The postmaster general at times seemed disturbed by the line of questioning from members of Congress, as well as critical media coverage of him and the USPS during his tenure.
DeJoy emphatically noted that he is not a presidential nominee, intervening at one point to correct a member of the Democratic committee who characterized him as a “remnant of Trump”.
“I am not a political nominee,” he said. “I would really appreciate it if you got it right.”
DeJoy’s comments came when he, postal council president Ron Bloom and other officials testified about the need for legislation to support the service’s financial position.
The USPS has reported billions in net losses annually in recent years, and Bloom has testified that it is projected to lose about $ 160 billion over the next 10 years without significant reforms.
A proposal to require postal workers to enroll in Medicare, potentially saving more than $ 40 billion over the next decade, and eliminating the pre-financing requirement for USPS retirees’ health benefits was a rare point of agreement between DeJoy and others.
However, “it doesn’t solve the problem” by itself, added DeJoy.
“We are in a deadly spiral,” he said. “We cannot, even with this legislation, we cannot continue to lose money.”
DeJoy acknowledged that the postal service’s performance declined last year, but said the USPS faces structural problems that were stark for years before its appointment last year.
“The years of financial stress, underinvestment, unattainable service standards and lack of operational precision have resulted in a system that lacks adequate resilience to adjust and adapt to new circumstances,” he testified.
DeJoy told committee members that a strategic plan should be ready in March. But several possible changes he envisaged – including lowering the standards for delivering first-class mail and reducing the use of airplanes to transport mail across the country – have received a cold reception from Congress.
“It looks like your solution to the problems you’ve identified is just to surrender,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (DM.d.). “You are basically saying that because the mail is late under your leadership, we are just going to change the standards and integrate them into the system.”
DeJoy contested such characterizations, but testified that postal workers “are assessing all service standards”. He also said that the objective is to eliminate the budget deficit of the service.
“We don’t want to profit. We are ready to draw, ”he said.
Republicans on the committee widely defended DeJoy and accused his Democratic colleagues of greatness and unfair slander against the postmaster and his attempts to reform the postal service.
“I wish I had given you more credit for that, instead of trying to guess you and prick and micromanage you,” said Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas).
Republicans argued that he was being the scapegoat, mainly for the way the ballots were administered on the eve of the November elections, a stance that at times led to hostile discussions among committee members.
Several of the changes implemented last year under DeJoy have been halted in response to heated outrage over growing delays. In October, the USPS ‘internal watchdog determined that the changes, combined with the staffing challenges related to the coronavirus, “negatively impacted the quality and punctuality of mail delivery.” The inspector general’s report also found deficiencies in the way these policies were implemented.
For weeks, Democrats pressured Biden to take steps to remove DeJoy, and the president promised to quickly appoint new members of the board that oversees the general postmaster. There are three open seats on the USPS Board of Governors, although some Democrats have urged Biden to remove the entire board in order to fill it with people receptive to getting rid of DeJoy – a dramatic move that the question of legal experts would uphold in court .
The postmaster general already testified before Congress in the fall, while concerns were mounting over long delays in delivering paychecks, medications and other critical correspondence. At the time, Democrats were also concerned about the effect that declining performance would have on postal voting, and even accused DeJoy of trying to influence the election in favor of Trump.