJoy as a “transformational leader” who “continues to enjoy the board’s full support.”
The new 10-year strategy, the letter asserts, will “achieve service excellence adapting the postal service to the evolving needs of the American people, which will make our product offerings more attractive to prospective customers.”
Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-N.J.) — who called on Biden in January to purge the postal board for having remained silent during “the devastating arson of the Trump regime” — criticized the board’s response to Duckworth.
“Every single member of the postal board should be fired,” Pascrell tweeted Monday. “They’re openly complicit in DeJoy’s sabotage and arson. Fire every board member then fire DeJoy.”
Duckworth, in a separate tweet Monday, said, “I’m re-upping my February request that @POTUS use his legal authority to remove the entire Board for cause.”
The lawmakers’ calls were echoed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
“We’d love to see some spring cleaning at the postal service. Fire Louis DeJoy,” the government watchdog tweeted.
Slower mail and higher prices aren't bugs in Louis DeJoy's new 10-year plan – they're features. The plan will guarantee the Postal Service's death spiral.
Folks, our fight to #SaveThePostOffice isn't over. pic.twitter.com/ifrBiivJDZ
— Rep. Gerry Connolly (@GerryConnolly) March 29, 2021
Last month, over 50 U.S. House members, including Pascrell, similarly urged Biden to replace the postal board, the only body with the power to directly fire the postmaster general. The lawmakers said in the letter that the current six members of the board should be replaced “with nominees of the caliber of your recent nominees for the three vacant board seats.” The letter added:
Under the tenure of this BOG, the postal service was blatantly misused by President Trump in an unsuccessful gambit to influence a presidential election, the Postal Service is currently failing to meet its own service standards with historically low rates of on-time delivery, and conflicts of interest appear to be a requirement for service. Because of their lax oversight, many families struggling through the pandemic still await delivery of their stimulus checks, credit card statements, or event holiday cards. The nonpartisan Postal Service Office of Inspector General found that the BOG allowed their hand-picked postmaster general (PMG) to implement significant operational changes in the milieu of the election and the pandemic without conducting any research into the impacts and ramifications of these changes.
“The board has remained silent in the face of catastrophic and unacceptable failures at a moment when the American people are relying on the postal service the most,” the lawmakers wrote. “It is time to remove all governors and start over with a board vested with the expertise and acumen this nation needs in its postal service leadership.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 143 new monthly donors before midnight tonight.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy