President Joe Biden has named two new nominees to serve on the Postal Service Board of Governors, replacing former President Donald Trump’s picks to help lead the agency.
On Friday, Biden submitted to the Senate his latest nominees to serve on the board: former head of the General Services Administration Dan Tangherlini and Derek Kan, a former deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Tangherlini is a former Obama administration official, having led the General Services Administration and served as a senior official at the Treasury Department.
Kan previously served as an aide to Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and later as a President Obama appointee to the Amtrak board and a President Trump appointee to Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget.
If confirmed by the Senate, Biden’s nominees would replace USPS Board of Governors Chairman Ron Bloom and John Barger.
Once in place, these two nominees could be the potential first steps to removing the controversial Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.
DeJoy became a political lightning rod during the 2020 Presidential election after he made changes to the postal service that slowed down mail just as voters were mailing in ballots.
Since then, on-time mail delivery service has continued to be slow. DeJoy has implemented a new “strategic plan” that increases “time in transit” windows for up to two days, holding up mail with longer delivery routes.
In June, the Associated Press reported the Department of Justice was investigating DeJoy over political fundraising activity at his former business.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Friday it’s up to the board whether to keep DeJoy as postmaster general.
“It’s to the board to make a determination about leadership, but we have continued concerns about the postmaster general’s leadership,” Psaki said.
Porter McConnell, who leads the Save the Post Office Coalition and is Mitch McConnell’s daughter, also applauded Biden’s action.
“President Biden has listened to the millions of people across the nation demanding a return to the quiet competence of the post office before Louis DeJoy and his friend Ron Bloom took a wrecking ball to it,” Porter McConnell said. “Ron Bloom has no place in the USPS’s future, and we are glad to see his tenure in the past.”