WASHINGTON, D.C. — Those who have dealt with delays getting their mail in recent months are not alone.
On Wednesday, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told this to members of Congress during a hearing in the U.S. House.
“Too many Americans were left waiting for weeks for important deliveries of mail and packages,” DeJoy said. “This is unacceptable, and I apologize to those customers who felt the impact of our delays.”
DeJoy said a 10-year strategic plan will be released in March to help turn things around within the Postal Service, which has been in serious debt for years and continues to struggle to meet delivery deadlines.
DeJoy — a longtime Republican mega-donor — was in the news last summer when Democrats called for his firing and alleged he was making service changes to please former President Donald Trump.
Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan (D, OH-13) is still so upset with Postal Service leadership that he wrote a letter to President Joe Biden last month asking that he “fire the entire Board of Governors and nominate new leadership to begin the hard work of rebuilding our Postal Service.”
The Postal Service’s Board of Governors is a group of nine people who oversee the Postal Service. They’re nominated by the president, but only the board can fire the Postmaster General.
So far, the bipartisan group is standing by DeJoy.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) signed onto a letter last week demanding DeJoy explain how he will improve mail delivery.
“Our constituents have experienced missed paychecks and court notices, delayed critical prescriptions, an inability to reach small business customers and suppliers, lost rent payments and delayed credit card payments,” the letter from multiple senators reads.
Brown said in a virtual interview on Tuesday that he feels the Postal Service has gotten political, and he wants that to stop.
“But if they don’t get better, I’m very supportive of what Congressman Ryan called for. You get rid of the board who then gets rid of the Postmaster General,” Brown said.
Shortly after Wednesday’s hearing, President Biden announced he is nominating three people to the Board of Governors to fill the three current vacancies, which would mean nominees appointed by Democrats would be in the majority and they could theoretically vote to remove DeJoy.
Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan (R, OH-4) argued Democrats are the ones being political.
During Wednesday’s hearing, he accused them of only being critical of DeJoy when Trump was in office.
“It was all about politics. It was all about the election,” Jordan said.
Politics aside, Ohio Rep. Bob Gibbs (R, OH-7) used the hearing to call the current state of mail service “deplorable.” He added that he’s getting closer to throwing out his mailbox in frustration.
“I won’t send payments through the mail anymore,” Gibbs said. “That’s how much confidence I’ve lost in the system.”
