President Joe Biden’s latest Postal Service leadership picks are telling lawmakers that Congress, watchdogs and customers will have a seat at the table as the agency keeps going with a 10-year reform plan meant to put it on firmer financial footing.
The Biden administration’s three nominees to serve on the USPS Board of Governors told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that, confirmed, they would ensure USPS prioritizes reliable, on-time mail delivery as it pursues strategies to cut billions of dollars in annual operating costs and bring in more revenue by growing its package business.
USPS reported a $9.5 billion net loss in fiscal 2024, a deeper loss than it’s seen in recent years. It expects to end this fiscal year with a $6.9 billion net loss.
Val Demings, a former Democratic congresswoman from Florida and police chief of the Orlando Police Department, said USPS “has ongoing challenges,” but told lawmakers it needs to balance its plan to regain long-term financial stability with its mission to provide “the best service possible to the American people.”
“The Postal Service has ongoing challenges and is in the midst of a 10-year reorganization plan. If confirmed, I will commit to working with all members of the board to ensure that we are listening to the concerns of all postal stakeholders and that all voices are reflected in our choices,” Demings said.
Demings added that the Postal Regulatory Commission “plays a critical role in making sure that we have the information that we need.”
Gordon Hartogensis, former director of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, said part of the USPS board’s job is to ensure “there is transparency for outside stakeholders, including Congress, regulators and the public” — as well as hold USPS management accountable for performance under its 10-year Delivering for America plan, and change course, if necessary.
“The U.S. Postal Service is an essential service that touches everyone. Any disruption in service is going to be met with fierce backlash from stakeholders,” Hartogensis said. “It’s important to communicate effectively the benefits of any changes that impact the end customers experience.”
“If there are things that are causing delays, that are mishaps, the important thing for us to look at is this a mistake that’s correctable, a glitch that that we can learn from and make things better? Or is it part of a recurring pattern that’s not, which requires a course correction?” he added. “It’s critical for the Board of Governors to determine which is which, and if it requires a course correction, take action.”
Bill Zollars, a former member of the USPS board whose term expired in 2023, was renominated by Biden to serve another term. He told the committee that USPS faces a delicate “balancing act” with its network modernization plans — ensuring reliable, on-time delivery to customers, while making changes that will help the agency become financially stable in the long term.
The current USPS delivery network, he added, hasn’t changed much in 40 years, and doesn’t reflect the agency’s changing business model, which focuses in part on capturing more of the package delivery business from its competitors.
“There are going to be changes to the network that are inevitable to get to a contemporary network,” he said. “We aren’t planning on closing anything, as far as I know, but there will be operational changes because we’ve got locations that are in the wrong place, with the wrong equipment and the wrong training.”
