Democratic members of the Home Oversight Committee on Saturday urged President Trump to desert plans to reform the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) after he stated he was contemplating a “merger” for the mail service.
“Your reported efforts to dismantle the Postal Service as an impartial company would straight undermine the affordability and reliability of the U.S. postal system,” ranking member Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) and the panel’s other members wrote in the letter. “We urge you to desert instantly any plans that may both privatize the Postal Service or undermine the independence of the Postal Service.”
The letter from Democrats follows reporting from The Washington Publish that Trump was contemplating firing USPS’s board and absorbing the Postal Service into the Division of Commerce.
Connolly famous that such a transfer would require congressional approval, “which Congress would not provide.”
Not like different entities inside authorities, USPS will not be funded by Congress however quite earns income from the companies it gives. However these companies are additionally paired with a mandate to succeed in each mailbox within the U.S. — one thing personal firms haven’t any obligation to do.
“Congress prescribed a transparent and significant mandate for the Postal Service: to ship environment friendly, dependable, and common service to all Individuals,” the Virginia Democrat continued. “Your reported plans for the Postal Service would put in danger the well timed, inexpensive supply of life-saving medicines, mail-in ballots, vital monetary paperwork, and letters from family members, particularly in rural or much less worthwhile areas that the personal sector refuses to service.”
He added that the shift would additionally not put USPS on “on a path of fiscal sustainability” however quite “it could instead subject the Postal Service and the entire mail network to political interference, shifting priorities of Administrations, and skyrocketing prices.”
Trump on Friday addressed his plans, and whereas he didn’t decide to any explicit path, he did criticize the Postal Service.
“We want to have a post office that works well and doesn’t lose massive amounts of money, and we’re thinking about doing that,” Trump informed reporters within the Oval Workplace. “And it is going to be a type of a merger, but it surely’ll stay the Postal Service, and I feel it’ll function loads higher than it has been over time.
“It’s been just a tremendous loser for this country, tremendous amounts of money they’ve lost,” he added. “And we think we can do something that will be very good and keep it a very similar way, but whether it’s a merger or just using some of the very talented people that we have elsewhere so it doesn’t lose so much.”
The strikes additionally come after Postmaster Basic Louis DeJoy, who was appointed below Trump’s first time period, introduced earlier this week that he can be stepping down.
