Deputy Postmaster General Ronald Stroman has reportedly been forced out of his position, throwing the leadership of the U.S. Postal Service into further chaos as the agency faces a potentially catastrophic financial crisis and efforts by Trump administration officials to impose draconian changes on the nation’s most popular government institution.
The American Prospect’s David Dayen reported Tuesday that Stroman resigned from his post earlier this week. “Sources indicate that Stroman was forced out,” Dayen tweeted.
Reports of Stroman’s ouster came less than a week after the USPS Board of Governors announced its selection of Louis DeJoy — a leading donor to the Republican Party and President Donald Trump — to serve as postmaster general as the agency continues to navigate the Covid-19 crisis, which has resulted in a precipitous decline in mail volume. Current USPS chief Megan Brennan, who is retiring effective June 15, has warned Congress that the agency could face financial ruin by the end of September without a rapid infusion of emergency funds.
DeJoy will choose the next deputy postmaster general.
https://twitter.com/tyburr/status/1260304773854658560
Days before the USPS Board of Governors publicly announced its decision to appoint DeJoy, news broke that David Williams, the vice chair of the board, resigned effective April 30. Dayen, who has been reporting on the Postal Service for years, wrote last week that Williams’ resignation is “distressing” because “nobody is more knowledgeable about the inner workings of the Postal Service than David Williams.”
“He was the longtime Inspector General who wrote the famous (to me, anyway) white paper in 2014 arguing for the return of postal banking,” Dayen wrote. “Worst of all, my sources indicate that this was a resignation in protest.”
Williams was reportedly upset at the Trump Treasury Department’s efforts to use a congressionally approved $10 billion loan to force significant changes to USPS operations. According to the Washington Post, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin “could use the loan as leverage to give the administration influence over how much the agency charges for delivering packages and how it manages its finances.”
“In recent days, the Postal Service’s board has appeared open to some of the Trump administration’s terms,” the Post reported last week.
The 200,000-member American Postal Workers Union accused the Trump administration of exploiting the coronavirus crisis to privatize the agency.
Recent behind-the-scenes machinations at the Postal Service could have immense real-world consequences as the U.S. barrels toward the November elections without a nationwide, universal system in place for mail-in voting, which advocates say is necessary to safely conduct elections amid the coronavirus pandemic.
With Stroman and Williams gone, the USPS Board of Governors, which sets policy for the agency, is now almost completely controlled by Trump appointees. Stroman’s departure leaves the board with five members, short of the quorum required to conduct business.
“Stroman was specifically key on elections and vote by mail — this is not a good sign,” tweeted ProPublica’s Jessica Huseman in response to reports of Stroman’s resignation.
Stephen Wolf of Daily Kos Elections echoed Huseman’s warning, calling turmoil at the Postal Service “an existential threat to voting safely by mail in November.”
“Trump is intent on installing his partisan lackeys in control of the Postal Service,” said Wolf, “while congressional Republicans try to force it into insolvency so they can privatize it.”
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.
After the election, 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’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy