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BRATTLEBORO — Vermont’s junior senator issued a two-word response to the news that Louis DeJoy, the head of the U.S. Postal Service, intends to step down.
“Good riddance,” stated Sen. Peter Welch, in a statement to the media.
“Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s tenure at the U.S. Postal Service was a disaster for Vermont residents and postal workers alike,” states the press release, noting that it took the USPS under DeJoy’s management 15 months to reopen the Montpelier post office after it was flooded in 2023.
“At the same time, DeJoy’s restructuring plan has led to unacceptable mail delivery delays across Vermont, especially in rural areas of the state,” according to Welch. “In response to legitimate criticism, DeJoy has demonstrated utter disregard for Congress and the communities it represents.”
DeJoy was appointed postmaster general during the first Trump Administration.
“As you know, I have worked tirelessly to lead the 640,000 men and women of the Postal Service in accomplishing an extraordinary transformation,” wrote DeJoy in his resignation letter. “We have served the American people through an unprecedented pandemic and through a period of high inflation and sensationalized politics.”
DeJoy took the helm of the postal service in the summer of 2020. He was a Republican donor who owned a logistics business before taking office and was the first postmaster general in nearly two decades who was not a career postal employee.
DeJoy developed a 10-year plan to modernize operations and stem losses. He previously said that postal customers should get used to “uncomfortable” rate hikes as the postal service seeks to stabilize its finances and become more self-sufficient.
The plan calls for making the mail delivery system more efficient and less costly by consolidating mail processing centers. Critics, including members of Congress from several states, have said the first consolidations slowed service and that further consolidations could particularly hurt rural mail delivery.
DeJoy has disputed that and told a U.S. House subcommittee during a contentious September hearing that the Postal Service had embarked on long-overdue investments in “ratty” facilities and making other changes to create “a Postal Service for the future” that delivered mail more quickly.
DeJoy also oversaw the postal service during two presidential elections that saw spikes in mail-in ballots.
Ahead of the 2020 presidential election, a federal judge limited one of the postal service’s cost-cutting practices after finding it contributed to delays in mail delivery. DeJoy had restricted overtime payments for postal workers and stopped the agency’s longtime practice of allowing late and extra truck deliveries in the summer of 2020. The moves reduced costs but meant some mail was left behind to be delivered the following day.
Jordan Brechenser, president and publisher of Vermont News & Media, owner of the Reformer, said he hopes the new postmaster general can rebuild the morale at post offices around the country.
“Our company, along with most other newspapers across the United States, relies on the post office to deliver our newspapers daily and on time,” he said. “Newspapers have a long-standing relationship with the USPS as being one of their largest customers. It seems that with DeJoy at the helm, many post offices have been gutted to the point where daily mail delivery doesn’t take place. And despite their obligation to deliver our papers, often times that falls short.”
Brechenser said Vermont News & Media has been in contact with Vermont’s congressional delegation to urge them to support the Delivery for Democracy Act, which mandates at least 95 percent on-time delivery.
“Spotty delivery of our newspaper is compounded by significant postal rate increases that we are forced to absorb,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Story Written by Bob Audette, Brattleboro Reformer