White House Reportedly Preparing Moves Against the USPS
White House Reportedly Preparing Moves Against the USPS
In a February 20 article in The Washington Post, reporter Jacob Bogage stated that the administration is seeking to take control of the Postal Service. Entitled “Trump expected to take control of USPS, fire postal board, officials say,” the article – excerpted below – revealed the machinations.
“President Donald Trump is preparing to dissolve the leadership of the US Postal Service and absorb the independent mail agency into his administration, potentially throwing the 250-year-old mail provider and trillions of dollars of e-commerce transactions into turmoil.
“Trump is expected to issue an executive order as soon as this week to fire the members of the Postal Service’s governing board and place the agency under the control of the Commerce Department and Secretary Howard Lutnick, according to six people familiar with the plans, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals.
“The board is planning to fight Trump’s order, three of those people told The Washington Post. In an emergency meeting Thursday, the board retained outside counsel and gave instructions to sue the White House if the president were to remove members of the board or attempt to alter the agency’s independent status. Trump’s order to place the Commerce Department in charge of the Postal Service would probably violate federal law, according to postal experts.
“Another executive order earlier this week instructed independent agencies to align more closely with the White House, though that order is likely to prompt court challenges and the Postal Service by law is generally exempt from executive orders.
“Members of the Postal Service’s bipartisan board are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
“Trump, at Lutnick’s urging, has mused about privatizing the Postal Service, and Trump’s presidential transition team vetted candidates to replace Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a retired logistics executive and GOP fundraising official who took office in 2020 during Trump’s first term.
Washington, DC – February 13 : Donald J Trump, flanked by Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick, speaks after signing an executive order in the Oval Office at the White House on Thursday, Feb 13, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
“ ‘There is a lot of talk about the Postal Service being taken private,’ Trump said in December. ‘It’s a lot different today, between Amazon and UPS and FedEx and all the things that you didn’t have. But there is talk about that. It’s an idea that a lot of people have liked for a long time.’
“DeJoy earlier this week announced plans to resign. …
“Representatives for the Trump administration and the Postal Service did not immediately respond to requests for comment. …
“From its founding in 1775 until 1970, the US mail system was a political organ of the White House. Presidents were known to appoint their political allies or campaign leaders as postmaster general, and the mail chief was often a key White House negotiator with Congress.
“But the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, the product of a crippling nationwide mail strike, led Congress to split the agency off into a freestanding organization, purposefully walling it off from political tinkering.
“Trump’s first administration attempted to test that division. Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s first-term treasury secretary, attempted to control the 2020 hiring process that brought DeJoy to the Postal Service, and a task force run out of Mnuchin’s department recommended dramatically shrinking the scope of the agency and preparing it for privatization via an initial public offering. … “Ahead of the 2020 election, Trump said the Postal Service was incapable of facilitating mail-in voting because the agency could not access the emergency funding he was blocking. The Postal Service ultimately delivered 97.9 percent of ballots from voters to election officials within three days. The successful delivery of ballots turned Trump’s opinion of DeJoy, The Post has previously reported.
“The postmaster is in the midst of a 10-year cost-cutting and modernization plan for the agency that last month bore its most promising results. It posted a profit – excluding expenses on pension and health-care payments – in the quarter that ended Dec. 31, its first profitable period since the height of the pandemic.
“But on-time delivery service has struggled under DeJoy’s tenure, and the rocky rollout of his ‘Delivering for America’ plan has cost him and Postal Service allies on Capitol Hill. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) pledged to ‘do everything I can to kill’ DeJoy’s plan during a December hearing.
“The same month, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Kentucky) warned DeJoy of ‘significant changes’ afoot for the Postal Service. ‘There are lots of ideas – I don’t know if they’ll be advantageous or not to the Postal Service,’ Comer said.
“Republicans have grown wary of DeJoy and the Postal Service’s close ties to the Biden administration. The two partnered to deliver nearly 1 billion coronavirus test kits, the largest expansion of postal capabilities in a generation, and to fund a fleet of more than 60,000 electric mail delivery vehicles, though those were plagued by delivery delays.”
Reportedly, the plan was known to PMG DeJoy but not to his inner circle of top executives, and certainly not to other managers and staff at USPS HQ.
However, despite what the “six people” told the Post, the next day the White House denied there was an executive order in the works to take over the Postal Service.
Regardless, it appears ratepayers and commercial mail producers – as well as the USPS and its employees – will have more to deal with over the coming months than just postage rates, and the tea leaves have become very unsettled.
Despite the president’s ability to issue executive orders, the legality of them can be challenged. In the case of the USPS, there are fundamental administrative structures, operating processes, and service responsibilities defined in statute, so sweeping them away with the stroke of a pen may not work – and even with a friendly Congress legislative changes can take time.
What’s not defined in, or protected by, statute is another matter. Anticipated actions – including a price change filing, continued revisions to the processing network, planned changes to evening mail collection and service standards, and changes to business rules – can be accelerated, amended, or halted. Similarly, the insourcing of contracted transportation, the structure and content of labor agreements, and efforts to build a competitive package business are exposed to possible redirection by whomever may be the next custodians of the USPS. Until we know more certainly who will be in charge, it will be impossible to form a reliable picture of what might be done. So, regardless of what can be speculated now, there surely will be more ahead, and where it will lead – and what it will mean for the USPS and customers – is unclear.
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