Trump-backed postmaster general plans to slow mail delivery

[bleubird]

“Cash strained” is bullshit.
It’s a service, and is supposed to cost money. All deJoy is doing is making it cost more to run than it should justifying curtailing services, making it even worse, destroying millions and millions of dollars worth of perfectly good sorting equipment … guy belongs in jail next to his Orange boss/co-conspirator.

Do highways make money? Do schools make money?It is the same repug crap, to privatize every thing to enrich their friends

 

[Swammerdami]

A year later, and no success in forcing out Louis DeJoy.

Can someone explain this to me? DeJoy should be in prison, but instead is still heading the Post Office?
I realize that the QOP passed postal poison-pill laws when they had the chance, but laws can be reversed.

To listen to QOP-Anon, the Ds are powerful enough to steal millions of votes, operate the world's biggest child-sex ring, open the borders to a flood of terrorists, and provoke a stock-market crash by bad-mouthing our friend Vladimir Putin. But they can't fire this one criminal and the criminal Trump appointees enabling him?

 

[Swammerdami]

View attachment 28954

That this is an overlay of two maps that are fundamentally measuring proxies for population density.

Which is a very popular trick on both sides of US politics to spread disinformation.

There may well be something nefarious going down; But this map isn't capable of demonstrating that that's happening. It's just indicating that both democrat voters and mail sorting are more concentrated in cities, and less concentrated in rural areas. Which should surprise nobody.

Is it a very popular trick? Maybe; I'd like to see some examples.

There's not nearly enough info there to be sure, but the map DOES hint that ZiprHead et al are correct.

Indianapolis, Seattle and Washington DC are all among the U.S.'s twenty largest cities. Yet none of those three show reductions on that map. Why not? Could it be because Indiana, Washington and the District of Columbia are not swing states?

To the precision of the map, Milwaukee had the same reduction as Chicago, despite that metro Chicago has more than six times the population of metro Milwaukee. Again: Wisconsin is a swing state, Illinois is not.

Do I claim that the map proves DeJoy's crimes were politically motivated? No, we'd need much more detailed information to pursue that with this particular statistic. But these examples do make clear that Mr. Bilby's defense of this particular QOP malfeasance is overly glib.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Can someone explain this to me? DeJoy should be in prison, but instead is still heading the Post Office?

Near as I understand it, the Postmaster is actually put in position by an advisory board. Republican's control that board.

 

[Toni]

Can someone explain this to me? DeJoy should be in prison, but instead is still heading the Post Office?

Near as I understand it, the Postmaster is actually put in position by an advisory board. Republican's control that board.

Board members are appointed by a sitting POTUS and serve terms of 7 years. The 9 governors select a Post Master General.
Here's recent history:

Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Until 2007, each governor was appointed to a nine-year term or to the remainder of the unexpired term of a vacant seat. The terms of the nine appointed governors are staggered, commence after Senate confirmation and expire on December 8 of the year that the term would have ended had the terms been properly synchronized. The board can extend the term of a governor whose term is to expire by one year or until a successor has been confirmed, without Senate confirmation. Governors may be appointed for a second term, with Senate confirmation. No more than five of the nine governors may be of the same political party. The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, signed by President George W. Bush on December 20, 2006,[5] besides other things, changed the terms of governors appointed after that date from nine to seven years.

On November 14, 2014 (with effect on February 1, 2015), the board appointed Megan Brennan postmaster general, to succeed Patrick R. Donahoe. In December 2014, the extended term of Mickey D. Barnett was to expire, while the Senate had still not confirmed five nominees submitted by then-president Obama.[6] Just before the loss of its quorum, the board delegated its authority to a “Temporary Emergency Committee“ (TEC) comprising the board members for the time being, with the same authority as the board had with 9 appointed members, but without the quorum requirement.[7] After December 2014, there were three appointed board members (James Bilbray, Ellen Williams and Louis J. Giuliano) as well as the postmaster general, Patrick R. Donahoe, and the deputy PMG, Ron Stroman, a total of five of the 11 members, and not enough to constitute a quorum. Megan Brennan became an ex officio member of the board on February 1, 2015. The extended terms of Ellen Williams and Louis J. Giuliano both expired in December 2015, and James Bilbray became the sole remaining appointed member.[4] His nine-year term was extended by one year and he ceased to be a member in December 2016. At that point there were no appointed members on the board,[8] and the PMG (Megan Brennan) and deputy PMG (Ron Stroman) made up the TEC.

