With just over a month to go before Inauguration Day, President-elect Donald Trump and President Joe Biden both took steps on Monday that could impact the future of the US Postal Service.
Trump nodded toward a possible move to privatize the postal service at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
Asked about the agency, Trump said privatization was “not the worst idea I’ve ever heard,” adding that “we’re looking at it.”
“That’s being talked about. It’s an idea that a lot of people have loved for a long time,” he said.
Privatizing the Postal Service would hurt hundreds of thousands of jobs and risk upending a system that, founded in 1775, is older than the US itself.
Although the Postal Service is a government agency with federal employees, it relies primarily on its own commercial activities, such as the sale of postage, products and services, for funding.
The Postal Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s comments.
Any attempt to privatize the agency would require approval from the 11-member Board of Directors led by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who Trump appointed during his first term. Members are nominated by the president and must be confirmed by the Senate.
Biden announced Monday his intention to reappoint Anton Hajjar to the Board of Governors — a move that would require swift action from Democrats to confirm him before Republicans take control of the Senate in the first week of January.
Hajjar previously served on the Postal Service board. Biden nominated him in 2021, and the Senate confirmed him in a voice vote, with little to no opposition. Hajjar served the remainder of a term that expired last December. If the Senate confirms his reappointment, his new term would last seven years.
Hajjar is a former general counsel of the American Postal Workers Union, which represents unions and union workers.
Biden’s intention to nominate Hajjar is an attempt to exert control over the highly popular agency, which has not been profitable since 2006. The Postal Service is second only to the National Park Service in popularity among government agencies, according to a survey this year by the Pew research center.
Trump has been openly critical of the agency, calling it a “joke” that is “losing enormous amounts of money.” While in office during the Covid pandemic, Trump opposed providing aid to the agency and threatened to veto any congressional action that included aid for it.
His appointment of DeJoy in 2020 resulted in the unveiling of a 10-year plan to overhaul the Post Office to address its financial problems and “modernize the Postal Service.”
Republicans have expressed broader dissatisfaction with the Postal Service, calling it “bloated, mismanaged and irresponsible.” GOP lawmakers questioned DeJoy at a House Oversight Committee hearing this month, saying people across the U.S. are experiencing poor service and that the Postal Service is “bleeding red ink.”
Democrats have opposed privatization, with Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., recently telling The Washington Post that privatization “is our great fear.”
Ultimately, the Board of Directors, Biden’s pick, Hajjar, which, if confirmed, would decide the fate of the agency and whether the service — which provides private companies like Amazon, FedEx and UPS with “last-mile” — service in rural areas – is privatized or not.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
