On Monday, Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) posted a blistering takedown of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, highlighting the rapid decline in service at USPS on his watch.
Specifically, Porter grilled a witness about a recent audit showing the deterioration of delivery times under DeJoy's tenure.
"The audit found that by the spring of 2020, mail delivery was right around 92 percent — that is 92 percent of the mail got there within the standard of on time," said Porter in a hearing, holding up a whiteboard displaying the data. "That dropped to 80 percent by the fall of 2020, and by January of 2021 was hovering around 61 percent. I realize this has gone up somewhat since then, but I wanted to ask you, when did Mr. DeJoy take over as postmaster? Do you know?"
"The summer of 2020," said the witness.
"The summer of 2020," repeated Porter. "So June of 2020. And what happened after he took over? Did the rate of on-time mail delivery go up or down?"
"Went down," said the witness.
"I'm a professor, and I used to do a lot of grading," said Porter. "And 92 is considered widely like an A-minus, 80 is considered hanging on, hanging on to the lowest possible B. 60 percent is at best a D-minus. The Postal Service delivers 48 percent of the world's mail. It is an institution, it is a civic treasure. And we let it get all the way, what you found, is we let it get all the way down to that D-minus level."
DeJoy cannot be fired directly by President Joe Biden, as he serves at the pleasure of the USPS Board of Governors. Since taking office, Biden has appointed several new governors, but Democrats still don't have a practical majority because one of the nominally Democratic appointees, Ron Bloom, is a Trump appointee and supporter of DeJoy. Biden will have more appointments open up in the new year.
Watch below:
On-time mail delivery has plummeted under Postmaster Louis DeJoy\u2014forcing veterans to wait longer for prescriptions, seniors to scramble to pay bills without their Social Security checks, and communities to feel less connected.\n\nPostmaster DeJoy needs to go.pic.twitter.com/NxVivkOQZt— Rep. Katie Porter (@Rep. Katie Porter)1637025581
