U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has officially stepped down, with Deputy Postmaster General Doug Tulino assuming the role until the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) board of governors names a new permanent successor.
DeJoy first announced his intention to retire in mid-February, after serving as the head of the USPS since he was appointed at the tail end of President Donald Trump’s first term in 2020. March 24 was his final day in the role, with DeJoy sharing in a news release that he has been working closely with Tulino to prepare for the transition. The board of governors has also hired a search firm to identify candidates, as part of a process that is “well underway.”
“While our management team and the men and women of the Postal Service have established the path toward financial sustainability and high operating performance – and we have instituted enormous beneficial change to what had been an adrift and moribund organization – much work remains that is necessary to sustain our positive trajectory,” DeJoy said.
DeJoy’s tenure was defined by sweeping cuts to the USPS — including reduced hours at post offices, higher prices for mail, and slower mail-delivery targets — to fix what he asserted was a “broken” business model. Those cuts frequently drew the ire of leaders on both sides of the aisle in Congress, who have accused him of forcing Americans to pay higher prices for inferior service. In a December 2024 hearing, Republican Senator Josh Hawley vowed to “go to the mat” to kill DeJoy’s plan to slow mail delivery for rural communities, while Democratic Senator Jamie Raskin accused DeJoy of running the agency like a “plutocrat’s business headed for bankruptcy.”
DeJoy has defended his austerity measures on numerous occasions, claiming that the changes have been needed to balance costs with services, given that the USPS receives almost no federal funding. The agency’s struggle to stay solvent also dates back nearly two decades, when Congressional Republicans passed a law in 2006 requiring the USPS to fully fund worker retirement health care benefits for the next 75 years. The American Postal Workers Union has since decried the law as a “draconian” mandate that slowed service and forced the agency to reduce staffing and close processing plants.
