Congress Denies Mailmen a Quorum
The USPS has eight open seats on its board, thanks to Senate politics.
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After a decade on the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors, James Bilbray is ready to go. “I turned 78 on May 19,” says Bilbray, the board’s chairman. “I’m getting old. I’m getting tired.” Yet Bilbray, whose term was extended after it expired last December, fears he’ll leave a vacuum at the USPS. The U.S. Senate has refused to confirm any of President Obama’s appointees to the Board of Governors since 2010.
The board, which is supposed to have 11 members, currently has only three: Postmaster General Megan Brennan; her deputy, Ronald Stroman; and Bilbray, a former Democratic congressman from Nevada who was appointed by George W. Bush. Unless something changes, there will be only two at the year’s end, when Bilbray’s extension is up.