‘A disaster’: Biden urged to replace entire USPS board as DeJoy plans slower mail and postage hikes

US Postal Service chief Louis DeJoy intends to roll out a plan to raise postal rates and eliminate first-class mail deliveries, moves that are likely to lead to slower mail and higher costs passed on to customers, according to reports.

The potential cutbacks to first-class mail – which include letters, bills and other mail sent to local addresses – would eliminate two-day deliveries, and instead lump that mail into current three- and five-day tiers, the same as nonlocal mail.

Postmaster general Louis DeJoy – a top donor to Donald Trump – has already overseen dramatic rollbacks in service during the coronavirus pandemic, as the mail became a lifeline for deliveries, including medicine, and critical 2020 elections across the US depended on increased vote-by-mail options, with Americans avoiding in-person voting and shopping during the public health crisis.

By Christmas, more than one third of first-class mail was late, even as the agency rolled back some of its controversial cuts.

President Joe Biden has faced growing calls to remove members of the USPS Board of Governors, which has sole authority to remove the postmaster general.

In a recent letter to the president, Senator Tammy Duckworth said that “as a result of the recent and abject failure of leadership at the top of the USPS, it is in desperate need of repair in the public eye.”

She urged the president to “act swiftly and replace every member” of the board.

“Doing so would restore accountability and credibility at this Board, and it would send a message to future leaders that silence in the face of a campaign of sabotage will not be tolerated,” she said. “There should not be any toleration for their silence or complicity in overseeing these harmful policy changes that have also eroded the public trust in this agency.”

In a post to social media announcing her letter, she called Mr DeJoy “a disaster.”

Her letter follows an ongoing appeal to Congress and the president from US Rep Bill Pascrell to replace the entire board.

The USPS “is teetering on the brink of collapse,” the congressman wrote in his letter to the president last month.

“Through the devastating arson of the Trump regime, the USPS Board of Governors sat silent,” he said. “Their dereliction cannot now be forgotten.”

In May, the board unanimously appointed Mr DeJoy to lead the agency, which ordered sweeping service cuts, including removing mail-sorting machines, cutting overtime and removing mailboxes, efforts that saw delivery delays across the US amid a surge in demand.

“As America’s perhaps most enduringly trusted institution, a central economic and social engine for every community in America, and a vital vanguard of the democratic tradition, the Post Office must play an essential role in our national life for generations to come,” the congressman wrote to the White House.

Until this month, the board consisted entirely of Trump appointees, including two Democrats and four Republicans.

On 9 February, Ron Bloom – a former Obama administration official – replaced Robert “Mike” Duncan as the chair of the board of governors, signalling changes in leadership under the new administration.

In a statement to NBC News, Mr DeJoy said officials at the USPS have “been working on developing a comprehensive 10-year strategy to address the serious but solvable challenges of the Postal Service that commits to six- and seven-day a week delivery service” with a plan that he says is supported by the board.

The House Oversight Committee will hold a hearing with Mr DeJoy and other postal service officials on 24 February “examine legislative proposals to place the Postal Service on a more sustainable financial footing going forward,” the committee said in a statement.