Postmaster General set to announce 10-year plan including longer mail delivery times and cuts to post office hours

By CNN Newsource

Published March 23, 2021 9:10 AM

Longer first-class mail delivery times and cuts to post office hours across the country are among some of the changes embattled Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is expected to announce Tuesday as part of a 10-year plan for the agency, according to a source who was briefed on these elements of the plan.

The massive plan, “Delivering for America,” also seeks to make the Postal Service more competitive and more modern — including a new energy-friendly fleet of delivery vehicles and ideas for new services the agency can offer to both customers and small businesses, the source said.

USPS said in a release that the plan “will include financial projections for the coming decade, strategies for service performance improvement and investments in the future of the organization.”

Postal Service employees and unions have been bracing for the release of this plan after changes DeJoy made to the agency over the summer slowed mail delivery.

In a statement to CNN, American Postal Workers Union President Mark Dimondstein said the plan “contains both positive attributes as well as some proposals that should be of concern to postal workers and customers.”

Dimondstein noted that “any proposals that would either slow the mail, reduce access to post offices, or further pursue the failed strategy of plant consolidation will need to be addressed,” but applauded the plan to open “46 new annexes to handle the ever-increasing number of packages the USPS processes” as well as its recognition “that the United State Postal Service’s strength is in the people who provide the service.”

Democratic lawmakers have linked DeJoy, a major donor to former President Donald Trump, to the then-President’s anti-mail-in voting rhetoric. The party accused him of attempting to sabotage the Postal Service just as now-President Joe Biden was relying on mailed ballots to deliver him the White House.

In congressional hearings, DeJoy has sparred with Democratic lawmakers over the slow delivery rates, the 2020 election and his forthcoming 10-year plan. Some lawmakers have called for his ousting, and last month, Biden nominated three people to the agency’s Board of Governors, a move some lawmakers hope could eventually lead to DeJoy’s ouster.

DeJoy apologized in February for slow mail during the peak holiday season, telling the Democratic-controlled House Oversight and Reform Committee that it was “unacceptable.”