Postmaster Normal David Steiner speaks towards privatizing USPS : NPR

Trump administration discuss of reworking the U.S. Postal Service has set off a flurry of considerations about the way forward for the federal mail company.

The brand new chief of USPS is now attempting to clear the air.

“I don’t imagine that the Postal Service ought to be privatized or that it ought to develop into an appropriated a part of the federal authorities,” Postmaster Normal David Steiner mentioned Thursday in his first video message to USPS staff. “I imagine within the present construction of the Postal Service as a self-financing, unbiased entity of the chief department.”

Steiner formally took over the nation’s mail service Tuesday, about 4 months after Louis DeJoy stepped down as postmaster basic.

A former CEO of Waste Administration, Steiner additionally beforehand served on the board of FedEx. Requested by NPR how Steiner — who owned shares in FedEx not less than as of September 2024, in accordance with a Securities and Change Fee submitting — is dealing with shares that might current a monetary battle of curiosity, USPS spokesperson David Walton says in a press release that they “have been or might be resolved, offered, and/or divested as required by regulation.”

Nonetheless, Steiner’s background at a prime delivery competitor to USPS raised privatization considerations amongst worker unions, which organized a sequence of rallies across the nation to protest Trump officers’ calls to overtake the nation’s mail service.

For now not less than, the brand new postmaster basic’s effort in Thursday’s video to deal with what he known as “rumors” has eased these worries for some union leaders.

“We’re happy that Postmaster Normal Steiner has privately, and now publicly, expressed his assist for a robust public Postal Service,” says Brian Renfroe, president of the Nationwide Affiliation of Letter Carriers, which represents carriers in cities, in a press release.

The Nationwide Rural Letter Carriers’ Affiliation’s president, Don Maston, says: “The phrases are what we wish to hear. The actions will converse for themselves.”

Maston provides that he hopes to see USPS proceed attempting to develop its delivery enterprise beneath Steiner. “And if we see any indications that issues are being shifted to UPS or we’re getting again in enterprise with FedEx in a manner that will not be one thing that we wish to see, completely we will must take difficulty with that,” he notes.

Steiner’s video message to postal staff nodded to the controversial, 10-year “Delivering for America” reorganization plan that DeJoy launched in 2021. Steiner mentioned adjustments in recent times have introduced USPS “considerably nearer to private-sector logistics practices” and improved its competitiveness when it comes to pricing and product methods. Nonetheless, Steiner famous he thinks USPS “can enhance” and plans to “assess and decide what modifications” to the USPS’ method will “greatest serve the Postal Service, our staff and our prospects.”

President Trump has expressed assist for promoting off the companies of USPS to a non-public firm, a form of transfer that he has mentioned was “not the worst thought” he is ever heard. In 2018, his first administration launched a proposal for “privatization by an preliminary public providing (IPO) or sale to a different entity.” Trump has usually pointed to the mail company’s troubled funds, which have been saddled with declines in mailing and authorized necessities to pre-fund well being advantages for retired postal staff.

Privatizing, nevertheless, is more likely to end in increased delivery costs for the general public and decreased mail service to rural areas, trade analysts have warned. In a 2018 report, a activity pressure on the U.S. postal system put collectively by the primary Trump administration concluded that the “USPS’s complete supply community that covers each deal with within the nation is a essential a part of the nation’s infrastructure that can’t be replicated by non-public actors.”

There’s additionally bipartisan opposition to privatizing USPS in Congress.

This week, a 14th Home Republican — Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington — signed on to a decision saying Congress ought to make certain the Postal Service stays an unbiased federal company and never privatized. The decision, which was launched by Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts and is at the moment caught within the Home Oversight Committee, now has 218 sponsors. A Senate model of the decision additionally has a bipartisan, however smaller, group of supporters.

The Postal Service usually receives no tax {dollars} to maintain it working, relying as an alternative on its stamp gross sales and different service charges.

To assist stabilize its funds, USPS raised the value of a first-class “perpetually” stamp on Sunday by virtually 7% to 78 cents, amongst different will increase. Whereas it is likely one of the world’s lowest costs for mailing a letter domestically, it additionally marks the seventh value hike by USPS up to now 4 years.

Editor’s observe: USPS is a monetary supporter of NPR.

Edited by Benjamin Swasey