Residents and businesses nationwide have been reporting slowdowns in mail and package delivery by the U.S. Postal Service, raising concerns that mail-in ballots could be affected in the upcoming election.
In Virginia, hundreds of veterans had their colon cancer screening tests invalidated after the results took months to arrive by mail. An Atlanta college student missed an academic trip to Ghana when their passport with two-day shipping took a month to show up. A bride in Texas had to rent a dress for her wedding after hers spent weeks stuck in a Houston postal facility.
Across the country, residents and businesses have been reporting widespread slowdowns in mail and package delivery by the U.S. Postal Service. The delays have become so persistent that members of Congress have gotten involved, urging the Postal Service to drastically correct course and raising concern about what impact the disruptions could have on mail-in ballots in the upcoming election.
The delays appear to largely stem from a new system the Postal Service began rolling out last fall that will eventually funnel all the nation’s letters and packages through a consolidated network of 60 regional distribution centers — similar to the airlines’ hub-and-spoke model. The change is part of a wider $40 billion, 10-year overhaul of the network that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has said will reduce costs, improve reliability and make the Postal Service more competitive. But in some instances, the plan has done the opposite, according to the Office of the Inspector General for the Postal Service, members of Congress and Postal Service advocacy groups.
Some process information:
Postal Service is run by a board of members who are recommended by the president and voted into place by Congress.
Board members serve 7 years terms
The board chooses a Postmaster General and Deputy, who have unlimited terms and are also voting members on the board. This would be the guy who we are all angry at
The board must be comprised of a split of Democrats and Republicans (can have one more Democrat than Republican for example)The board cannot have more than 5 members from the same political partySome more political stuff: Laws by Congress can set directives for the board. Since our Congress has been split for all of Biden’s presidency, desire stuff hasn’t gotten done.
A lame duck Congress pre-Obama attached stamp prices to inflation, forced USPS to pre fund worker wages and benefits, shortened delivery to six days. Obama made no attempt to fix this in the short time he had a same party Congress.
Biden did sign a law that removed the “pre financing” of postal worker retirement funds, barred the board from lowering delivery service days below 6, and introduced mandatory service quality reporting to President and Congress, which is why we’re getting this information. However, this had to be a bipartisan bill in order to pass, so it also did things to help Republicans.
Biden has replaced outgoing board members with people who outwardly seemed interested in improving the service and were strong vote by mail advocates.
Biden DID nominate a Republican, but remember it has to remain balanced.*edit – There are 3 Democrats on the board already. All three nominated by Biden. That means the two remaining spots can be Democrats. He could have chosen an independent instead of a Republican. However, the Republican he chose also worked with Amtrak under Obama.There are two open seats Biden is dragging his feet on, maybe to extend their limits well into the next presidencies?
The current chairman of the board ends his term this December.
Big opinion: Stop blaming presidents for stuff. Vote for Congress is way more important.
edit: less bias (I had blamed Republicans for stuff that Democrats had also voted yes) & spelling correction edit again: corrections by @SeaJ
This is incorrect. No more than five governors can be from the same party. Two of the governors are independent. Biden nominated three Democrats, one independent, and one Republican. The Republican governor was not necessary since having a Democrat instead would mean there would only be four governors that would be Democrats. He would then still be able to nominate another Democrat.