Louis DeJoy

Louis DeJoy (born June 20, 1957) is an American businessman serving as the 75th U.S. postmaster general.

DeJoy was CEO of High Point, North Carolina-based New Breed Logistics from 1983 to 2014.

New Breed was a United States Postal Service contractor for over 25 years, providing shipping logistics support to USPS mail processing facilities.

DeJoy retired after his company was acquired by the Connecticut-based freight transporter XPO Logistics for a reported $615 million.

In addition, two reports to Congress in 1999 stated that $9 million and $33 million separately paid to New Breed could have been "put to better use".

Between 2000 and 2014, when New Breed was sold, 124 employees gave a combined total over $1 million.

Many of these people had not donated before they worked at the company and have not done so since leaving.

A 2001 audit found that the USPS had given New Breed Logistics noncompetitive contracts of more than $300 million starting in 1992.

The audit concluded that if the bidding had been competitive, taxpayers could have saved up to $53 million.

The USPS inspector general of the time retired in 2003 after a federal investigation into her abuse of authority, waste of public money and promotion of questionable personnel practices.

When he was named postmaster general and CEO, DeJoy was president of LDJ Global Strategies, a Greensboro, North Carolina-based boutique firm with interests in real estate, private equity, consulting, and project management.

DeJoy has served as a major donor and fundraiser for a number of high-profile Republican Party politicians.

He helped fund President George W. Bush's 2004 reelection campaign, co-chaired Rudy Giuliani's North Carolina fundraising campaign in 2008, and donated a combined $27,700 to Jeb Bush's 2016 presidential campaign.

In April 2017, DeJoy was named one of three deputy finance chairmen of the Republican National Committee, along with Trump's then-lawyer Michael Cohen and the venture capitalist Elliott Broidy.

Following that acquisition, he served as CEO of XPO's supply chain business in North America until his retirement the next year and was appointed to a strategic role on XPO Logistics' board of directors where he served until 2018.

In May 2019, DeJoy became local finance chairman for the 2020 Republican National Convention, then planned for Charlotte, North Carolina.

He was appointed in May 2020 by the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service (USPS).

Prior to the appointment, he was the founder and CEO of the logistics and freight company New Breed Logistics and was a major Republican Party donor and fundraiser for Donald Trump.

DeJoy is the first postmaster general in two decades without prior experience in the USPS.

His companies still hold active service contracts with the USPS, generating controversy over conflict of interest.

DeJoy was criticized for cost-reduction policies enacted after assuming office in June 2020, including eliminating overtime, and banning late or additional trips to deliver mail.

The Postal Service also continued responding to long-term declines in first class mail volume with ongoing decommissioning of hundreds of high-speed mail-sorting machines and removal of the lower-volume mail collection boxes from streets.

These practices were also criticized as mail delivery became delayed.

The changes took place during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election, raising fears that the changes would interfere with voters who used mail-in voting to cast their ballots, possibly intentionally.

Congressional committees and the USPS inspector general investigated.

In August of that year, amid public pressure, DeJoy said that the changes would be suspended until after the election, and in October the USPS agreed to reverse all of them.

In March 2021, DeJoy issued a 10-year plan called "Delivering for America" to stabilize the finances of the Postal Service by slowing first class mail delivery, optimizing transportation networks, cutting post office hours, and raising prices.

The plan assumed Congress would relieve the USPS of the requirement to pre-pay retiree health care costs, which with DeJoy's urging it did with the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022.

DeJoy attracted criticism and lawsuits from environmentalists and Democratic governments when he decided to purchase 90% gasoline-powered delivery vehicles in 2022, which he justified in part by the agency's financial situation.

After additional federal funding was provided by the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 and Inflation Reduction Act, DeJoy revised these plans twice; the final version orders 83% electric vehicles through 2028 and 100% electric thereafter.

DeJoy was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in Islip, New York.

He is the son of second-generation Italian immigrants to the United States.

His father worked in trucking, being assaulted multiple times, prompting his son to seek a safer line of work.

DeJoy earned a BBA in accounting from Stetson University in DeLand, Florida.

After graduating, DeJoy became a certified public accountant licensed to practice in the state of Florida.

Reporting in 2020, NBC News wrote, "The audit raises questions about whether New Breed knowingly overbilled the Postal Service, and it renews scrutiny of the background and qualifications of DeJoy, a prolific Republican Party fundraiser and donor who was appointed to lead the Postal Service over objections from many officials involved in the selection process."

He donated $1.2 million each to Donald Trump's 2020 campaign, and to the Republican Party since 2016.

In September 2020 The Washington Post and The New York Times reported that according to former employees at DeJoy's logistics company New Breed, he participated in a straw donor scheme, reimbursing employees for making political donations.

Employees, particularly managers, were expected to contribute to fundraisers for Republican candidates and organizations; they were allegedly reimbursed in full through the company's system of bonuses.

Campaign finance records show that employees at New Breed gave substantial sums to Republican candidates and negligible amounts to Democrats.