WASHINGTON — The former vice chairman of the U.S. Postal Service’s board of governors accused Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday of trying to engineer a hostile takeover of the service, telling lawmakers that Mr. Mnuchin required members of the independent board to “kiss the ring” before they were confirmed and issued demands that agency officials believed were “illegal.”
In scathing testimony delivered before lawmakers in the Congressional Progressive Caucus, David C. Williams, a former Postal Service inspector general who resigned as vice chairman in protest in April, said the Trump administration appeared to want to turn the agency into a “political tool.” The Treasury Department, he said, was maneuvering to use its lending authority to strong-arm the agency to adopt policies that would be “ruinous,” like raising prices and cutting back crucial services.
“If this is the beginning of what the president promised, it’s the end of the Postal Service,” Mr. Williams said in his first public comments since his resignation. Continue reading.