The incoming Biden-Harris administration inherits a U.S. Postal Service with expansive capabilities and resilient public trust. These are well-earned attributes, despite that, over the past year, the institution was dragged into political warfare, challenged by a relentless pandemic and battered by a continued decline in mail volume.
Postal Service employees, notwith-standing the well-documented and judicially confirmed operational complications, effectively and securely “delivered democracy” for America. Moreover, the 2020 holiday mailing season, once again, demonstrated the USPS effectively provides merchants a reliable acceptance, processing and delivery network. At the same time, many postal competitors were hamstrung, unable to calibrate capacity to volume.
On Jan. 20, President-Elect Joe Biden will invoke the solemn presidential oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” As NAPS members know, America’s postal system is embedded in our nation’s founding document. Hence, the preservation, protection and defense of our postal operation is a presidential imperative. As you may recall, in the October 2020 issue of The Postal Supervisor, candidate Biden articulated the need for a viable Postal Service.
In late November, NAPS was invited to meet with the Biden-Harris transition team. Shortly thereafter, via a video conference, NAPS shared its perspectives on the short- and long-term needs of the Postal Service and EAS-level postal employees. The four-member transition team is led by former Deputy Postmaster General Ron Stroman.