Cnn
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The US Postal Service Board of Governors announced on Friday that David Steiner, a member of the Fedex board of directors, will be the next general post office – a decision that takes place in the concerns that the Trump administration will pressure for the privatization of the independent government agency.
Steiner, who has also held management positions at Waste Management, will now supervise a mail delivery service which employs 635,000 workers. On Friday, in a statement, he declared that he was determined to maintain the independence of the USPS.
“I deeply admire the public service and the commercial mission of this incredible institution, and I firmly believe in the maintenance of its role as an independent establishment of the executive power,” said Steiner.
Steiner’s appointment comes after his predecessor, Louis Dejoy, suddenly resigned at the end of March, a month after saying to the board of directors to start looking for his successor. Dejoy played in the leading role for five years, leading the agency through the pandemic, financial losses and elections that have seen overvoltages in the jaills.
In response to reports earlier this week that Steiner could be appointed the next postmaster, representative Gerry Connolly, the best democrat of the Chamber’s supervisory committee, warned that Steiner’s appointment would be a “blatant conflict of interest and an attempt by President Trump to install a loyalist sorted.”
Following the announcement of the board of directors, Connolly and the subcommittee of government operations, the representative, the representative Kweisi MFUME, declared that the panel “very closely monitored the actions of the new post office”.
“The American people deserves and expects an independent, fair and accessible postal service that works without prejudice or political influence,” the Democrats said in a statement. “We sincerely hope that as a general post office, Mr. Steiner will put the interests of the American people and the American postal service before the whims or the requests of an administration which did not respect the independence of this trust institution and rather worked to undermine and privatize the American messaging service.”
Steiner, who said he looked “impatiently to engage with” unions, is already confronted with a step back. The National Association of Transporters of Letters, a union which represents the operators, said earlier this week that Steiner selection would be a conflict of interest given its role at Fedex, one of the competitors of the USPS.
“His selection is not only a conflict of interest – it is an aggressive step towards the delivery of the American messaging system to the interests of companies,” the president of the NALC, Brian Renfroe said on Tuesday. “Private shippers have been waiting to withdraw USPS from the delivery of packages for years. Steiner’s selection is an open invitation to do exactly that. ”
Steiner will leave the Fedex board of directors, said the USPS in its ad. The former executive should officially join the independent agency in July.
President Donald Trump called for major changes to the USPS, which is already several years in a reorganization effort.
He has plans to give trade secretary Howard Lutnick the supervision of the agency, who is currently supervised by his council of governors, and not by a secretary of the cabinet. The president also suggested a “merger”.
“Well, we want to have a post office that works well and do not lose solid money, and we think of doing so, and it will be a form of fusion,” said Trump at the Larnick Oath Ceremony in February. “This will remain the postal service, and I think it will work much better than it has been over the years.”
This decision could be a first step towards privatization – a technological billionaire and the White House advisor, Elon Musk, asked in March.
Before Dejoy left the agency, he concluded an agreement with the Ministry of Efficiency of the Government led by Musk to work with the USPS, focusing on retirement assets and the workers’ compensation program. In a letter sent in March to the congress announcing the agency’s collaboration with DOGE, Dejoy also previewed its plans to reduce 10,000 employees thanks to a voluntary early retirement program – adding to around 30,000 employees who have been cut from the agency since 2021.
Piper Hudspeth Blackburn and Gabe Cohen from CNN contributed to this report.
