Ode DeJoy
Biden nominates postal board slate that could oust Louis DeJoy after DeJoy vows to stay put
President Biden on Wednesday nominated three people for the U.S. Postal Service board of directors. The nominations would fill vacant seats on the board and allow Biden to indirectly assert control over an independent agency beset by service delays and rumored cuts by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major Republican donor appointed last year under former President Donald Trump.
Biden nominated Ron Stroman, the recently retired deputy postmaster general; Amber McReynolds, a vote-by-mail advocate who heads the National Vote at Home Institute; and Anton Hajjar, former general counsel of the American Postal Workers Union. If confirmed to the nine-member board, "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," The Washington Post reports.
At a House Oversight Committee hearing earlier Wednesday, DeJoy said he plans to be postmaster general for "a long time," telling Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), "Get used to me."
"DeJoy spent most of the hearing dodging questions about his forthcoming strategic plan for the Postal Service, which includes higher prices and slower delivery," the Post reports, citing two people familiar with the plan. DeJoy said the 10-year plan should be ready in March and conceded it might include lower delivery standards for first-class mail and fewer airplanes to transport mail, a move that would slow service across the country.
Even if the newly configured board — the six current members are older men, five of them white — doesn't fire DeJoy, he's unlikely to get the same level of support for his cost-cutting measures. "The board has the right to hire and to fire postmaster generals, so DeJoy's certainly going to have to function in a way that he keeps the support of the board," Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, told The Associated Press. "He's going to be dealing with some changing dynamics on the board."