Trump holdover Louis DeJoy must be fired
JON
QUEALLY for Common Dreams
The official
complaint filed by the 20 AGs is directed at the Postal
Regulatory Commission (PRC), which is charged with providing independent
oversight of the USPS, but which the suit alleges betrayed its mandate by
allowing the controversial plan put forth by DeJoy to move into implementation
on October 1 without proper review.
According to
a statement from the office of Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson:
The complaint details DeJoy’s
failure to follow federal law in making harmful Postal
Service changes. Ferguson asserts these major Postal Service changes, which
range from eliminating working hours, slowing delivery of first-class mail and
removing equipment, threaten the timely delivery of mail to millions of
Americans who rely on the Postal Service for delivery of everything from
medical prescriptions to ballots.
“Millions of Americans depend on the mail every day to receive their prescriptions, pay bills, receive Social Security checks, send rent payments and more,” Ferguson said in the statement.
"One political appointee does not get to decide the fate of the Postal Service. There is a process that demands accountability from the American public for a reason—and I will fight to ensure the public gets a say."
In addition to
Washington, the complaint was backed by the Attorneys General of Pennsylvania,
North Carolina, New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of
Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota,
Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Virginia, and Rhode Island.
The AG's suit
comes amid a relentless barrage of criticism aimed at DeJoy and demands for his
ouster, as well ire aimed at the Postal Service Board of
Governors, for putting forth a plan that experts on the USPS say is paving the
pathway for the beloved agency's demise.
As Christoper S.
Shaw, author of the the book First Class: The U.S. Postal Service, Democracy, and the
Corporate Threat, wrote in an op-ed for Common Dreams last
week, "While previous postmasters generals sought faster mail delivery,
DeJoy stands out for his wish to make it slower."
As Shaw's piece
notes:
DeJoy claims
that lowering service standards offers an outstanding opportunity to cut costs
because hauling mail overland on trucks will prove cheaper than using air
transportation. Lost in this short-term calculus is the cost to American
citizens and to the health of the Postal Service in the long run. Degrading
standards of service and discarding competitive advantages is not a formula for
long-term relevance.
In response to
the complaint, the USPS claimed the filing "has no legal or factual
merit" and said "the Postal Service intends to move to dismiss it
pursuant to the rules" of the PRC process.
North Carolina
Attorney General Josh Stein, however, said in
a statement that the changes made by DeJoy "destroy the timely mail
service that people depend on for medications, bill payments, and business
operations in rural parts" of his state. According to Stein's office:
The 10-year plan would undermine the Postal Service, including changes that would enact slower service standards for first-class mail and other packages, change the location of post offices, and adjust rates.
The plan would slow down USPS standard
delivery for 30 percent of mail from three days to five days, increase the
price of each piece of mail by six to nine percent, and put these changes in
place without doing anything to effectively address the larger Postal Service
budget deficit.
The Postal Regulatory Commission is an independent federal agency that has oversight over the Postal Service’s operations. Federal law requires the Postal Service to go to the Commission whenever it makes a change to postal services that will affect the entire country.
The attorneys general contend that DeJoy failed to
do so, and without the proper review, DeJoy's plan could lead to future
problems with mail delivery. The attorneys general are requesting that the
Commission order the Postal Service to request a review of the full extent of
the ten-year plan, affording the States and the public an opportunity to
provide comment.
“The Postal
Service," said Stein, "is an essential government service, and it
cannot restructure without considering how those changes will affect millions
of Americans.”