Hours after U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy paused several controversial changes to Postal Service operations on Tuesday, members of Massachusetts’ House delegation began calling on him to resign.
On a late Zoom call Tuesday, eight of the state’s nine U.S. House members expressed doubt about the recent appointee’s ability to oversee the United States Postal Service.
“Louis DeJoy should resign effective immediately,” said Rep. Jim McGovern. “He is a poor excuse for a public servant. He has disgraced his position, and he is doing Donald Trump’s bidding.”
Rep. Lori Trahan, who said she has been contacted by constituents more than 5,000 times on the issue of Postal Service security, raised the issue of an apparent financial conflicts of interest.
“DeJoy has refused to divest between $30 and $75 million in equity in his former company, which is a U.S. postal service contractor, and he recently bought stock options for Amazon, a U.S. postal service competitor,” said Trahan, pointing a CNN report on DeJoy’s financial entanglements.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley, one of two Massachusetts delegation members set to question DeJoy as part of a U.S. House Oversight Committee hearing next Monday, said the embattled Postmaster General’s decision to walk back changes to Postal Service overtime, mail delivery operations and machinery removal left her with more questions than answers.
“Frankly, I’m really angry that in the middle of a global pandemic and an economic crisis, that we are having to spend critical time and energy defending the United States Postal Service,” Pressley said.
DeJoy, who began his position with the Postal Service in June, issued the statement pausing operational changes after Postal workers and Democratic politicians around the state held public rallies outside post offices in Massachusetts.
In the statement, he said that while “significant reforms” are necessary to secure the sustainability of the Postal Service, he would stand down “to avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail.”
Rep. Stephen Lynch, who held one of the rallies outside a downtown Boston post office Tuesday afternoon, pointed out that the statement doesn’t address returning removed high-capacity mail sorting machines.
WGBH News reported Monday that at least a dozen machines have been dismantled in two parts of the state.
Rep. Seth Moulton, who was not on the call but later confirmed to WGBH News he was also calling for DeJoy’s resignation, said he would support Postal Service efficiency reforms under other circumstances.
“As long as [reform] doesn’t impact the mission of the Post Office,” he said. “No one would advocate for reforms or changes to [the Department of Defense] that prevent it from protecting our national security.”
The Massachusetts delegation are now set to return to Washington. They are scheduled to join other members of the House to take up a bill that would block further changes to postal operations and restore the removed machines over the weekend.
