President Trump mentioned on Friday that he was once taking into consideration merging the U.S. Postal Carrier, an unbiased federal company that has wrestled with financial challenges and service lapses, with the Trade Division.
Mr. Trump was once responding to a reporter’s query about an article in The Washington Post pronouncing that he was once making ready to dissolve the management of the company and position it below the regulate of the Trade Division.
The Postal Carrier is controlled by way of a bipartisan board of governors — appointed to mounted phrases by way of the president and showed by way of the Senate. Of the 9 governors at the board, not more than 5 of the 9 might belong to the similar political birthday party, and the crowd comes in combination to elect the company’s chief, the postmaster general.
Mr. Trump showed his passion within the merger in remarks on the swearing-in rite for Howard Lutnick, the brand new trade secretary, on Friday. Mr. Trump mentioned that he supposed to stay the Postal Carrier “an excessively equivalent method” however that he was once taking into consideration a merger or most likely downsizing the company.
“Whether or not this is a merger,” Mr. Trump mentioned, “or simply the usage of one of the crucial very gifted other people that we have got in different places so it does no longer lose such a lot — it’s shedding an amazing sum of money.”
A recent report by the Postal Service mentioned that it had “recorded $87 billion in monetary losses over the past 14 years and failed to fulfill carrier requirements.” The file additionally famous the carrier’s struggles all over the pandemic, when a dramatic build up in package deal deliveries “additional wired an already misaligned and old-fashioned mail community.” The Government Accountability Office, a watchdog company, has categorised the Postal Carrier as a “top chance” program vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse.
The Postal Carrier, which was once as soon as a Cupboard-level division of the federal government, was once reorganized into an independent agency below President Richard Nixon. The Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 established the board of governors with the intention to insulate the company from political power whilst making choices on postal charges, appointments and salaries. Unions representing postal staff had carried out widespread strikes that yr calling for pay will increase.
The Postal Carrier has additionally been suffering from the president’s sweeping schedule on price lists. The company had to begin with halted deliveries of programs from mainland China and Hong Kong after an order by President Trump in January ended duty-free dealing with of many smaller parcels — however quickly reversed its decision because the well-liked ramifications of this type of transfer was obvious.
On Friday, Mr. Trump criticized the Postal Carrier for its contemporary monetary troubles, suggesting that the company was once inefficient and a drain at the finances.
“We need to have a publish place of work that works neatly and doesn’t lose huge quantities of cash,” he mentioned.
