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One exchange at Wednesday’s congressional hearing featuring Postmaster General Louis DeJoy can tell us a lot about the bureaucratic battle over DeJoy’s future.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) was grilling Ron Bloom, the chair of the USPS Board of Governors, a Democratic Trump appointee and a participant in the board’s unanimous selection last year of DeJoy as the next postmaster general.
Connolly demanded to know of Bloom was satisfied with DeJoy’s performance last year — if the entire board really was, as one Republican said in September, “tickled pink” by the postmaster general’s work.
“I’m generally not tickled pink by things,” Bloom said, but “the board of governors believes the postmaster general, in very difficult circumstances, is doing a good job.”
“Respectfully, I disagree,” Connelly replied. “And I hope President Biden disagrees as well, and that we take action to replace the Board of Governors with people who care about the Postal Service, and are going to be committed to their job of oversight and accountability.”
Biden hasn’t said he’ll replace the full board of governors. But relevant news broke within minutes of Connelly’s comment: In the middle of the hearing, The Washington Post and then NBC News reported that Biden would nominate three people to fill three existing vacancies on the Board of Governors — thereby restoring the board to its full nine members.
Two of the reported picks are Democrats. The third, Amber McReynolds, is not politically affiliated, but is a staunch advocate of mail-in voting in her role as chief executive of National Vote at Home Institute. Together, they would add to the two Democrats on the board, potentially forming a 5-4 majority to get rid of DeJoy — a majority that could include Bloom.
Bloom is the confounding factor. He says he supports DeJoy, but he could change his mind. He could also be replaced: The board chair’s term was scheduled to end in December, and Bloom is in the middle of a one-year holdover term.
Biden may still choose to replace Bloom, or not. It’s not clear the Biden administration has the political will to do so: Last week, more than 70 members of Congress called on Biden to fill the “three” existing vacancies on the board, saying that this “will allow the Board to seriously consider whether the current Postmaster General is suitable to continue in his role.” But they didn’t explicitly call for Bloom’s ouster, as Connelly did on Wednesday.
The American Postal Workers Union, on the other hand, has collected 400,000 signatures on a petition urging Biden to fill the “four” vacancies on the board — presumably including the chairman.
If Bloom isn’t replaced, he would likely hold the deciding vote over whether DeJoy stays or goes.
And, as we saw today, he would likely need to be convinced that the postmaster general doesn’t deserve his job.
