Pascrell Calls on Three New Postal Board Members to Fire DeJoy

June 3, 2021, 1:03 pm | in

Pascrell Calls on Three New Postal Board Members to Fire DeJoy

USPS reform demands housecleaning at the top

PATERSON, NJ – In a letter to the three new members of the United States Postal Service (USPS) Board of Governors appointed by President Biden, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) today praised their service and asked if they would move to fire Postmaster General Louis DeJoy for his destructive tenure of leadership.

“As members of the USPS Board of Governors, you have but one central responsibility: to ‘represent the public interest.’ Mr. DeJoy’s continued gross mismanagement, self-inflicted nationwide delays in mail delivery, and rampant financial conflicts of interest justly warrant his expeditious removal, so that the Board may appoint in his place a qualified and competent Postmaster General prepared to lead with bold solutions to save our Post Office. I ask that you explain if you disagree that ending Louis DeJoy’s tenure is in the public interest,” Pascrell writes Governors Ronald Stroman, Amber McReynolds, and Anton Hajjar.

On January 25, 2021, Pascrell became the first member of Congress calling on President Biden to fire the entire Postal Board of Governors sitting before his election for their silence and complicity in DeJoy’s ongoing sabotage of postal operations. In February, Pascrell immediately praised the nominations by President Biden of the three new nominees to the USPS Board of Governors and on March 18, Pascrell and Reps. Gerry Connolly (D-VA-11) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR-03) led over 50 House Democrats urging Biden to immediately remove the then-sitting USPS Board of Governors.

Since this postal crisis began, Rep. Pascrell has aggressively demanded accountability from USPS. On May 21, 2020, Pascrell wrote to USPS Inspector General Tammy Whitcomb demanding an investigation of turmoil at the USPS, stemming from a pattern of interference engineered by the Trump administration in its efforts to destabilize the post office.

On August 14, 2020 Pascrell became the first member of Congress to call for DeJoy and Trump to be investigated by a state criminal grand jury for their dismantling the Post Office, making a criminal referral to New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal alleging Trump and DeJoy subverted state elections.

On September 30, 2020 Pascrell led members of the New Jersey Congressional Delegation in a letter to Postmaster General DeJoy demanding an emergency visit to the Dominic Daniels mail sorting center in Kearny and requesting information on USPS’s ability to carry out New Jersey’s all vote-by-mail general election. In October, Pascrell made a surprise appearance at the Daniels Facility and demanded access.

The full text of Rep. Pascrell’s letter to the new three new postal governors is provided below.

June 3, 2021

The Honorable Ronald Stroman The Honorable Amber McReynolds

United States Postal Service United States Postal Service

Board of Governors Board of Governors

475 L’Enfant Plaza SW 475 L’Enfant Plaza SW

Washington D.C. 20260 Washington D.C. 20260

The Honorable Anton Hajjar

United States Postal Service

Board of Governors

475 L’Enfant Plaza SW

Washington D.C. 20260

Dear Governors Stroman, McReynolds, and Hajjar:

Congratulations on your recent confirmation as members of the United States Postal Service (USPS) Board of Governors. You each bring with you a diverse breadth of valuable experience that I hope is well-suited to the vital task of setting our Postal Service on the path to thrive for the next century and beyond. Your respective appointments to the Board of Governors come at a pivotal moment for the agency. Saving our Postal Service from the unprecedented by Donald Trump and Louis DeJoy over the past year must be a top priority. Therefore, I urge you to convene your colleagues on the Board of Governors at the next available opportunity to move for the immediate removal of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

Mr. DeJoy’s regime has been a historic disaster for the Post Office. According to a report by the USPS Office of Inspector General^[1], operational changes imposed last year by Mr. DeJoy “negatively impacted the quality and timeliness of mail service nationally” and were “implemented quickly and communicated primarily orally,” resulting in confusion and inconsistent application across the country. As Mr. DeJoy’s efforts to dismantle mail sorting machines, cut overtime, and restrict deliveries slowed mail nationally^[2], Donald Trump himself openly admitted that his administration was withholding funding for the Postal Service in order to make it harder to process mail-in ballots.^[3]

Thanks to the stalwart efforts of our great letter carriers and postal workers, as well as stringent oversight from the U.S. House of Representatives^[4] and Federal judiciary^[5], vote-by-mail during the 2020 general election was largely a great success.^[^6] Unfortunately, soon thereafter USPS delivery times sunk to unprecedented lows, in part owing to Mr. DeJoy’s abrupt and haphazard reorganization in the months prior, cratering at a meager 38% on-time rate for nonlocal mail at the end of December.^[7] Rather than charting a course toward returning USPS to the affordable world-class delivery standards the American people rightly expect, Mr. DeJoy has instead proposed making permanent slower mail delivery standards for 30% (roughly 5 billion pieces) of first-class mail and at higher cost to consumers and small businesses.^[^8]

As members of the USPS Board of Governors, you have but one central responsibility: to “represent the public interest.”^[9] Mr. DeJoy’s continued gross mismanagement, self-inflicted nationwide delays in mail delivery, and rampant financial conflicts of interest^[10] justly warrant his expeditious removal, so that the Board may appoint in his place a qualified and competent Postmaster General prepared to lead with bold solutions to save our Post Office. I ask that you explain if you disagree that ending Louis DeJoy’s tenure is in the public interest.

As America’s perhaps most enduringly trusted institution, a central economic and social engine for every community in America, and a vital vanguard of the democratic tradition, the Post Office must play an essential role in our national life for generations to come.^[^11] The continued challenges in preserving our Postal Service to survive and endure are gargantuan, and so demand bold solutions to meet them.

I look forward to working together to electrify the postal vehicle fleet, repeal the onerous pension prefunding mandate, expand postal nonbank financial services, and ensure USPS maintains unrivaled service standards. Only through decisive action can we save our Postal Service. To begin that work, we must have a Postmaster General that can be trusted to represent the public interest. Thank you for your continued dedication to our Postal Service.

Sincerely,

Bill Pascrell, Jr.

Member of Congress

[1] See https://www.uspsoig.gov/document/operational-changes-mail-delivery

[2] See https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-08-20/usps-cutbacks-post-office-chaos

[3] See https://apnews.com/article/14a2ceda724623604cc8d8e5ab9890ed

[4] See https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/24/us/politics/postal-service-dejoy-testimony.html

[5] See https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-post-office/u-s-judge-orders-usps-to-reinforce-extraordinary-measures-ballot-delivery-policy-idUSKBN27I05B

[6] See https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2021/0119-usps-releases-updated-2020-post-election-analysis-report.htm

[7] See https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/02/26/usps-delays-bills-medications/

[8] See https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/03/24/dejoy-faq-usps-plan/

[9] 39 U.S.C. § 202(a)(1)