In October 2017, then-president Donald Trump nominated three individuals to the board: Robert (Mike) Duncan, a former White House official during the George W. Bush administration, Calvin Tucker, and David Williams, former USPS inspector general.[8] On August 28, 2018, the Senate confirmed Mike Duncan as chairman, and David Williams, as vice-chairman.[9] On November 29, 2018, the governors appointed Tammy L. Whitcomb the USPS inspector general.[10]

On August 1, 2019, the Senate confirmed three more nominations, allowing the board to reach a quorum for the first time since 2014. The new members are Ron Bloom and Roman Martinez IV, both former investment bankers, and John Barger, former director of the Investment and Retirement Boards of the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association, the country's largest pension fund.[11]

In March 2020, Trump nominated Donald L. Moak to replace Alan C. Kessler[12] (who had resigned in July 2011)[13] and nominated William D. Zollars to replace James Bilbray (who had ceased being a member in December 2016). David C. Williams resigned from the board on April 30, 2020, and Ron Stroman resigned on June 1, 2020, as deputy PMG. On June 15, 2020, the TEC, comprising five members, selected Louis DeJoy to succeed Megan Brennan as Postmaster General (PMG). The Senate confirmed both nominations on June 18, 2020. As of January 2021, the board had six appointed members plus the postmaster general, sufficient to constitute a quorum on the board. Five of the board members are Republicans.

There were calls in January 2021 for President Joe Biden to quickly fill the vacant seats on the USPS Board of Governors. Critics including union members note the politicization of the USPS, the mishandling of absentee ballots during the 2020 elections, and ongoing delivery delays. Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union also noted the lack of diversity on the current board: all members are men, there are no African Americans, and there is no one from a rural area. Philip F. Rubio, a history professor at North Carolina A&T State University, notes that the board is accountable to no one and the postmaster general is accountable only to the Board. Rubio has described Louis DeJoy's changes as "sabotage", and Congressman Bill Pascrell, (D-NJ) said, "Fire everybody at the top. They've done a lousy job." Dimondstein has suggested improving services by including financial services such as paycheck cashing, installing ATMs, and handling bill paying and overseas remittances.[14]

 

[lpetrich]

The latest DeJoy USPS scandal:
USPS gets final signoff to order new delivery vehicles - "Environmental groups have complained because only 10 percent of planned next-generation trucks are electric powered."

The U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday that it had cleared the final regulatory hurdle to placing orders for next-generation mail vehicles — and getting some of them on delivery routes next year — despite pushback from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the completion of an evaluation required by the National Environmental Policy Act is an important milestone for postal carriers, who have soldiered on with overworked delivery trucks that went into service between 1987 and 1994.

The U.S. Postal Service’s fleet comprises more than 230,000 vehicles. That includes 190,000 local delivery vehicles — and more than 141,000 are the older vehicles, made by federal contractor Grumman.

 

[crazyfingers]

The latest DeJoy USPS scandal:
USPS gets final signoff to order new delivery vehicles - "Environmental groups have complained because only 10 percent of planned next-generation trucks are electric powered."

The U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday that it had cleared the final regulatory hurdle to placing orders for next-generation mail vehicles — and getting some of them on delivery routes next year — despite pushback from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the completion of an evaluation required by the National Environmental Policy Act is an important milestone for postal carriers, who have soldiered on with overworked delivery trucks that went into service between 1987 and 1994.

The U.S. Postal Service’s fleet comprises more than 230,000 vehicles. That includes 190,000 local delivery vehicles — and more than 141,000 are the older vehicles, made by federal contractor Grumman.

Only 10% are electric and the 90% that run on gasoline get... wait for it... 8.6 MPG.

MPG new Postal delivery trucks - Google Search

 

[Loren Pechtel]

The latest DeJoy USPS scandal:
USPS gets final signoff to order new delivery vehicles - "Environmental groups have complained because only 10 percent of planned next-generation trucks are electric powered."

The U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday that it had cleared the final regulatory hurdle to placing orders for next-generation mail vehicles — and getting some of them on delivery routes next year — despite pushback from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the completion of an evaluation required by the National Environmental Policy Act is an important milestone for postal carriers, who have soldiered on with overworked delivery trucks that went into service between 1987 and 1994.

The U.S. Postal Service’s fleet comprises more than 230,000 vehicles. That includes 190,000 local delivery vehicles — and more than 141,000 are the older vehicles, made by federal contractor Grumman.

Only 10% are electric and the 90% that run on gasoline get... wait for it... 8.6 MPG.

MPG new Postal delivery trucks - Google Search

The 8.6 mpg isn't that bad--that's not the EPA test but a USPS test based on how they are actually driven. Any car would perform pretty badly in a similar role.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

The latest DeJoy USPS scandal:
USPS gets final signoff to order new delivery vehicles - "Environmental groups have complained because only 10 percent of planned next-generation trucks are electric powered."

