Enough is Enough, It’s Time to Remove Louis DeJoy
By Zachary Brown
The United States Postal Service (USPS) has been a cherished and respected federal body throughout our nation’s history. Rain or shine, the USPS has dependably delivered for the American people. As we watch the agency damaged by poor leadership from the very top, it’s time for all of us to repay the favor to the USPS by removing Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, whose decisions have harmed the Postal Service in ways that may take years for the agency to recover.
While Louis DeJoy’s tenure as Postmaster General has been relatively short, he’s already made a long list of poor decisions for the agency. Shortly after he took the job in June 2020, he announced changes to slow transportation and delivery of mail. Mere months before the 2020 election, DeJoy adopted policies to reduce mail sorting machines and restrict the ability of workers to make late and extra trips to timely deliver the mail. And although Public Citizen’s litigation team, in partnership with the NAACP Leadership Defense Fund, successfully sued to block these changes from impacting the election, as recently as last week, a federal district court ruled that those “cost-cutting” actions were directly to blame for mail slowdowns and delays that impeded timely mail delivery.
DeJoy’s poor decisions show up again in the form of a rightfully maligned “10 year plan.” Under this 10 year plan, the USPS would both slow down mail delivery and close several postal offices across the country.
So you might be wondering…what’s the big hold up?
The removal of Louis DeJoy as Postmaster General requires the Postal Board of Governors to vote him out of his position. And while President Biden has nominated several members of the Postal Board over the course of his term, it is time for us to urge him to nominate Postal Board of Governors members who are ready to hold DeJoy accountable. In fact, two more vacancies on the board will open up this December, as the terms of Donald Moak and William Zollars expire. Adding two new, public interest-minded Board members at this crucial juncture is essential to removing DeJoy and restoring USPS as a respected public institution.
With the current political makeup of the 9-member Postal Board of Governors, President Biden must choose nominees who are ready to take on the task of seeing that DeJoy is removed from his post.
Public Citizen and our partners in the Save the Post Office Coalition have been sounding the alarm about DeJoy’s failed leadership, for example by organizing an organizational sign on letter to the Biden administration. While groups like Public Citizen are making sure our concerns are heard by our nation’s leaders, it’s essential that they hear from people across the country who rely on the postal service for their essential mail. We need your voice in the fight as well. Click here to sign on to an e-action to the Postal Board of Governors, showing your support for the cause and joining our push!
Let’s deliver for our local postal workers, fellow Americans, and our beloved USPS.