Government affairs

This week, the White House nominated Jeffrey A. Rosen to become a member of the Postal Service Board of Governors to serve a term expiring on Dec. 8, 2021.

Rosen is an attorney with Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He has served as general counsel and senior policy advisor for the White House Office of Management and Budget and as general counsel at the Department of Transportation.

Currently, there are before the Senate five pending nominations for Board of Governors members—including former governors James Miller and Mickey Barnett, both of whom have backgrounds and motivations with regard to USPS that are troubling to a number of constituencies on and off Capitol Hill.

In addition, the nominations of Michael Bennett, Steven Crawford and David Sharpira remain in limbo in the Senate due mainly to the insistence of Senate leaders that all five nominees be advanced together in an all-or-nothing package, or en bloc.

There are 178 Obama administration nominations to various agencies pending in the Senate—including the likely stalemate over Merrick Garland, announced this week as the administration’s pick to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

In fact, there is a great deal of uncertainty whether any of these nominations and confirmations will proceed by the end of this Congress.

As we learn more about Rosen and or any potential activity regarding the nominees, we will keep you posted.