In December 2014 ,Senator Tom Carper urged his colleagues to confirm the nominations of Mickey D. Barnett, David Michael Bennett, Stephen Crawford, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, James C. Miller III to the USPS Board of Governors. But the Senate remained gridlocked and only certain nominees were confirmed by the end of 113th Congress.  On December 17, 2014, the Senate returned all six of the nominations to the President.

The last time USPS Board of Governors filled all of its vacancies was in  September 2010.

Now, due to Senate’s inaction on the six nominees,  the USPS Board of Governors is left with only five members — James Bilbray,  (D) Appointed and Reappointed by Bush in 2006, Term Expires December 2015, Louis Giuliano (R) Appointed by Bush, Term Expired December 2014, Ellen Williams (R) Appointed by Bush, Term Expired December 2014 (Giuliano and Williams terms expired but they are allowed to remain for another year ) Postmaster General Megan Brennan and Deputy Postmaster General Ronald Stroman.

At the end of 2014, the USPS Board of Governors, anticipating that its numbers would drop below the required 6 members for a quorum, issued a resolution. The resolution created a ‘Temporary Emergency Committee’ to act and exercise certain powers in absence of the Board.

On January 8, 2015, President Obama announced the re-nomination of David S. Shapira to serve on the Board for a term to expire on December 8, 2019. No other nominations were announced for the other five vacancies on the Board.

If the Senate is still dragging its feet in December 2015, James Bilbray will be the only appointed member left on the USPS Board of Governors and EIGHT VACANCIES need to be filled.

It’s unfortunate that Americans nominated to serve in any compacity of the government must wait for years to be confirmed. For instance, Stephen Crawford was nominated in 2012 and he was never confirmed.