Reaching Beyond Our Comfort Zone

Reaching Beyond Our Comfort Zone
By Bob Levi
NAPS Director of Legislative & Political Affairs

In ordinary times, supervisory, managerial and postmaster activists would assemble at their national legislative conference and thoughtfully listen to a series of speakers advancing postal legislation, promoting the continued vitality of the Postal Service and ensuring protection of earned health and retirement benefits. The following day, conference attendees would trek up to Capitol Hill to lobby their representatives and senators in support of or in opposition to pending legislation that could affect them.

This is our comfort zone. But these are no ordinary times!

So, NAPS activists who participat-ed in the 2025 Legislative Training Seminar reached beyond their com-fort zone, forcefully and clearly pro-claiming under a clear, blue sky on the West Front Lawn of the U.S. Capi-tol that they are “Postal Proud.” They broadcasted the message to America: “Mail for All.”

In ordinary times, such declara-tions would be unnecessary. But the Postal Service and its employees pres-ently are under siege by forces of im-mense wealth and with encourage-ment of the White House. Conse- quently, NAPS members recognized the need to reach beyond their com-fort zone to conduct a major legisla-tive rally, literally in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol.

It is remarkable that a management association would undertake an approach much more familiar to labor unions or political campaigns. Afterall, man-agement associations—even during legislative trips to Washington—have been content running seminars, absorbing leader-ship presentations and conducting routine business.

However, NAPS leadership foresaw the im-pending whirl-wind approaching weeks before the hasty and premature exit of Louis DeJoy from Postal Headquarters. As a result, about three weeks before the NAPS legislative conference, Presi-dent Ivan D. Butts and Executive Vice President Chuck Mulidore requested that I explore the possibility of scheduling a NAPS Legislative Rally for Tuesday afternoon, April 8—the third day of the NAPS conference.

The U.S. Capitol Police Special Events Team was invaluable in ob-taining the same venue as where the outdoor presidential inaugurations are conducted. Once the historic site was secured, Chuck and I prayed daily for “no rain.” Although the weather was breezy and cool, our prayers for no precipitation were an-swered.

The hundreds of NAPS legislative conference attendees at the rally were armed with signs and buttons. They also were united in their goal to “Pro-tect Our Postal Service!” NAPS mem-bers recognized the power vacuum created at L’Enfant Plaza by the post-master general’s departure and the four current vacancies on the Postal Board of Governors.

In addition, they understood the alarming intrusion of Elon Musk aco-lytes (aka DOGE) into Postal Headquarters, Musk’s drumbeat for privat-ization of the agency and President Trump’s public pitch that the Depart-ment of Commerce should absorb the independent Postal Service. The combination of these factors contrib-uted to the necessity to raise NAPS’ advocacy visibility to an historic level.

NAPS was joined by the presi-dents of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association (NRLCA), the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and members of Congress (see page 28). The collaboration of NAPS with our union colleagues is crucial and can best be illustrated by the partici-pation of NAPS national officers in two union-sponsored rallies: Presi-dent Butts’ participated in a NALC rally in Washington, DC, and Execu-tive Vice President Mulidore partici-pated in an American Postal Workers Union rally in New York City. This type of postal coalition activism and the full-throated use of our First Amendment rights will help us pro-tect the Postal Service and NAPS-rep-resented employees and retirees.

In case anyone doubts the urgen-cy of the impending postal battle, you need look no further than a March 17, 2025, letter the former PMG sent to members of Congress relating to a key matter DOGE is con-sidering. The letter states DOGE is re-viewing the Postal Service’s 31,000 retail facilities; the PMG invited DOGE to propose closures and con-solidations of “money-losing” post offices.

If implemented, the closures and consolidations would devastate rural America and dislocate thousands of postmasters. It is important to note that over half of retail post offices do not cover their costs. Before leaving the USPS, DeJoy also implored Musk’s group to recommend elimi-nating the Postal Regulatory Com-mission.

Years ago, we thought the politi-cal environment drove a stake through the heart of postal privatiza-tion. However, the combination of the calls to dismantle our Postal Ser-vice by the president, Commerce sec-retary and Musk provides a screech-ing wake-up call to those who naively dismissed present-day privatization efforts.

In fact, at a March 2025 Morgan Stanley Wealth Management confer-ence, Musk declared his unabashed support for privatizing the Postal Ser-vice. At about the same time, Wells Fargo Securities issued a 13-page manifesto charting the path to postal privatization.

President Trump has not been shy in his musings about bringing the Postal Service under his authori-ty. Besides numerous press accounts that the president desired to fire the USPS Board of Governors, he more recently and publicly mused about merging the postal agency into the cabinet-level Department of Com-merce. Many believe this would be a major step to privatization.

This presidentially proposed merger would effectively subject the agency to the authority of the presi-dent by making the USPS a sub-cabi-net-level agency within the Com-merce Department. As such, the number of post offices, postal opera-tions, postal finances, postal rate-set-ting and the relationship between labor and management all would be under the control of the president—as well as whether the Postal Service remains a governmental entity or is dismantled piece by piece.

Indeed, the threat to a universal, accessible and affordable national postal system is very high. Privatiza-tion would inevitably lead to rural and single-piece mail surcharges and incidental postage fees, slower and less frequent mail delivery, fewer and more widely dispersed postal retail facilities, the elimination of vote-by-mail and a less trustworthy mail workforce.

Quite simply, there is so much risk in the present political environ-ment that NAPS easily could muffle its voice and limit its advocacy to the quiet suites of congressional office buildings or the LTS proceedings held in a cavernous general session hall. Instead, we needed to take our message public, outdoors and ampli-fied—we must reach beyond our comfort zone.

It’s time for all of us to reach be-yond that zone for the good of the Postal Service, its employees, its cus-tomers and America.