Postmaster General Louis DeJoy of the United States Post Office speaks during a hearing of the House Oversight and Reform Committee on legislative proposals to place the postal service on sustainable financial bases at the Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 24, 2021
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
House Democrats asked the Biden government on Tuesday to stop the US Postal Service’s $ 482 million contract with Oshkosh Defense to help modernize the aging fleet of service delivery trucks until an investigation can prove that there was no “inappropriate political influence” on the prize.
Democratic representatives Marcy Kaptur and Tim Ryan of Ohio and Jared Huffman of California introduced a resolution that would suspend the contract until an investigation was conducted. Kaptur said in a statement that the investigation would also determine whether the contract is “consistent with the president’s executive order to electrify the federal fleet”.
The USPS announced on February 23 that it signed the first part of the 10-year multibillion-dollar contract to upgrade the fleet of postal delivery vehicles for Oshkosh Defense. Shares in the Workhorse Group, an Ohio-based electric vehicle company that was competing for the contract, fell nearly 50% the next day and have barely recovered since. The shares jumped nearly 8% on Tuesday, closing at $ 16.35.
Under the contract, Oshkosh would, over the next decade, manufacture up to 165,000 postal vehicles, about a third of the federal government’s fleet, according to the announcement. However, USPS chief Louis DeJoy recently told lawmakers that only 10% of the new fleet would be electric, which “would be inconsistent” with President Joe Biden’s efforts to electrify the entire federal fleet, lawmakers said.
According to the statement, lawmakers are also concerned about reports of “suspicious” stock talks that were made just hours before DeJoy announced the deal.
“Ten percent doesn’t make sense and goes against President Biden’s recent order to electrify the federal fleet,” said Kaptur, who chairs the Chamber’s Subcommittee on Appropriations for Energy and Water Development and co-chairs the Chamber’s Automobile Chamber. .
Shares in Oshkosh Corporation, the parent company of Oshkosh Defense, closed slightly on Tuesday.
– Pippa Stevens from CNBC contributed to this report.