The postmaster basic is accountable for getting billions of items of mail around the globe, managing loads of 1000’s of staff and taking good care of one of the nation’s maximum prone American citizens.
The company is lately run by means of Postmaster Basic Louis DeJoy, who served in President Donald Trump’s first management and throughout President Joe Biden’s time period as neatly. He is among the few key advisers to serve in each Trump administrations.
I’m a legislation professor who has studied america Postal Provider and the function of the postmaster basic.
Right here’s what having the process of overseeing the Postal Provider includes. Spoiler: It’s about greater than getting your mail delivered.
Sprawling tasks of the postmaster
The postmaster basic out of the country an infinite operation.
Over 44% of the sector’s mail is processed and delivered by means of the U.S. Postal Provider, making it the biggest supply provider on the planet.
In 2023 on my own, the Postal Provider treated 116.2 billion items of mail. And whilst processing and turning in mail is the important thing part of the Postal Provider’s venture, it has different obligations as neatly.
In some ways, in reality, it’s the nondelivery portions of the group that experience the most important have an effect on at the U.S. financial system.
In 2023, USPS owned or leased 22,873 houses across the nation. To put this in point of view, the Basic Services and products Management – referred to as “America’s landlord” – owns or rentals simplest 8,800 houses.
The company additionally paid US$2 billion in wage and advantages to its 525,469 profession staff and processed greater than 8.5 million passport packages.
In the end, USPS has a mandate that helps the well being of many American citizens. The provider’s “last mile” supply dedication guarantees that every one American citizens – even the ones residing in rural communities – obtain mail supply six days per week. That is in particular essential for folks with out simple get right of entry to to scientific services and products, because it frequently supplies lifesaving drugs to folks in want.
The ones are all reliable tasks. Unofficially, the Postal Provider has lengthy been recognized to lend a hand aged voters and reply to emergency eventualities that happen on letter carriers’ routes. In early January 2025, as an example, a Massachusetts mail provider was once in a position to avoid wasting a space from burning by means of temporarily extinguishing a fireplace.
As my co-author Matt Titolo and I’ve written in other places, “Americans depend on USPS for a host of essential services including food, medicine, paying bills, shopping, and running small businesses.”
Deep roots in US historical past
That deep reference to communities has been part of USPS since its founding. In truth, the postal device is older than the country itself, with Benjamin Franklin serving as the primary head of the group starting in 1775.
When the U.S. Charter was once ratified in 1789, it incorporated Article 1, Segment 8 – usually referred to as the postal clause – which explicitly offers Congress the ability “to establish Post Offices and post Roads” and “to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper” to put into effect the duty.
A pale postcard despatched in 1912.
Jena Ardell by way of GettyImages
Till 1971 the postmaster basic was once a Cupboard-level place and 5th within the presidential line of succession – coming proper after the legal professional basic and proper prior to the secretary of the Inside. The postmaster basic was once got rid of from the Cupboard, and the road of succession, in 1971 when Congress reorganized the Submit Administrative center and gave it its new identify of the U.S. Postal Provider.
Since that reorganization, the president now not has the ability to nominate – or hearth – the postmaster basic. That energy lies with the Board of Governors of the Postal Provider, whose contributors are appointed by means of the president with the recommendation and consent of the Senate.
The way forward for the Postal Provider
Over time, postmaster generals have mentioned transferring USPS clear of its roots as a service-oriented group and towards a standard trade operation. Presidential applicants, together with Trump, have referred to as for both complete or partial privatization of the company.
Certainly, USPS faces steady deficit issues. However privatization and a ensuing focal point on earnings would most likely building up the price of mailing a letter, a metamorphosis that may disproportionately impact low-income folks and small companies – and may just even lead to provider cuts to rural spaces, making lifestyles for American citizens residing there more difficult and not more wholesome.
As Forbes reviews, critics and proponents of the transfer to denationalise recognize it will lead to “fewer days of mail services, longer mail delivery timelines or less access to USPS services.”
This tale is a part of a chain of profiles of Cupboard and high-level management positions.
