Biden Nominates 3 To Postal Service Board Of Governors

USPS delivery truck

USPS delivery truck I don’t know about you, but my mail delivery is still sloooooooooow, and the amount of mail I get has dropped off by a lot. This has all happened under the guidance of the new-ish postmaster general Louis DeJoy, a longtime big-dollar donor to the Republican Party and Donald Trump. DeJoy has had a turbulent time in his position with cutting overtime for postal workers and promising slower delivery and higher prices. But that might change as President Biden moves to fill three empty seats on the Postal Service’s governing board. The board is the only mechanism with the power to replace DeJoy. From the Washington Post:

President Biden named two Democrats and a voting rights advocate to fill three of the four openings on the Postal Service’s governing board, according to three people briefed on the discussions and later confirmed by the White House: Ron Stroman, the Postal Service’s recently retired deputy postmaster general; Amber McReynolds, the chief executive of the National Vote at Home Institute; and Anton Hajjar, the former general counsel of the American Postal Workers Union.

If all three win Senate confirmation, the nine-member board would be made up of equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans with McReynolds, whose organization is a darling of left-leaning groups, as the lone independent.

The new slate would create a Democratic advantage and potentially the votes to oust DeJoy, whose summer overhaul led to precipitous service declines that snarled up untold numbers of Americans’ bills, prescriptions and paychecks.

Postal workers have expressed concern during DeJoy’s tenure that he will cut jobs or out-source them to private companies. With that in mind, they have called for his removal. The USPS employs a high percentage of Black and female workers. Plus, a large number of military veterans find good jobs with the postal service.

Nikki Haley Trolled For Throwing Shade At @PopcornFactory

Former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley
Former ambassador to the United Nations, former governor of South Carolina and rumored 2024 presidential hopeful Nikki Haley tried to drag a popcorn company on Twitter for being late on deliveries. It didn’t go well. Especially in light of Donald Trump’s toadie Louis DeJoy now in charge of the United States Postal Service whose new policies are slowing mail delivery down across the nation.

How the United States Postal Service is “going broke”

It was only a few years ago that the USPS was considered not only stable, but thriving. The biggest volume in pieces of mail handled by the Postal Service in its 236-year history was in 2006. The second and third busiest years were in 2005 and 2007, respectively.

Perhaps it was its booming history that first drew Congress’ attention to the Postal Service in 2006 when it passed the Postal Accountability Enhancement Act (PAEA), which mandated that the Postal Service would have to fully fund retiree health benefits for future retirees.

But it even went beyond that. Congress was mandating coverage for future human beings.

“It’s almost hard to comprehend what they’re talking about, but basically they said that the Postal Service would have to fully fund future retirees’ health benefits for the next 75 years and they would have to do it within a ten-year window,” says Chuck Zlatkin, political director of the New York Metro Area Postal Union.

The act meant that every September 30th, the USPS had to cough up $5.5 billion to the Treasury for the pre-funding of future retirees’ health benefits, meaning the Postal Service pays for employees 75 years into the future.

The USPS is funding the retirement packages of people who haven’t even been born yet.

We keep being told that email and the Internet have killed the Postal Service and it’s simply not true. Adjusting for the economic downturn, it appears the USPS is busier now than it ever has been before. E-commerce has been a huge boost as all the items people purchase online have to get to people’s homes and the cheapest way to do that is still through the Postal Service.

For those who don’t recognize why this is so important, the Postal Service is a vital cog in the American economy and is constitutionally mandated. It particularly benefits the poor.

There are still tons of people who need the USPS’s services: poorer people, people using a post office box, rural people who live outside delivery areas, eBay-type entrepreneurs, and nonprofits.

“It’s part of the class war and it’s against the poor and it’s a class war against working people,” says Zlatkin. Of the 34 post offices the USPS is considering closing in New York City, 17 are in the Bronx. The South Bronx district ranks as the poorest Congressional district in America.
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