No $69 billion private corporation would dare operate without a single member on its board of directors. Although those positions do not run the day-to-day operations, they are essential for providing the high-level guidance and strategy that any company needs to remain competitive.
Yet the U.S. Postal Service, thanks to a massive fumble by Congress, does not have a single member on its board of governors. That’s not one vacancy but nine. And it’s not a recent development: The board has been empty since 2016.
This dereliction of duty comes at a crucial period for the Postal Service as it battles declining mail volume and growing retirement expenses. This is the very time when it needs solid leadership and fresh ideas from voices outside its normal employees in the trenches.
Despite those challenges, the Postal Service remains essential to American life and industry. It delivers bills, checks, newspapers, packages and so much more that is important for our economy. In many small towns in Mississippi and other rural states, it is one of the most robust places of commerce.
Private delivery companies, although impressive in the efficiency of their operations, cannot match this daily, yet amazing feat that the post office has accomplished six days a week year after year: Going by every home in this massive nation. That’s more than 126 million households who are its customers. Surely there is a way to make that work financially, especially as e-commerce has bolstered the package business, yet it requires planning. Right now, that doesn’t exist for the Postal Service.
The Wall Street Journal, in an April 11 story, recounted an amusing yet sad account of the February board meeting: The postmaster general and one aide sat alone at the long table on the top floor of the Postal Service headquarters in Washington, surrounded by empty chairs. Suffice it to say, there were no questions about their reports.
President Obama’s nominees didn’t make it through Congress before the end of his term in 2016, the newspaper reported, and the nominations have been pushed to the backburner with hot-button issues like the budget and immigration taking up all of the air.
The part that is truly inexplicable is that these are not overly political appointments, and the three nominees that President Trump made in October are expected to get bipartisan approval, the story said. All it takes is scheduling a committee hearing, but none has been.
This is a problem, unlike most that Congress faces, that has a simple solution that won’t cost anything: Hold a hearing, get people on the board and let them move forward with strategic planning for the Post Office.
The fact that it can’t do that goes a long way to explaining why Congress can’t even begin to address our nation’s big problems. If your surgeon can’t tie his own shoes, what’s it going to be like when he starts cutting you open?
— Charlie Smith
