Even in a drama-filled election like any other, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and its attack on the postal service stood out.
After Trump appointed the businessman to head the agency, DeJoy largely failed in his mission to help the former president discourage voters from voting by mail, but the evidence suggests his policies and the pandemic decimated the postal service. Now, many, including Democratic lawmakers, are asking Biden to act quickly to remove him and the board of governors of the United States Postal Service, Trump’s majority.
Although Biden does not have the authority to remove DeJoy, he could immediately appoint a Democratic majority council that could fire the postmaster general, but the government has yet to act. This left many asking “Why?”
“We think he can act quickly and he must act quickly and he must be bold – there is no debate about anyone being confirmed by the Senate, so let’s make him strong and powerful,” he said. Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union.
But it can take some time for that to happen. Representative Gerry Connolly, chairman of the government’s operations subcommittee, which oversees the postal service, labeled DeJoy a “big problem” and is asking Biden to fire the entire council, but told the Guardian that he does not think it is “a fair question” why president did not act during his first three weeks in office.
“Give him a little time. We are dealing with huge problems – a pandemic, huge economic challenges, he needs to make appointments to the cabinet, he has his environmental agenda, ”added Connolly. “But that needs to be on the priority list and I believe it will be.”
Representative Tim Ryan, who in January sent a letter to Biden asking him to “clean the house,” emphasized that delays in bill payments, late checks and late drug deliveries cause problems for many Americans and underscored the urgency. Although DeJoy refused to release delivery data by the 2021 deadline, the December figures made public in lawsuits show that only about 40% of first class mail was arriving on time – up from 92% the previous year.
Read more about Tom Perkins’ report here: Democrats ask Biden to fire USPS’s top Trump ally who decimated the courier service