U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. wrote to President Joe Biden on Jan. 25 calling on him to fire the entire United States Postal Service (USPS) Board of Governors. Pascrell said that they were silent and complicit in Donald Trump’s and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s alleged deliberate campaign to subvert vote-by-mail elections and destroy the post office.
Pascrell represents the 9th Congressional District, which includes Secaucus.
“After several years of unprecedented sabotage, the United States Postal Service is teetering on the brink of collapse,” Pascrell said. “Through the devastating arson of the Trump regime, the USPS Board of Governors sat silent. Their dereliction cannot now be forgotten. Therefore, I urge you to fire the entire Board of Governors and nominate a new slate of leaders to begin the hard work of rebuilding our Postal Service for the next century.”
Trump wanted to interfere with mail-in ballots
Pascrell recalled that as DeJoy’s efforts to dismantle mail sorting machines, cut overtime, restrict deliveries, and remove mailboxes slowed mail nationally, Donald Trump openly admitted that his administration was withholding funding for the Postal Service to make it harder to process mail-in ballots. The Board of Governors did nothing to protect the USPS, he said.
According to Title 39, the USPS Board of Governors’ central responsibility is to “represent the public interest,” and its members may be removed by the President “for cause.” Pascrell urged President Biden to exercise that legal authority and fire all six sitting members of the Board of Governors for their dereliction and betrayal.
Since this crisis began, Pascrell has been aggressively demanding accountability from USPS. On May 21, Pascrell wrote to USPS Inspector General Tammy Whitcomb demanding an investigation into the turmoil at the USPS, stemming from a pattern of interference engineered by the Trump administration in its efforts to destabilize the post office.
On Sept. 30, Pascrell led members of the New Jersey Congressional Delegation in a letter to Postmaster General DeJoy demanding an emergency visit to the Dominic Daniels Mail Sorting Center in Kearny and requesting information on USPS’s ability to carry out New Jersey’s all vote-by-mail general election. In October, Pascrell made a surprise appearance at the Daniels Facility and demanded access.
On Aug. 14, Pascrell became the first member of Congress to call for DeJoy and Trump to be investigated by a state criminal grand jury for their “arsoning” of the post office, making a criminal referral to New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal alleging Trump and DeJoy subverted state elections.
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