USPS Board Nominees Willing to Challenge Trump on Amazon
Three nominees for the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors expressed willingness Wednesday to defend negotiated service agreements with Amazon if they prove to be fruitful deals for the agency. President Donald Trump ordered a task force to analyze the…
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USPS’ financial situation, which he says is worsened by Amazon deals (see 1804130059). During a confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, ranking member Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., expressed concern that presidential task forces often “tell presidents what they want to hear.” Those who have confronted Trump have been “shown the door” in a short period of time, she said. Nominees David Williams, Robert Duncan and Calvin Tucker agreed to, in McCaskill’s words, stand up to the president if the deals are beneficial. But McCaskill said negotiated service agreements with UPS and FedEx also need to be analyzed. “I don’t think we’re going back in terms of volume of packages in this country, and I am very concerned that we have enabled our competition to be more successful while we’ve hamstrung the Postal Service,” McCaskill said. Duncan said the facts will lead to the truth, and Tucker said he doesn’t necessarily anticipate a confrontation with Trump but is willing to challenge assumptions. “There’s no question [Trump’s] on a mission here. He’s got a thing about the man who owns Amazon,” McCaskill said, referring to Jeff Bezos. Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., shared McCaskill’s “frustrations” about gathering contract data from the USPS and said he looks forward to the task force’s findings. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Trump and McCaskill appear to be on the same side in this issue, but McCaskill said that unlike UPS and FedEx, Amazon isn't a USPS competitor but rather a customer. The question is whether the USPS is charging adequately, Paul said. There's a price where Amazon will deliver packages on its own, and the USPS needs to find the appropriate price, he added. Paul said he doesn't dislike Amazon but dislikes losing billions of dollars.