Postmaster General DeJoy says he plans to step down : NPR

WASHINGTON — Louis DeJoy, the pinnacle of the U.S. Postal Service, intends to step down, the federal company stated Tuesday, after an almost five-year tenure marked by the coronavirus pandemic, surges in mail-in election ballots and efforts to stem losses by value and repair cuts.

In a Monday letter, Postmaster Basic DeJoy requested the Postal Service Board of Governors to start searching for his successor.

“As you understand, I’ve labored tirelessly to guide the 640,000 women and men of the Postal Service in undertaking a unprecedented transformation,” he wrote. “Now we have served the American individuals by an unprecedented pandemic and thru a interval of excessive inflation and sensationalized politics.”

DeJoy took the helm of the postal service in the summertime of 2020 throughout President Donald Trump’s first time period. He was a Republican donor who owned a logistics enterprise earlier than taking workplace and was the primary postmaster common in almost twenty years who was not a profession postal worker.

DeJoy developed a 10-year plan to modernize operations and stem losses. He beforehand stated that postal clients ought to get used to “uncomfortable” fee hikes because the postal service seeks to stabilize its funds and turn out to be extra self-sufficient.

The plan requires making the mail supply system extra environment friendly and less expensive by consolidating mail processing facilities. Critics, together with members of Congress from a number of states, have stated the primary consolidations slowed service and that additional consolidations might notably damage rural mail supply.

DeJoy has disputed that and advised a U.S. Home subcommittee throughout a contentious September listening to that the Postal Service had launched into long-overdue investments in “ratty” amenities and making different adjustments to create “a Postal Service for the long run” that delivered mail extra shortly.

DeJoy additionally oversaw the postal service throughout two presidential elections that noticed spikes in mail-in ballots.

Forward of the 2020 presidential election, a federal choose restricted one of many postal service’s cost-cutting practices after discovering it contributed to delays in mail supply. DeJoy had restricted extra time funds for postal staff and stopped the company’s longtime follow of permitting late and additional truck deliveries in the summertime of 2020. The strikes decreased prices however meant some mail was left behind to be delivered the next day.

DeJoy stated in his letter that he was dedicated to being “as useful as doable in facilitating a transition.”