President Donald Trump plans to dissolve the board of directors which oversees the American postal service, and to absorb the agency in its administration. The tenant of the White House is preparing to publish a decree aimed at dismissing the members of the post office management and placing the agency under the direct control of the Commerce Department, according to two officials whose remarks were reported by the Washington Post,, Thursday, February 20. The mail supplier refused to comment.
The 47th American president, however, wanted to be reassuring on the desired integration of postal service with the trade department, under the leadership of Howard Litnick: “We plan to do so, and it will be in the form of a merger, but that will remain postal service […] I think it will work much better than over the years. It was a huge loss for the country. “
Note that the board of directors of the postal service should contest this decision, but it could not be determined if it would be able to oppose this decree. Indeed, its nine members are appointed by the American president and confirmed by the Senate.
While the postal service is 250 years old, Donald Trump had already unveiled, last December, his desire to privatize the agency. A desire “which he had often defended during his first mandate”, precise The Wall Street Journal. This measure would, according to the billionaire, reduce costs and give the American post, in financial difficulty, greater flexibility to adapt to the digital age.
Millions of letters and packages every week
The unions are, themselves, which stands against this proposal, which failed to obtain the support of the Congress. Unsurprisingly, some Democrats urged Donald Trump in a letter on Saturday, February 22, to abandon his project. “American postal service is extremely popular with the American people, and its service is essential and irreplaceable,” said the democratic representative of Virginia, Don Beyer, to the local press. While the status of the postal service as an independent agency had been established by the congress, merge it with the trade department would be “openly illegal, unconstitutional and corrupt”, he said.
THE Washington Post Specifies that “Trump’s order to entrust the Department of Commerce the responsibility of the postal service would probably violate federal law, according to postal experts.” It is also unlikely that the president can privatize the agency without the approval of the congress.
If Donald Trump attacks La Poste, it is in reaction to the economic difficulties encountered by the institution in recent years. “The postal service is experiencing financial hemorrhage due to the drop in mail volumes, the limits imposed on what it can charge for customers and an expensive mandate,” said the Wall Street Journal. The American postal service employs more than 600,000 people and delivers millions of letters and packages each week, including medicines and electronic commerce.
The Minister of Posts on Departure
Still according to two officials, the White House planned to replace the Minister of Posts, the Republican Louis Dejoy, by a former logistics official, appointed during the first term of Trump in 2020. At the postal service helm, Louis Dejoy has implemented his own recovery plan over a decade, which implies reorienting the agency more profitable, while continues its long -term decline. This week he announced his intention to resign this week, even if his mandate still runs for five years.
The litigation between Louis Dejoy and Donald Trump dates back to the presidential election in 2020. While millions of Americans, mostly Democrats, had voted by correspondence during the pandemic, this practice had been criticized by Donald Trump, who then attributed to Louis Dejoy his defeat against Joe Biden.