Trump Considering Big Changes For Postal Service: What To Know In RI

RHODE ISLAND — President Donald Trump has said he may take control of the U.S. Postal Service, which has operated independently of the federal government since 1970, in a move that could change how Rhode Island residents get their mail.

"We want to have a post office that works well and doesn’t lose massive amounts of money," Trump said. "We’re thinking about doing that. And it’ll be a form of a merger, but it’ll remain the Postal Service, and I think it’ll operate a lot better."

Trump made the remarks at the swearing-in of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. He called the move a way to stop losses at the $78 billion-a-year agency, which has struggled to balance the books with the decline of first-class mail.

"He’s got a great business instinct, which is what we need, and we're looking at it, and we think we can turn it around," Trump said of Lutnick. "It’s been just a tremendous loser for this country, tremendous amounts of money that they’ve lost."

The Postal Service operated as a political organ of the White House from its founding until the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, passed by Congress in response to a crippling nationwide mail strike. Congress acted purposely to untie the Postal Service from the executive branch, freeing it from political tinkering, according to The Washington Post, which has been reporting on Trump’s conversations with the administration’s new commerce secretary since December.

Under the old system, presidents often appointed their political allies and campaign leaders as postmaster general and to other key leadership positions.

However, it’s unlikely Trump can privatize the Postal Service without the approval of Congress. The Postal Service is authorized by the Constitution.

In a letter late last week, House Democrats urged Trump to abandon plans to bring the Postal Service under the Commerce Department.

"Congress prescribed a clear and critical mandate for the Postal Service: to deliver efficient, reliable, and universal service to all Americans," Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Virginia.), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, wrote in the letter. "Your reported efforts to dismantle the Postal Service as an independent agency would directly undermine the affordability and reliability of the U.S. postal system. We urge you to abandon immediately any plans that would either privatize the Postal Service or undermine the independence of the Postal Service."

U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-Rhode Island), also co-sponsored a bill last month in an effort to prevent the privatization of the U.S. Postal Service.

"The U.S. Postal Service is a vital public institution that serves every American in every community," Magaziner posted on X. "I’m standing against any effort to privatize USPS and reaffirming that it must stay an independent federal agency, serving the American people—not corporate interests."

The Postal Service is one of the most popular parts of the federal government among Americans, according to a Pew Research Center survey. The survey of 9,400 Americans last showed a 72 percent approval rating (the approval rating was 76 percent among Democrats and 68 percent among Republicans). In terms of popularity, the USPS finished second behind the National Park Service and just ahead of NASA.

The Washington Post’s Jacob Bogage, who broke the story, told PBS News Hour that stripping the Postal Service of its independence and making it political removes its obligation to serve all people equally and reach everyone’s address with the same service and the same pricing.

It’s unclear if the Postal Service would still be bound by the requirements for universal delivery.

“A privatized Postal Service or one in which mail delivery becomes political will not have those same motivations,” Bogage said.

In parts of the United States, the Postal Service is the only mail or package delivery service. And private services like Amazon, FedEx and UPS use the Postal Service for their least profitable packages. It’s been a profitable line of business that helped the Postal Service post a net profit of $144 million for the first quarter of this fiscal year.

About 91 percent of postal workers are covered by union contracts. One of the unions representing workers, the American Postal Workers Union, blasted the idea of privatization in a statement Thursday.

“It would be an outrageous, unlawful attack on a storied national treasure, enshrined in the Constitution and created by Congress to serve every American home and business equally,” the statement from the 200-member union read. “Any attack on the Postal Service would be part of the billionaire oligarch coup, directed not just at the postal workers our union represents, but the millions of Americans who rely on the critical public service our members provide every single day.”

Other unions are also nervous about possible changes.

“We remain very concerned,” Brian Renfroe, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, which has 200,000 active employees of the service, told CNN Friday. “The destruction of any part of the public service we provide, any path towards privatization is going to have one bottom line result for the customers, it’s going to cost more, and it’s going to take longer to get there.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting.

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