{"id":37551,"date":"2025-03-11T11:16:24","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T16:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=37551"},"modified":"2025-03-11T11:16:24","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T16:16:24","slug":"budzinski-leads-159-members-in-letter-to-president-trump-on-usps-privatization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2025\/03\/11\/budzinski-leads-159-members-in-letter-to-president-trump-on-usps-privatization\/","title":{"rendered":"Budzinski Leads 159 Members in Letter to President Trump on USPS Privatization"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013<\/strong> 3\/10\/25 – Today, Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski (IL-13)<\/strong>\u00a0led 159 members of Congress in a letter to President Trump expressing concern over his proposal to fire the United States Postal Service\u2019s (USPS) Board of Governors and merge the Postal Service into the Department of Commerce.<\/p>\n

The members write<\/strong>, \u201cAny attempts to privatize the Postal Service would be a betrayal to the more than 640,000 postal employees who work tirelessly every day to ensure mail isdelivered to every corner of the country. It would also hurt American consumers and businesses who rely on the Postal Service daily for mail and package delivery. These changes would be especially devastating for rural Americans, where the potential elimination of the Postal Service\u2019s universal service obligation would result in skyrocketing delivery costs for less populated regions of the country, where reliable service is most needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Congresswoman Budzinski has been a staunch advocate of improved mail service, while opposing efforts toward privatization and proposals that would reduce service reliability and speed for rural communities. Earlier this month, Budzinski testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government about President Trump\u2019s proposal to dissolve the USPS\u2019s bipartisan Board of Governors and place the agency under the Department of Commerce. To watch her testimony, click\u00a0HERE<\/strong>.<\/a><\/p>\n

The letter to President Trump is supported by the\u00a0National Association of Letter Carriers\u00a0(NALC),\u00a0American Postal Workers Union\u00a0(APWU), National Postal Mail Handlers Union(NPMHU),\u00a0National Association of Postal Supervisors\u00a0(NAPS), and the\u00a0National Rural Letter Carriers\u2019 Association (NRLCA).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States Postal Service employs over 640,000 dedicated men and women, including over 50,000 Mail Handlers, and serves over 166 million American households and businesses. People in urban, rural, and suburban areas rely on the work we do to deliver\u00a0packages and letters ranging from Social Security checks, necessary medications, government correspondence, packages, and mail from loved ones. Members of Congress need to stand up against any threat to this invaluable institution,\u201d said\u00a0Paul V. Hogrogian, President of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAttempts to privatize or absorb the independent Postal Service into another executive branch agency is an assault on a universal, accessible, and affordable national postal system. NAPS applauds congressional action to protect rural mail service, and service to postal-reliant communities and business throughout the United States,\u201d said\u00a0Chuck Mulidore, Executive Vice President of the National Association of Postal Supervisors.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOn behalf of the 130,000 members of the National Rural Letter Carriers\u2019 Association, I want to thank Rep. Budzinski and the other members of Congress who cosigned this letter opposing the executive order, or any executive action, that dismisses the USPS Board of Governors and mergers the United States Postal Service with the Department of Commerce. These potential unilateral and unlawful actions are steps to take over the Postal Service and move towards privatization. The letter accurately states that Congress is the only authority to make legislative changes impacting the Postal Service. The Postal Service has bound this nation together for 250 years, and we must continue to let this American institution continue to serve the American people free from political interference as an independent agency,\u201d said\u00a0Don Maston, President of the National Rural Letter Carriers\u2019 Association.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The full text of the letter is\u00a0<\/u><\/strong>HERE<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and below:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Honorable Donald J. Trump<\/p>\n

President of the United States of America<\/p>\n

The White House<\/p>\n

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW<\/p>\n

Washington, DC 20500<\/p>\n

President Trump:<\/p>\n

We are writing to express our grave concern regarding reports that you are considering signing an executive order that dismisses the duly appointed United States Postal Service Board of Governors and initiates steps to absorb the United States Postal Service into the Department of Commerce. Any attempts to unilaterally fire Senate confirmed members of the Postal Service\u2019s Board of Governors or undermine the longstanding independence of the United States Postal Service violates the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 and the separation of powers spelled out in the United States Constitution. For this reason, we ask you to reverse course on any planned executive order surrounding the Postal Service immediately.<\/p>\n

As you know, members of the United States Postal Service\u2019s Board of Governors are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate for fixed terms. The President does not have the authority to unilaterally dismiss any member of the Board, without cause, before their term has expired. The Board of Governors works in a nonpartisan manner to provide oversight of the Postal Service\u2019s leadership and appointing a new Postmaster General when there is a vacancy. Their work is essential to ensuring proper oversight of the Postal Service\u2019s day-to-day operations and in preventing political influence in the selection of the Postmaster General \u2013 safeguarding public trust in the Postal Service\u2019s independence.<\/p>\n

In the Oval Office on February 21, you stated you were also considering \u201ca form of a merger\u201d of the Postal Service into the Department of Commerce. In 1970, Congress passed the Postal Reorganization Act, which removed the Postal Service from the President\u2019s Cabinet specifically to protect it from exactly the type of political interference your administration is demonstrating. The law grants Congress \u2013 not the Executive Branch \u2013 the authority to make legislative changes affecting the Postal Service. Specifically, Section 208 of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 states: \u201cCongress reserves the power to alter, amend, or repeal any or all of the sections of this title.\u201d This provision makes clear that any potential executive action to consolidate the Postal Service into the Department of Commerce is unlawful and must not go forward.<\/p>\n

In addition to your unlawful attempts to reorganize the Postal Service, we remain alarmed by your past comments regarding the privatization of the Postal Service. Any attempts to privatize the Postal Service would be a betrayal to the more than 640,000 postal employees who work tirelessly every day to ensure mail is delivered to every corner of the country. It would also hurt American consumers and businesses who rely on the Postal Service daily for mail and package delivery. These changes would be especially devastating for rural Americans, where the potential elimination of the Postal Service\u2019s universal service obligation would result in skyrocketing delivery costs for less populated regions of the country, where reliable service is most needed. Privatizing the Postal Service would have real-world consequences for our constituents, pricing many of them out of access to this essential service that has been a critical part of our nation\u2019s history since before its founding.<\/p>\n

As Members of Congress, we demand that you halt any executive order that attempts to fire the Postal Service\u2019s Board of Governors or attempts to merge the Postal Service into the Department of Commerce. We also ask for a commitment from your administration to refrain from any further actions to undermine the Postal Service\u2019s critical role as an independent agency of the federal government.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 3\/10\/25 – Today, Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski (IL-13)\u00a0led 159 members of Congress in a letter to President Trump expressing concern over his proposal to fire the United States Postal Service\u2019s (USPS) Board of Governors and merge the Postal Service into the Department of Commerce. The members write, \u201cAny attempts to privatize the Postal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37551"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37552,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37551\/revisions\/37552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}