2025—A Year of Transition and Risks

2025—A Year of Transition and Risks
By Bob Levi
NAPS Director of Legislative & Political Affairs

In December, calls to “privatize” the Postal Service were articulated by members of the incoming Trump administration. The Washington Post reported President-elect Trump “discussed his desire to overhaul the Postal Service” with nominated Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. This exchange followed an earlier meeting where Trump asked his presidential transition team for their views to privatize the agency.

At a subsequent news conference, Trump stated privatizing the USPS is “not the worst idea I’ve heard” and went on to say his team was “looking at it.” It appears the battle to defend a governmental national postal system will be a NAPS legislative priority this year. Postal privatization is bad for both political parties and, more importantly, bad for our nation.

Before we turned the calendar to 2025, the Senate voted to finally vote on legislation to repeal the Social Security Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset (H.R. 82). On Dec. 18, by an overwhelming 73-27 majority, the Senate invoked “cloture,” which meant H.R. 82 would get a vote prior to adjournment. The final vote was taken after this issue was sent to the printer.

So, by the time you receive this magazine, you will know whether the bill passed and President Biden signed it into law. NAPS’ online legislative advocacy tool was successfully and effectively activated; NAPS members were able to easily urge their senators to vote “yes” on the bill.

In mid-December, incoming Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY) objected to consideration of the four pending presidential nominees to the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors prior to adjournment. On Dec. 16, President Biden renominated Anton Hajjar, whose term expired on Dec. 8, to replace nominee Martin Walsh.

The other Biden nominees were Val Demings, William Zollars and Gordon Hartogensis. In his statement, Paul said he believed incoming President Trump should be able to nominate four new governors next year.

Another newsworthy legislative item was the election of Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) by the House Democratic Caucus to succeed Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) as ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. Raskin is vacating the position to assume the ranking position on the House Judiciary Committee. Connolly, a longtime NAPS friend and ally, introduced two NAPS-promoted bills last year: the Postal Supervisors and Managers Fairness Act and the Postal Employee Appeal Rights Amendments Act.

Also, the election of President Trump means we welcome a new chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC); the president designates the chairman. The two Republican PRC commissioners are Ann Fisher and Robert Taub. Both had distinguished congressional careers.

Fisher worked for Sens. Larry Pressler (R-SD), Thad Cochran (R-MS) and Susan Collins (R-ME). She also worked in the USPS Government Relations shop and at the PRC directing public affairs.

Taub interned for former House Judiciary Committee Chair Peter Rodino (D-NJ), was an analyst at the Government Accountability Office, served as chief of staff and postal subcommittee staff director for Rep. John McHugh (R-NY) and was senior civilian advi ser to the secretary of the U.S. Army. Taub served as PRC chairman from 2014-2021.

The PRC currently is preparing its advisory opinion on the “Delivering for America” (DFA) initiative. In early December, the PRC conducted its one and only public hearing on the plan, at which PRC commissioners and the PRC’s designated public representative parried with USPS witnesses about the plan and its impact on services.

It was noteworthy that all the commissioners expressed deep concern about the DFA’s effect on rural mail service and how the USPS measures performance. Moreover, PRC Vice Chair Tom Day, a former USPS executive, suggested that the design by which the DFA was created and internally evaluated was defective. The PRC will release its advisory opinion by Jan. 31.

In December, the House and Senate committees with jurisdiction over the Postal Service conducted hearings. Both hearings reflected bipartisan skepticism about the DFA. On behalf of the 47,000 postal supervisors, managers and postmasters represented by NAPS, Executive Vice President Chuck Mulidore submitted testimony for both hearings. The House version appears on page 8. For members interested in seeing both hearings, you may view them at the respective committee websites: www.hsgac.senate.gov and https://oversight.house.gov.

Underneath the bipartisan critique of performance and finances, NAPS members should be alarmed by the trajectory that both committees appear to be taking in 2025 relative to the role of the agency as part of the nation’s essential infrastructure, its emergent vehicle modernization plan and the potential resurrection of calls to privatize parts of the Postal Service. Incoming Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY) articulated his belief that the private sector would do a better job managing the Postal Service. Among his complaints, Paul panned the Postal Service’s conversion of non-career employees to career status.

Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) took turns decrying postal operation actions as they have impacted service to their constituents. But probably the strongest condemnation was from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) who complained about how the DFA was impacting rural mail service. After a testy back and forth with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, Hawley declared, “I hate this plan and I’m going to do everything I can to kill it.”

The House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing followed the Senate hearing by less than a week; the 2025 message was stark. NAPS and members of the postal community need to be prepared for a “DOGE assault.” The Department of Government Efficiency—an unstructured, presidentially designated entity co-chaired by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy—will be making recommendations to dramatically restructure the federal government and reduce its footprint. The panel will be employed to shoehorn postal privatization into legislative action.

Members of the House committee seem to be using the incoming administration’s goal to get at the Postal Service and its employees. There were comments about postal workforce reductions, privatizing mail processing and canceling vehicle modernization contracts to recover some of the $3 billion earmarked for that modernization.

Many Republican committee members were highly critical of the Postal Service’s plan to expand its use of electric vehicles. Regarding DOGE and its goal to shrink government services, it’s important to recall that, in 2018, Trump’s government reorganization plan called for postal privatization. Committee member Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) will be chairing the DOGE Subcommittee next year; committee member Pete Sessions (R-TX) will co-chair the congressional DOGE Caucus.

Indeed, NAPS will have to hit the ground running into 2025—and we will!