As chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, Sen. Ron Johnson’s opening statement at the Aug. 21 hearing on the U.S. Postal Service contained several false or misleading claims.
Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, stated: “The bipartisan Postal Board of Governors engaged a professional search firm that identified Louis Dejoy as an outstanding candidate with the necessary background and skill set to tackle the enormous challenges of the postal system.”
This is false. Robert M. Duncan, chairman of the Postal Service’s Board of Governors, has admitted that Dejoy was not included in the list of 53 candidates provided by the search firm. Duncan himself added DeJoy to the list of candidates.
Johnson also claimed: “Notices that were sent before he was sworn in, meant to inform election officials to factor in normal postal capabilities in setting their ballot deadlines, are being used to as evidence of this conspiracy theory and a willing media is, once again, aptly playing along.”
This is also false. Notices were sent out to states on May 29 and July 29, and it is the July 29 letter that has been used to criticize Postmaster DeJoy. According to the USPS website, Louis DeJoy “began his tenure as Postmaster General in June.”
In addition, Johnson asserted: “The bipartisan governors then unanimously, again let me repeat that, they unanimously approved his appointment as Postmaster General.”
This is misleading. Mr. DeJoy was appointed by the USPS Board of Governors in May. Board of Governors member David Williams resigned from the board in April because he objected to DeJoy’s imminent appointment. Williams was a Trump appointee who had previously served as USPS inspector general. According to Williams: “I recently resigned as the vice chairman of the Postal Board of Governors when it became clear to me that the administration was politicizing the Postal Service.”
Americans deserve facts. The reliability of the Post Office is essential to the integrity of the Nov. 3 election and to our democracy.
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I’m shocked, shocked that an upstanding Repub senator like Johnson would not provide accurate information on the (scandalous) appointment of unqualified USPS-enemy DeJoy as Postmaster General, and would instead opt to carry the filthy water of the Trump admin!
Also, every member of the Board of Governors was nominated by Trump. And the “suggestion” of DeJoy’s candidacy apparently was first made by Treasury Sec. Mnuchin to a couple of Trump courtiers on the Board, thus illegally enmeshing the executive branch into the Board’s decision making.
A Dem Congress is simply going to have to repeal the 1970 law making the Postal Service an “independent” corporation and return the whole enterprise to the US government. For a service that delivers mail to every address 6 days a week, its “losses” are trifling. (Look to the “Defense” Dept for a comparison of government spending, lol.)
This experiment with semi-privatization of USPS needs to end, and since the Trumpite DeJoy isn’t going to resign, Congress needs to end his position and re-create the USPS. Just another necessary reform as a result of the ongoing Trump criminality and catastrophe.
So many Trump regime lies and manipulations of our governmental agencies–for the citizen, it’s like lifting up a rock and seeing ever more creepy-crawlies under it! The more you look, the more you see, until it’s all normalized as everyday stuff. When it isn’t. It’s unprecedented corruption and very dangerous to our democracy.
No wonder Republicans no longer even look under the Trump rock. “[They] can’t take the truth”!
Johnson is a lot like Trump. Trump inherited a fortune. Johnson married into his. Guys who have things handed to them and somehow think they earned it.
Should the Post Office be allowed to lose billions of dollars per year? Does Congress have a solution? The Postmaster General has a solution but won’t be allowed to implement it because the nation has too much money (?)
The law requiring the Postal Service to pre-fund retiree health benefits 50 years in advance could be repealed. That’s not the only cause of the USPS’s woes, but it’s a big part.