News Release

Major Post Office Hearings Today

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The House is having hearings with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Monday, see here for livestream. The following two analysts have done extensive research on the issues and are available for interviews:

CHRISTOPHER W. SHAW, christophershaw.ca@gmail.com, @chris_w_shaw   

Shaw is a historian and author of Preserving the People’s Post Office. He recently had an op-ed in the Washington Post: “Postal banking is making a comeback. Here’s how to ensure it becomes a reality.

He said today that since taking office, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s “actions have targeted the agency’s civic role and jeopardized voter participation in the 2020 election.

“People are starting to wake up to the need to regard the Postal Service not as a government agency that should emulate a business, but as a great public institution — enshrined in the Constitution — that has been under constant attack for decades, now accelerated under the Trump administration.

“The Postal Service is an essential public service offering a whole range of social benefits that are now under threat. By offering universal service at uniform postage rates, the U.S. Mail has bound the nation together for more than two centuries. By connecting every corner of the United States — no matter how remote — the Postal Service provides a crucial lifeline for low income Americans and residents of rural areas who otherwise would not receive affordable delivery. Post offices are centers of community life and local identity. Special postage rates for news and nonprofit organizations facilitate democracy and the public interest. Americans depend on the Postal Service for the delivery of 4 million critical prescription medications every day.”

LISA GRAVES, via Evan Vorpahl, evan@truenorthresearch.org, @itstruenorth

Graves is the executive director of the policy research group True North. She was recently on an IPA news release: “Behind the Attacks on the Post Office,” that scrutinized the conduct of DeJoy and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. A month ago, she wrote the brief “The Billionaire Behind Efforts to Kill the U.S. Postal Service,” about Charles Koch.

She said today: “Congress must insist that the mail sorting and delivery capacity be restored to the pre-Louis DeJoy level of this spring and machines that were removed be restarted or repaired. Congress must also restrict the power of Steve Mnuchin to interfere with the timely delivery of mail, including medicines and ballots, and provide the funding requested by the prior Postal leadership.

“Never before in the past century has the Postal Service leadership been held by such partisans as DeJoy and Mike Duncan [chairman of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Postal Service], both of whom have financially aided not just the political campaigns of President Trump but also Senator Mitch McConnell. Never before has the Postal Service faces such a grave risk from the privatization pressures unleashed by billionaire Charles Koch.

“Congress should scrap the stacked and packed current Board of Governors, and take measures to ensure to restore its political independence and integrity and make sure future appointees are genuinely devoted to preserving and expanding the vital public service our Postal Service and its dedicated public servants provide.”