WASHINGTON—President Joe Biden is nominating two former government officials to serve on the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Board of Governors, replacing the current chairman, Ron Bloom, the White House confirmed on Friday.
Biden announced he intends to nominate Daniel Tangherlini, who was chief financial officer at the Treasury Department under former President Barack Obama and held other government positions.
He will also nominate Derek Kan, an executive at startup Deliverr and a former deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget and senior Transportation Department official during the Trump administration.
Reuters first reported the nominations.
Bloom has drawn anger from some Democrats in Congress over his support for a plan from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy released this year to restructure USPS operations in hopes of reducing anticipated red ink over a decade.
The board last week voted to reelect Bloom as chairman, even though the White House had not decided whether to renominate him.
Bloom did not comment Friday.
Bloom will be forced to leave the board next month. Biden is also replacing Governor John Barger.
In September, the USPS’s revised service standards took effect, slowing some first-class mail deliveries.
Existing one- to three-day service standards were revised to one to five days, affecting about 40 percent of first-class mail. USPS has also recently hiked prices.
DeJoy, who had warned that USPS without reform is “on a death spiral,” in March proposed cutting $160 billion in predicted losses over the next decade with changes in service standards a key part. The USPS has struggled with poor delivery performance over the past year, facing a huge jump in packages and staffing issues due to COVID-19.
The Postal Service has reported net losses of more than $90 billion since 2007. One reason is 2006 legislation mandating it pre-fund more than $120 billion in retiree healthcare and pension liabilities, a requirement not shared by other businesses, which labor unions have called unfair.
Congress is considering a plan to provide the USPS with $46 billion in financial relief over 10 years, including eliminating the requirement that the service pre-fund retiree health benefits for 75 years.
