“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” is a phrase long associated with the U.S. Postal Service. Unfortunately, it does not characterize today’s poor and misguided USPS leadership.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s January decision to raise prices for popular postal products for the fifth time since August 2021, coupled with continual service cuts, threatens the Postal Service’s future. We can’t allow that to happen. Collapse of the Postal Service would be devastating for millions of Americans, especially seniors, those living in rural and tribal communities, and small business proprietors.
Inexplicably, DeJoy has unapologetically proposed to raise postage prices to “uncomfortable rates.” DeJoy is supposed to bring the skills of a successful businessperson to the job, but can you imagine a corporate CEO offending their customers by promising to make prices uncomfortable?
With the postmaster general driving the Postal Service in the wrong direction, we need the Postal Service’s board of governors to impose accountability. Unfortunately, it has instead thrown up its hands at the problem and sat idly as the Postal Service threatens to fade into irrelevance.
But it’s not too late to revive the Postal Service and make it again a vital community center and service hub for Americans in every corner of our nation. President Joe Biden must appoint people to the board of governors committed to revitalizing the Postal Service and holding DeJoy accountable.
DeJoy’s ill-considered plans don’t end with price increases. Under DeJoy’s “Delivering for America” plan, mail and packages are arriving at homes and businesses with severe delays due to a dramatic increase in post office consolidations, a move that could lead to post office closures. Under the plan, as many as 10,000 post offices and branches that handle mail delivery are threatened, including a post office in Bensenville, Illinois. DeJoy was recently met with protests from postal workers, as well as local and state leaders, in nearby Downers Grove, who understand best that further consolidations will lead to longer delivery times and longer routes for packages and mail carriers to travel.
During DeJoy’s tenure, service has deteriorated, hurting customers and the USPS itself. Month after month, Americans have watched the Postal Service decline in service levels through no fault of the thousands of dedicated postal workers who work to deliver mail every day, but instead because of DeJoy’s misguided vision for the USPS.
DeJoy’s mismanagement is gutting the Postal Service. Equally disturbing is his vision of running it as a private enterprise rather than as a public service that ensures mailing and voting services for areas of the country that private delivery companies have forgotten. The unique and vital role of the Postal Service has always been its ability to knit the country together, but this is at risk under DeJoy’s failed leadership.
We each hear every day from people who rely on the Postal Service for their Social Security checks, to pay bills, receive medications and to vote — especially in rural and underserved areas of the country. This only reinforces our belief that the USPS is an essential part of the backbone of American democracy, and it’s unacceptable that many are struggling with higher prices for slower, less reliable service under DeJoy’s “Delivering for America” plan.
DeJoy and the Postal Service might be delivering packages and mail, but he certainly is not delivering better services or lower costs for Americans.
What’s the solution? Nominating effective candidates to the board of governors who will reinvigorate the Postal Service’s leadership as a public service, not a business. While Biden recently nominated former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh to fill one of the two current vacancies on the board, now is the time for the president to nominate an additional second candidate who is ready to hold DeJoy accountable.
Upon passage of the historic Postal Service Reform Act, Biden said, “The Postal Service is fundamental to our economy, to our democracy, to our health, and the very sense of who we are as a nation.” Those words still ring true today, which is why we support a swift nomination and confirmation procedure for the two vacant seats to help reverse the damage the postmaster general has done.
The challenges facing the Postal Service are urgent and severe, but DeJoy has only added to them by slowing and reducing services for the millions of Americans who depend on them. New leadership on the board of governors is an essential first step for saving one of our nation’s most trusted institutions.
U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Schaumburg, represents Illinois’ 8th Congressional District. Robert Weissman is president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.
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