The U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday that it had cleared the final regulatory hurdle to placing orders for next-generation mail vehicles — and getting some of them on delivery routes next year — despite pushback from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the completion of an evaluation required by the National Environmental Policy Act is an important milestone for postal carriers, who have soldiered on with overworked delivery trucks that went into service between 1987 and 1994.

The U.S. Postal Service’s fleet comprises more than 230,000 vehicles. That includes 190,000 local delivery vehicles — and more than 141,000 are the older vehicles, made by federal contractor Grumman.

Only 10% are electric and the 90% that run on gasoline get... wait for it... 8.6 MPG.

MPG new Postal delivery trucks - Google Search

I'd presume that is because the vehicle has a much much higher than average idle rate than other cars. I doubt these things get a maximum of 8.6 mpg. Switching to electric would be costly. They'd need to install charging ports (and added electrical sourcing) at all of these buildings and of course, there is the electric charge tether. So, there is the electric premium, cost for infrastructure, and charge tether for vehicles. More risk, higher upfront cost.

 

[lpetrich]

Finally signed into law.

H.R.3076 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
"The bill repeals the requirement that the USPS annually prepay future retirement health benefits."

Thus removing a big burden from it.

It was introduced on 2011 May 5 by Rep. Maloney, Carolyn B. [D-NY-12] and it spent a lot of time in House committees before being voted on.

2022 Feb 8 - House vote - 342-92, all D's Y, R's Y 120, N 92

2022 Mar 8 - Senate vote - 79-19, all D's, I's Y, R's 29-19

2022 Apr 6 - Signed by President Biden

 

[lpetrich]

President Biden Signs Maloney, Comer, Peters, Portman’s Postal Service Reform Act into Law | House Committee on Oversight and Reform

“Today, Congress and the Biden-Harris Administration saved the Postal Service and delivered for the American people,” said Chairwoman Maloney. “This historic law will finally get the Postal Service on sustainable financial footing after decades of decline. I am proud to have negotiated this bill across party lines and to have worked hand-in-hand with Ranking Member Comer, Chairman Peters, and Ranking Member Portman. As Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, I vow to continue using my gavel to conduct rigorous oversight over the Postal Service to ensure it remains financially stable and continues to serve the American people for generations to come.”

The Postal Service Reform Act Passes the Senate & Will Become Law | American Postal Workers Union

USPS reform act 2022: What the new overhaul law means for you - CNNPolitics

What's in the law?

The Postal Service Reform Act will require retired postal employees to enroll in Medicare when eligible, while dropping a previous mandate that forced the agency to cover its health care costs years in advance.
Those two measures would save the USPS nearly $50 billion over the next decade, according to the House Oversight Committee.

The legislation will also require the USPS to create an online dashboard with local and national delivery time data.

 

[Politesse]

The latest DeJoy USPS scandal:
USPS gets final signoff to order new delivery vehicles - "Environmental groups have complained because only 10 percent of planned next-generation trucks are electric powered."

The U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday that it had cleared the final regulatory hurdle to placing orders for next-generation mail vehicles — and getting some of them on delivery routes next year — despite pushback from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the completion of an evaluation required by the National Environmental Policy Act is an important milestone for postal carriers, who have soldiered on with overworked delivery trucks that went into service between 1987 and 1994.

The U.S. Postal Service’s fleet comprises more than 230,000 vehicles. That includes 190,000 local delivery vehicles — and more than 141,000 are the older vehicles, made by federal contractor Grumman.

Only 10% are electric and the 90% that run on gasoline get... wait for it... 8.6 MPG.

MPG new Postal delivery trucks - Google Search

The 8.6 mpg isn't that bad--that's not the EPA test but a USPS test based on how they are actually driven. Any car would perform pretty badly in a similar role.

That's true, but also exactly why the entire fleet should be electric.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

The latest DeJoy USPS scandal:
USPS gets final signoff to order new delivery vehicles - "Environmental groups have complained because only 10 percent of planned next-generation trucks are electric powered."

The U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday that it had cleared the final regulatory hurdle to placing orders for next-generation mail vehicles — and getting some of them on delivery routes next year — despite pushback from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the completion of an evaluation required by the National Environmental Policy Act is an important milestone for postal carriers, who have soldiered on with overworked delivery trucks that went into service between 1987 and 1994.

The U.S. Postal Service’s fleet comprises more than 230,000 vehicles. That includes 190,000 local delivery vehicles — and more than 141,000 are the older vehicles, made by federal contractor Grumman.

