USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy resigns amid possible DOGE cuts, Georgia mail delays

ATLANTA - U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has resigned after nearly five years in the position.

This comes shortly after the announcement of possible DOGE cuts and after over a year of significant mail delays across Georgia and subsequent interrogation by Sen. Jon Ossoff and other state leaders.

What we know:

This news didn't come as a total surprise. DeJoy announced preparations to step down back in mid-February. He just didn't specify a date.

Before he began leading USPS in June 2020, DeJoy was a wealthy Republican donor who backed President Donald Trump.

He became the first postmaster general in almost two decades who didn't start as a postal worker.

When he assumed leadership, the agency developed a 10-year plan to cut annual costs by billions.

But as of late, his service has been marred by controversy, especially in the Peach State, over mail delays.

Ossoff, one of his most vocal critics, ripped into him during a hearing last spring after Georgia residents continuously complained about missing or delayed prescriptions and other essential mail.

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Georgia leaders grill DeJoy on mail delays

The backstory:

During a hearing last April over service quality, Postal Regulatory Commission Chairman Michael M. Kubayanda said USPS's "generous two-day window" for the standard delivery of letters and cards was only met 16% of the time in Atlanta in March 2024.

When it was Ossoff's turn to speak to DeJoy, he brought up the Palmetto Regional Processing and Distribution Center (RPDC) that had been blamed for many of the issues reported across North Georgia. He asked why USPS hadn't been better prepared when it opened the facility with issues in February.

DeJoy simply replied that those problems would be resolved within 60 days.

At one point during the hearing, DeJoy admitted that he had not read a letter that the senator sent him on March 14, 2024.

"Let me, let me just give you just a friendly piece of advice: You should personally read letters from members of the U.S. Senate Committee that funds and oversees your operations, particularly where you are failing abysmally to fulfill your core mission in my state," Ossoff said. 

"The amount of distress this is causing my constituents is massive. And, I want to know what you are going to do, what specific steps you are going to take, to fix this within two weeks?" Ossoff demanded. 

DeJoy said that they are looking at staffing, truck schedules, machinery, and other transportation aspects. DeJoy told the senator that his team is "working very hard" and that "in the long run," the facility in Georgia should be one of the best.

"The long run is too long. You've got weeks, not months, to fix this. And if you don't fix it, 36% on-time delivery, I don't think you're fit for this job," Ossoff replied.

Just two months after that fiery exchange, Republican representatives Mike Collins, Austin Scott, and Andrew Clyde toured the Palmetto facility.

"You have elderly people that are getting their checks in every month, or their prescriptions in, and we really didn't have a good answer for them," Rep. Collins said. "And so that is where we started putting the pressure on here to make sure we get some sort of answer."

By the end of the tour, Rep. Clyde said he believed the issues causing delays had been overcome.

USPS sent FOX 5 Atlanta a statement following the congressional representatives' visit, saying in part, "First-Class Mail Performance has improved by nearly 40-percentage points. While we are not entirely satisfied with the current levels, this positive trend indicates that the challenges we faced in March are being actively addressed."

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In December, Ossoff pressed DeJoy again about his promises of progress:

"You said in April that we’d be ‘where we need to be in about 60 days,’" Ossoff said. "It’s been 233 days. Are we where we need to be?"

"Where we're going to be for a little bit, yes," DeJoy responded. "The service is probably at the level of service where you were before I started these changes."

"We're not," Senator Ossoff responded.

"Yes, we are," DeJoy said.

"I've got the numbers in front of me, we’re not," Ossoff said.

"I don’t know the numbers you got," DeJoy said.

Later that same month, FOX 5 Atlanta reported on a fire at the troubled facility in question. USPS claimed it was a minor electrical fire that was quickly put out by the local management team.

There were no injuries reported, nor damage to mail, packages or the facility itself.

DeJoy agrees to work with DOGE

The backstory:

Less than a week before DeJoy announced his resignation, he expanded on a plan to work with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to address "big problems."

Over the next 30 days, the plan is to put 10,000 employees through a voluntary early retirement program that was first announced during former President Joe Biden's last days in office.

This wasn't the first time USPS announced cuts under DeJoy's leadership. In fact, 30,000 workers were let go in 2021.

What's next:

Deputy Postmaster General Doug Tulino is expected to take over his duties in the interim while the Postal Service Board of Governors finds a permanent replacement.

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