Baldwin Questions Leadership Of USPS Postmaster

A couple weeks ago, the Peninsula Pulse published notification from the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) about mailing costs increasing in July, including a hike on the cost of a first-class, forever stamp from 68 cents to 73 cents.

This week, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) and other senators sent a letter to the USPS Board of Governors questioning Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s leadership that has resulted in “higher prices for Americans and poor service,” according to the senators.  

In 2020, Dejoy announced the Delivering for America (DFA) plan to address the operational and financial strains the USPS was confronting. Instead of seeing improvements to the Postal Service, Baldwin and the senators said, “the plan has resulted in diminished quality of customer service, unsustainable postage increases, and drastic declines in the postal industry, which employs nearly 8 million people and produces $1.9 trillion of annual economic activity.”

Despite Congress passing bipartisan legislation and appropriating additional funds that took USPS from $9.2 billion in losses in 2020 to a one-time spike in net income to $57 billion in 2022, leadership at USPS has continued to increase postage rates, the senators said. Since 2022, the price of First-Class stamps increased from 60 cents to 68 cents, with an additional 5-cent increase announced for this July. From 2022 to 2023, USPS saw the largest drop in First-Class mail in 10 years, greater even than during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Baldwin and the senators have asked the Board of Governors “to step in before more harm is caused.” 

The full letter is available at tinyurl.com/3ra5xjdz.