Only 10% are electric and the 90% that run on gasoline get... wait for it... 8.6 MPG.

MPG new Postal delivery trucks - Google Search

The 8.6 mpg isn't that bad--that's not the EPA test but a USPS test based on how they are actually driven. Any car would perform pretty badly in a similar role.

That's true, but also exactly why the entire fleet should be electric.

Should eventually be electric? Replacing the entire fleet would be nuts and extremely wasteful and not green. We can transition, but that'll take time.

 

[Politesse]

The latest DeJoy USPS scandal:
USPS gets final signoff to order new delivery vehicles - "Environmental groups have complained because only 10 percent of planned next-generation trucks are electric powered."

The U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday that it had cleared the final regulatory hurdle to placing orders for next-generation mail vehicles — and getting some of them on delivery routes next year — despite pushback from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the completion of an evaluation required by the National Environmental Policy Act is an important milestone for postal carriers, who have soldiered on with overworked delivery trucks that went into service between 1987 and 1994.

The U.S. Postal Service’s fleet comprises more than 230,000 vehicles. That includes 190,000 local delivery vehicles — and more than 141,000 are the older vehicles, made by federal contractor Grumman.

Only 10% are electric and the 90% that run on gasoline get... wait for it... 8.6 MPG.

MPG new Postal delivery trucks - Google Search

The 8.6 mpg isn't that bad--that's not the EPA test but a USPS test based on how they are actually driven. Any car would perform pretty badly in a similar role.

That's true, but also exactly why the entire fleet should be electric.

Should eventually be electric? Replacing the entire fleet would be nuts and extremely wasteful and not green. We can transition, but that'll take time.

New vehicles added to the fleet should be electric, and electric vehicles should be preferred for use when possible.

 

[TV and credit cards]

The latest DeJoy USPS scandal:
USPS gets final signoff to order new delivery vehicles - "Environmental groups have complained because only 10 percent of planned next-generation trucks are electric powered."

The U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday that it had cleared the final regulatory hurdle to placing orders for next-generation mail vehicles — and getting some of them on delivery routes next year — despite pushback from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the completion of an evaluation required by the National Environmental Policy Act is an important milestone for postal carriers, who have soldiered on with overworked delivery trucks that went into service between 1987 and 1994.

The U.S. Postal Service’s fleet comprises more than 230,000 vehicles. That includes 190,000 local delivery vehicles — and more than 141,000 are the older vehicles, made by federal contractor Grumman.

Only 10% are electric and the 90% that run on gasoline get... wait for it... 8.6 MPG.

MPG new Postal delivery trucks - Google Search

The 8.6 mpg isn't that bad--that's not the EPA test but a USPS test based on how they are actually driven. Any car would perform pretty badly in a similar role.

That's true, but also exactly why the entire fleet should be electric.

Should eventually be electric? Replacing the entire fleet would be nuts and extremely wasteful and not green. We can transition, but that'll take time.

Swapping out old for new across the entire nation is quite an undertaking. You want to make sure what you are buying and the company you are buying from is going to be around for awhile. A long while. Depending on what it is, the contract terms for new equipment, replacement equipment and an ongoing stream of parts is often decades long. So the company providing X for all intents and purposes is kept in business.

 

[ZiprHead]

The latest DeJoy USPS scandal:
USPS gets final signoff to order new delivery vehicles - "Environmental groups have complained because only 10 percent of planned next-generation trucks are electric powered."

The U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday that it had cleared the final regulatory hurdle to placing orders for next-generation mail vehicles — and getting some of them on delivery routes next year — despite pushback from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the completion of an evaluation required by the National Environmental Policy Act is an important milestone for postal carriers, who have soldiered on with overworked delivery trucks that went into service between 1987 and 1994.

The U.S. Postal Service’s fleet comprises more than 230,000 vehicles. That includes 190,000 local delivery vehicles — and more than 141,000 are the older vehicles, made by federal contractor Grumman.

Only 10% are electric and the 90% that run on gasoline get... wait for it... 8.6 MPG.

MPG new Postal delivery trucks - Google Search

The 8.6 mpg isn't that bad--that's not the EPA test but a USPS test based on how they are actually driven. Any car would perform pretty badly in a similar role.

That's true, but also exactly why the entire fleet should be electric.

Should eventually be electric? Replacing the entire fleet would be nuts and extremely wasteful and not green. We can transition, but that'll take time.

Yup, that sort of thing just plain isn't available at this point in time. Not to mention the accompanying infrastructure required to support it.