- Democrats on Friday asked President Biden to replace the USPS board of governors.
- “We can start fixing the post office by dismissing the leadership,” said Congressman Bill Pascrell Jr.
- Postmaster General Louis DeJoy was sued by the NAACP in August.
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Members of Congress on Friday called on President Joe Biden to replace all members of the US Postal Service board of governors, saying that they had allowed Postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, in his “damaging” political decisions.
“There should be no tolerance for their silence or complicity in overseeing these damaging political changes that have also eroded public trust in this agency,” said Sen. Tammy Duckworth in a letter sent to the president.
Congressman Bill Pascrell Jr. said about Twitter, “Americans don’t want to hear excuses. We can start fixing the post office by laying off the leadership.”
He added: “Louis DeJoy was appointed by Trump to slow down his correspondence and destroy his Post Office. He is corrupt and needs to go.”
The president has the power to appoint governors to the board of the USPS, which functions in much the same way as the board of a public company. The nine governors appoint the general postmaster.
Democrats’ calls for Biden to replace governors came as DeJoy’s USPS team planned new updates, which were supposed to increase some postage rates and remove first-class mail, according to reports from The Washington Post and NBC News.
“This job is not only necessary, it is long overdue,” DeJoy told NBC News on Friday.
As of Saturday, there were six governors appointed to the USPS board, leaving three vacancies. The vice-postmaster position was also vacant.
At the White House on Thursday, press secretary Jen Psaki was asked whether Biden planned to act quickly to fill vacancies on the USPS board.
Psaki said, “I don’t have any personal announcements or specifications for the determinations of – or, I must say, the factors that influence those decisions. But, you know, the president remains concerned about what happened last fall and improvements he would like to make. see at the Post Office. ”
Read more: The definitive timeline of Louis DeJoy, the North Carolina man that Trump put in charge of the post office after he and his wife gave millions to Republicans
Both the USPS and DeJoy, a former Republican donor, were sued last fall by the NAACP and other civil rights groups.
The groups said delays in postal delivery were an act of self-sabotage for the US postal system in “a blatant attempt to deprive voters of color”, many of whom planned to use postal ballots for the November elections.
AACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said at the time: “This stubborn and blatant attempt to obstruct the mail system in the midst of a pandemic and the precipice of a crucial election is a direct threat to the people from the right to vote in a fair and free election. ”
In his letter to Biden, Duckworth said significant work would be needed to rebuild confidence in the USPS.