20 State Attorneys General Sue The Postal Regulatory Commission Over Louis DeJoy’s 10-Year Plan

The U.S. Postal Service’s controversial slowdown of mail delivery that began October 1 is sparking a pushback from 20 state attorneys general.

CBS News reports, USPS mail slowdown sparks lawsuit from 20 state attorneys general:

On Thursday, the state attorneys general— ranging from California to New York — sued the Postal Regulatory Commission, alleging that the federal oversight agency didn’t fully vet the broad-ranging plan before the USPS moved forward with it.

The attorneys general who are suing represent: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Rhode Island, Washington and Washington, D.C.

Where is Arizona’s partisan hack Attorney General?

The Postal Regulatory Commission, or PRC, is the independent federal agency with oversight over the Postal Service’s operations. The lawsuit claims the PRC only examined a small part of a 10-year plan created by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, which the complaint alleges will “transform virtually every aspect of the Postal Service.”

The PRC said it has received the lawsuit, and will establish a docket for the matter “and take it under advisement.” It said its regulations prohibit it from discussing the issue further.

The docket should be created within a few days, the PRC added. The public “can follow the public proceedings by accessing the Commission’s docket system at prc.gov,” it said in the emailed statement.

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Louis DeJoy has argued that his 10-year plan will “erase” billions of dollars in projected losses over the next decade by boosting revenue through expanded parcel delivery and postage hikes — but his plan also includes slowing mail delivery. The USPS already increased postage costs in August, and this month lowered its delivery standards so that first-class mail could now take as long as 5 days to reach anyone within the U.S., instead of the previous standard of three-day delivery.

The changes represent a “radical” plan that could “destroy the timely mail service that people depend on for medications, bill payments, and business operations in rural parts of the state,” North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein said in a Thursday statement.

Failure to get a full review?

The complaint alleges that Postmaster General DeJoy is moving forward with the 10-year plan despite failing to get a review of its entire scope. The USPS received an advisory opinion from the PRC for only a few portions of the 10-year overhaul, the complaint alleges.

“To date, the Postal Service has only submitted two requests for an advisory opinion [from the PRC], which represent only a small portion of the Plan’s scope,” the complaint alleges.

However, one of those issues reviewed by the PRC was about the postal service’s plan to slow mail delivery. The PRC aired concerns about the slowdown, which will impact 4 of 10 pieces of first-class mail, such as letters, bills and tax forms.

The USPS has argued that slower delivery standards will save money — an assertion the PRC questioned. “I do not believe that the Postal Service has proven its case for reducing service standards for all Americans,” wrote PRC commissioner Ashley Poling in a July report.

Despite the PRC’s concerns, the postal agency moved forward with its slower mail delivery standards, which went into effect October 1. Other aspects of the plan weren’t reviewed by the PRC, nor was the public given the opportunity to comment, the complaint alleges.

“With reliance on timely mail service still at historical levels, including by low-income, rural and elderly populations, as well as every level of government, the Postal Service’s decisions have critical consequences felt across the country,” the complaint states.

It added, “Now, more than ever, it is necessary for the Commission to carefully examine the full breadth of the Postal Service’s sweeping changes, and to afford the public the opportunity to comment on them, as Congress intended.”

Back in May, the Senate OK’d Biden nominees to postal board amid mail changes:

All three of President Joe Biden’s nominees to the governing board of the U.S. Postal Service have been approved by the Senate, increasing Democratic influence over the agency as its leaders move to overhaul mail operations.

The additions mean that five of the board’s nine members are Democratic appointees.

During a confirmation hearing before a Senate committee last month, Biden’s nominees stressed the need to restore public confidence in the agency through prompt delivery service.

It was widely believed at the time that the new Democratic majority on the postal board would quickly remove the embattled Louis DeJoy. But that has not happened, and defenders of the USPS are upset.

