Nevada’s Bilbray stands alone on Postal Service board
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service is now being overseen by a Board of Governors made up of a single presidential appointee — former Rep. James Bilbray of Nevada.
The Postal Service — which employs nearly 620,000 workers and a $70 billion budget — is supposed to have a board of nine independent governors at its helm, each serving a nine-year term. But, the numbers have dwindled as terms expired and vacancies went unfilled.
Terms for two governors expired last week, leaving Bilbray as the last remaining governor until his term ends in December 2016.
“We’re a microcosm of the country. We can’t function,” Bilbray said in a telephone interview from his law office in Las Vegas. “We can continue to deliver the mail for now but we can’t do the things we need to do. We can’t change policies or make major purchases like a new fleet of trucks. There could be lots of problems.”
Governors earn $30,000 a year plus $300 per meeting. There are typically five or six public meetings as well as a dozen or more private meetings each year.
President Barack Obama has sent five nominees to the Senate for confirmation, but Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent running for the Democratic nomination for president, is blocking them all.
Bilbray said the “holds” won’t be lifted by Sanders until the Postal Service agrees to reopen mail processing centers that were closed a few years ago as a cost-saving measure.
Sanders’ office did not respond to a press inquiry.
The Postal Service closed about 40 processing centers before Congress intervened to keep open others that had been targeted for closure. The two centers in Vermont were targeted but weren’t closed.
“Since 2010, Bernie has held up every nomination for governor unless we stop closing processing centers and reopen the ones we already closed, which would cost over $1 billion,” said Bilbray, 77, a Democrat who served in the House from 1987 to 1995.
Senate leaders routinely ask for “unanimous consent” to approve noncontroversial bills, resolutions and confirmations without the need for lengthy debate or roll call votes. Sanders is blocking that route and otherwise threatened to filibuster board nominations.
Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., a postal advocate and author of a bill to overhaul the agency, issued a press release last week blasting Congress for its inaction and urging colleagues to confirm the pending nominations.
“Congressional inaction represents a failure to meet part of the Senate’s most basic responsibilities: to provide advice and consent on nominations in a thorough and timely manner and to provide agencies with the leadership they need to be successful,” he said.
Carper noted that such negligence would not be tolerated in the private sector because “shareholders would demand oversight from a strong board to protect their investments.”
The board was down to three governors last year – less than the necessary quorum – forcing it to establish an “emergency” committee that handled routine work. That emergency committee is now down to Bilbray along with the Postmaster General Megan Brennan and Deputy Postmaster General Ronald Stroman.
“There is a question about whether the courts would hold this valid, but no one has challenged it,” Bilbray said.
As for the future, Bilbray does not expect the stalemate to end in Congress. Senate leaders are loath to make concessions on such “holds,” and Sanders seems of no mind to back off.
“Bernie is set in his ways, and he’s not going to give an inch,” Bilbray said.
Contact Peter Urban at purban@reviewjournal.com or at 202-783-1760. Find him on Twitter: @PUrbanDC.
