 So, at a hearing before the House Oversight Committee, Representative Katie Porter shared some of the findings from the U.S. Postal Services Inspector General's audit. And what you're going to see here is that under the leadership of U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, the U.S. Postal Service has essentially been ruined. And this is very, very startling. Take a look. The audit found that by the spring of 2020, mail delivery was right around 92 percent. That is about 92 percent of the mail got there within the standard of on time. That dropped to 80 percent by the fall of 2020. And by January of 2021 was hovering at around 61 percent. I realize this has gone up somewhat since then. But I wanted to ask you, when did Mr. DeJoy take over as Postmaster? Do you know? The summer of 2020? The summer of 2020. So June of 2020. And what happened after he took over? City rate of on time mail delivery go up or down. Went down. And I'm a professor and I used to grade, do a lot of grading. And 92 percent is considered widely like an aimerness. 80 is considered hanging on, hanging on to the lowest possible B. 60 percent is at best a D minus. The Postal Service delivers 48 percent of the world's mail is an institution. It is a civic treasure. And we let it get all the way. What you found is we let it get all the way to that D minus level. Whenever she breaks out the board, you know, she's going to bring the heat. Now, I want to go over some of the numbers that she stated there, not to be redundant, but this is really huge. So mail delivery was at 92 percent in spring of 2020, but fast forward to winter of 2020 through 2021, and it's down to 61 percent. Now, she noted that it has increased slightly, but the overall trend is downward in a very steep manner. This is substantial. Louis DeJoy is ruining the Postal Service and he's ruining it fast. Now, you may be wondering, why would the Postmaster General ruin the agency that he's in charge of? Doesn't that seem pretty weird? Well, I think that this is part of a likely ploy to pitch privatization as a solution to all of the problems that he's causing. Now, maybe he doesn't do this explicitly himself, but I think that we all know what happens in a late stage capitalist society when government institutions begin to break down. Privatization is on the table. It's been happening with Social Security. There's been constant attempts to privatize or partially privatize Social Security, Medicare turned that into a voucher program so people can purchase their health care plans on the private market in lieu of getting it from the government directly. So I think that what he's going to do is he's going to break the Postal Service and then, of course, what do we do? You explain to the people who are dissatisfied with this government service that they previously liked that the one thing that can fix it is maybe outsourcing some of the services provided by USPS to FedEx, maybe to UPS. Who knows? So there are people in both parties, neoliberals, who want to see the Postal Service at least partially privatized. They've been salivating over this for years, decades. So this is what I think he's working towards. Now, we're going to talk about what can be done to stop him. But first, I know you enjoyed that clip of Katie Porter. So I do want to share a clip from last year where she grilled Postmaster General DeJoy to his face in the lead up to the 2020 election where he slowed services, knowing that during a pandemic, mail-in ballots could be affected by him destroying the US Postal Service. Take a look. I'm glad you know the price of a stamp, but I'm concerned about your understanding of this agency. And I'm particularly concerned about it because you started taking very decisive action when you became Postmaster General. You started directing the unplugging and destroying of machines, changing of employee procedures and locking of collection boxes. As a professor, I've always told my students that one of the most important rules in life is to read the instructions. Did you actually read and independently analyze the major overhaul plans before you ordered them to take effect? Again, I will repeat that I did not order major overhaul plans. The items you identify were not directed by me. I did. And we don't need much analysis to get to run your trucks to a schedule. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Joy, could you please tell me who did order these changes? If you as Postmaster General did not because these changes have resulted in and you have said yourself in this hearing. The Postal Service has been around for 250 years. There are plans. There are many, many executives, almost 30,000 executives within the organization and there are plans that existed prior to my arrival that will continue that were implemented. Mr. DeJoy, if you did not order these actions to be taken, please tell the committee the name of who did. I do not know. That was incredibly satisfying to watch. Now he can pay an ignorance all that he wants. But the fact of the matter is that as of March of 2021, his 10 year plan went into effect, so he can't blame anyone else now for all of the woes that the USPS is experiencing and the changes that he put in place led to reductions in the hours of the Postal Service. So they're open for less amounts of time. It lengthens delivery times. And as the ACLU pointed out, this is bad for democracy. So the question is, we have a Democratic Party president. So what can Joe Biden do? Why hasn't he fired him? Well, you can't directly fire the Postmaster General, but there are things that Biden can do to get him out of that position. The first and the most easy thing that he can do is exert nonstop pressure on Louis DeJoy. Call on him publicly to resign, name him, shame him. But unfortunately, with that particular method, even if Biden should still do that, it doesn't seem likely that Louis DeJoy is going to buckle to pressure, given that he literally told the House Oversight Committee back in February to get used to me, suggesting that he's not going to back down in spite of the backlash that he's experiencing. So Biden, I mean, he should still exert pressure, even if it won't actually work. You have your bully pulpit as president and you should definitely use it. But another thing that Biden can do is actually change the makeup of the USPS Board of Governors, so that way he can be ousted. As Jake Johnson of Common Dreams explains, while the president can't remove DeJoy on his own, analysts have noted that he can soon replace both Ron Bloom, who is currently serving a one year holdover term and John Barger, whose term expires in December. Such steps would give Biden appointees a majority on the USPS Board and potentially the votes that oust the postmaster general. So there you have it. That is what Biden can and should do. And this is a necessity because we need the US Pulsar Service not only do countless seniors rely on it for life saving medications. They wouldn't otherwise be able to get easily, but it's a service provided by the government that's valuable that we like. So it's not just a good thing to do for citizens, but it's a good political move as well, because if you save the US Pulsar Service after we've all seen a slowdown and it's destruction firsthand, you can brag to that in 2022 and 2024. It's an easy victory, assuming he actually wants to fight for it. So, you know, there you have it. Katie Porter is shedding light on a really important issue that I think that people are aware of, but just not paying close enough attention to. But this is really important because the US Pulsar Service is needed. Do not come.