Louis DeJoy to step down as USPS postmaster general

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy will soon step down as head of the U.S. Postal Service, creating an opening for the agency’s governing board to fill as it is in the midst of implementing controversial and sweeping reforms to its operations. 

DeJoy has requested the USPS board begin its process to find a successor just months after telling Congress he would remain in the post “until somebody hauls me out of here.” The postmaster general has faced significant criticism since his appointment to the role in 2020 for his efforts to slow down mail delivery, raise prices and consolidate mail processing while also winning some plaudits for creating a vision he said would eliminate the agency’s financial troubles. 

Postmasters general serve no fixed terms and are chosen by the board. President Biden while in office faced some calls to fire DeJoy, a long-time Republican donor who came to USPS after running a successful private sector logistics company, though he could only be removed by the board or on his own volition. 

DeJoy said “much critical work” remains to implement his vision for the agency, but he decided it was time to start the process of identifying a successor. 

“The major initiatives we are currently endeavoring are multi-year programs and it is important to have leadership in place whose tenure will span this future period,” DeJoy said. “After four and half years leading one of America’s greatest public institutions through dramatic change during unusual times, it is time for me to start thinking about the next phase of my life, while also ensuring that the Postal Service is fully prepared for the future.”

USPS is four years into implementing DeJoy’s 10-year Delivering for America plan, which is striving to streamline the agency’s processing and delivering processes while enabling it to break even after a decade of losses. The postmaster general’s efforts to drive out costs while raising rates more frequently and significantly than USPS has historically done has created a chorus of criticism from a wide-ranging and bipartisan set of lawmakers in Congress, the agency’s regulators, its inspector general and stakeholders throughout the mailing community. 

The USPS board of governors that will choose his successor currently has three Republican members, two Democrats and one independent. President Trump can immediately nominate three additional members to the vacant seats on the nine-member board and a fourth to replace Roman Martinez, who is currently serving in a holdover year. 

One executive in the mailing industry speculated DeJoy’s timing was not a coincidence, suggesting it “sure feels like” he stepped aside so Trump can reshape the board to install a DeJoy protege or “change USPS in some other way.” Trump briefly proposed privatizing the Postal Service in his first term and recently suggested he could seek to do so again. 

DeJoy missed his target of getting USPS into the black in fiscal 2023 and 2024, and has said he expects to again fall short in fiscal 2025. The agency did turn a profit in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, a rare occurrence over the agency’s last decade. DeJoy has been adamant in the face of criticism that his mandate is to deliver mail and packages at least six days per week to every address in the nation without taking federal appropriations and his reforms were the only viable way to meet it. 

The Postal Regulatory Commission has frequently butted heads with DeJoy and recently blasted DeJoy’s reform plans, suggesting they were poorly thought out and contained “little convincing evidence” they would succeed. Large-scale mail users have castigated DeJoy’s efforts, saying they are now paying far more for worse service. Lawmakers have sharply rebuked DeJoy for lowering USPS performance expectations and even Republican members of Congress have vowed to block his plan from taking effect. 

Perhaps the three most significant efforts currently underway in DeJoy’s plan are consolidating mail processing operations into 60 mega-centers around the county, concentrating the final stage of mail sorting away from post offices in favor of new, centralized centers and leaving some mail to sit overnight for collection the following morning. He is also in the midst of investing $40 billion into the agency, including by building new facilities, improving long-neglected workspaces and purchasing a new fleet of vehicles—most of which will be electric. 

“Louis DeJoy has steadfastly served the nation and the Postal Service over the past five years,” said Amber McReynolds, a Biden appointee who the board recently selected as its new chair. “The governors greatly appreciate his enduring leadership and his tireless efforts to modernize the Postal Service and reverse decades of neglect.”

McReynolds added that DeJoy was a “fighter” who created a “strategic direction, a competitive spirit and a culture of achievement." She vowed to continue to bring about progress until “the promise of a transformed and modernized Postal Service is fully realized.”

DeJoy said he was proud of his accomplishments and the postal workforce. 

“Despite being victimized by a legislative and regulatory business model that produced almost two decades of devastation to their organization and workplaces, they have persevered and embraced the changes we are making in order to better serve their fellow citizens,” DeJoy said. “It has been one of the pleasures of my life and a crowning achievement of my career to have been associated with them and their mission of public service.”