Jake Johnson wrote back in September, Fire DeJoy: Stop the Fall of US Postal Service Now (excerpt):

“DeJoy calls his plan ‘Delivering for America,’ but it will do the exact opposite—slowing many First Class Mail deliveries down, taking their standard from three to five days,” Porter McConnell of Take on Wall Street, a co-founder of the Save the Post Office Coalition, warns in a video posted online late Tuesday.

“Slower ground transportation will also now be prioritized over air transportation,” McConnell added. “These new service standards won’t improve the Postal Service—they will make it harder for people all across the country to receive  their medications, their bills, their paychecks, and more.”

Appointed in May 2020 by the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors, DeJoy—a major donor to former President Donald Trump—sparked a nationwide uproar by dramatically slowing mail delivery in the run-up to that year’s pivotal elections, which relied heavily on absentee voting due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re still wondering why the hell Louis DeJoy is still Postmaster General when he’s doing this to USPS.”

But DeJoy, who can only be fired by a majority of the USPS board, has clung to his job despite incessant demands for his resignation or removal over the past year. In recent months, calls for DeJoy’s termination have intensified as his conflicts of interest and past fundraising activities continue to draw scrutiny from watchdogs and the FBI.

During a House Oversight Committee hearing in February, DeJoy made clear he has no intention of leaving his post voluntarily.

“Get used to me,” he told lawmakers.

Despite widespread criticism of his performance as head of the USPS, DeJoy still enjoys the enthusiastic backing of key postal board members, including Chairman Ron Bloom, a Democrat. Bloom, along with five other officials on the nine-member board, was appointed by Trump.

There’s the answer – Bloom’s support actually makes it a 5-4 Republican majority.

Notably, however, two recently confirmed board members appointed by President Joe Biden have vocally criticized DeJoy’s looming 10-year strategic plan for the U.S. Postal Service.

Ronald Stroman, the former deputy postmaster general and one of Biden’s picks, called DeJoy’s plan “strategically-ill conceived” during a postal board meeting in August.

Presented as a roadmap toward “financial sustainability and service excellence,” Stroman warned that DeJoy’s initiative “creates dangerous risks that are not justified by the relatively low financial return, and doesn’t meet our responsibility as an essential part of America’s critical infrastructure.” Experts have noted that the Postal Service’s recent financial woes are largely the fault of an onerous congressional mandate that requires the USPS to prefund retiree benefits decades in advance.

“There is no compelling financial reason to make this change,” Stroman said of DeJoy’s plan. “The relatively minor savings associated with changing service standards, even if achieved, will have no significant impact on the Postal Service’s financial future.”

On top of lengthening mail delivery timelines and raising prices, DeJoy’s strategy (pdf) would slash Post Office hours across the nation and consolidate mail processing facilities—a plan that the 200,000-member American Postal Workers Union condemned as a “slap in the face.”

Citing USPS spokesperson Kim Frum, NPR reported Tuesday that “beginning October 3 and ending on December 26, the postal service will temporarily increase prices on all ‘commercial and retail domestic packages’ due to the holiday season.”

“In August, the Postal Service announced its standard for first-class mail delivery was met 83.6% of the time throughout the quarter ending June 30, in comparison to its 88.9% performance during the same period in 2020,” NPR noted.

As USA Today summarized, “USPS mail delivery is about to get permanently slower and temporarily more expensive.”

To limit and potentially reverse the damage DeJoy has inflicted on the USPS, watchdog groups and progressive advocates are ramping up pressure on Biden to take immediate action.

While the president can’t remove DeJoy on his own, analysts have noted that he can soon replace both Bloom—who is currently serving a one-year holdover term—and John Barger, whose term expires in December. Such steps would give Biden appointees a majority on the USPS board—and potentially the votes to oust the postmaster general. [Next year].

“President Biden has the power to remake the postal governing board and remove DeJoy,” McConnell said in her video Tuesday. “He must act soon to name two new governors who understand the Postal Service is essential and must be strengthened as a beloved public institution.”

Contact the White House to encourage Biden to appoint two new members to the postal governing board who will support firing Louis DeJoy.