Democrat elected chair of Postal Service Board of Governors

A former senior official in the Obama administration has been elected chairman of the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors.

Ron Bloom, a Democrat appointed by former President Trump who has served on the Postal Service board since 2019, said he looked forward to working on a “comprehensive plan” to revitalize the agency.

“It will require both ourselves and our stakeholders to come together, openly face our challenges, make necessary choices and do what is right for this great organization and our country,” he said in a statement.

Bloom previously served under former President Obama as his senior counselor for manufacturing policy. He will succeed Robert Duncan, a Republican who has served as the Postal Service board chairman since September 2018 and will continue as a board governor.

Roman Martinez IV, another Republican board member, was elected as vice chairman.

President Biden has faced calls to shake up the leadership of the Postal Service. Its board is comprised of six Trump appointees, two of whom are Democrats.

There are currently three vacancies on the nine-person board. The American Postal Workers Union has called on Biden to fill the vacancies with Democrats, giving the party a simple majority.

“It should become a 5-to-4 … majority choices of the Democratic Party,” Mark Dimondstein, the union’s president, told NPR.

Bloom said Tuesday that he would work with the agency’s governors and its postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, on a 10-year plan to revitalize the agency, The Associated Press reported.

At Tuesday’s meeting, DeJoy also reportedly apologized for mail service delays experienced by many Americans over the past year, which came amid both the COVID-19 pandemic and DeJoy’s own efforts to institute operational changes at the agency before the November election.

“Too many Americans were left waiting weeks for important deliveries of mail and packages. This is unacceptable and I apologize to those customers who felt the impact of our delays,” DeJoy said, according to the AP.

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) called on the White House in January to fire the entire Trump-appointed board of governors at the Postal Service for “silence and complicity in Trump and DeJoy’s attempts to subvert the election and destroy the Post Office.”

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment on calls for future action regarding the Postal Service board.