Trump administration talk of transforming the U.S. Postal Service has set off a flurry of concerns about the future of the federal mail agency.

The new leader of USPS is now trying to clear the air.

“I do not believe that the Postal Service should be privatized or that it should become an appropriated part of the federal government,” Postmaster General David Steiner said Thursday in his first video message to USPS employees. “I believe in the current structure of the Postal Service as a self-financing, independent entity of the executive branch.”

Steiner officially took over the country’s mail service Tuesday, about four months after Louis DeJoy stepped down as postmaster general.

A former CEO of Waste Management, Steiner also previously served on the board of FedEx. Asked by NPR how Steiner — who owned shares in FedEx at least as of September 2024, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing — is handling stocks that could present a financial conflict of interest, USPS spokesperson David Walton says in a statement that they “have been or will be resolved, sold, and/or divested as required by law.”

Still, Steiner’s background at a top shipping competitor to USPS raised privatization concerns among employee unions, which organized a series of rallies around the country to protest Trump officials’ calls to overhaul the country’s mail service.

For now at least, the new postmaster general’s effort in Thursday’s video to address what he called “rumors” has eased those worries for some union leaders.

“We are pleased that Postmaster General Steiner has privately, and now publicly, expressed his support for a strong public Postal Service,” says Brian Renfroe, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, which represents carriers in cities, in a statement.

The National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association’s president, Don Maston, says: “The words are what we want to hear. The actions will speak for themselves.”

Maston adds that he hopes to see USPS continue trying to grow its shipping business under Steiner. “And if we see any indications that things are being shifted to UPS or we’re getting back in business with FedEx in a way that may not be something that we want to see, absolutely we’re going to have to take issue with that,” he notes.

Steiner’s video message to postal workers nodded to the controversial, 10-year “Delivering for America” reorganization plan that DeJoy introduced in 2021. Steiner said changes in recent years have brought USPS “substantially closer to private-sector logistics practices” and improved its competitiveness in terms of pricing and product strategies. Still, Steiner noted he thinks USPS “can improve” and plans to “assess and determine what modifications” to the USPS’ approach will “best serve the Postal Service, our employees and our customers.”

President Trump has expressed support for selling off the services of USPS to a private company, a kind of move that he has said was “not the worst idea” he’s ever heard. In 2018, his first administration released a proposal for “privatization through an initial public offering (IPO) or sale to another entity.” Trump has often pointed to the mail agency’s troubled finances, which have been saddled with declines in mailing and legal requirements to pre-fund health benefits for retired postal workers.

Privatizing, however, is likely to result in higher shipping prices for the public and reduced mail service to rural areas, industry analysts have warned. In a 2018 report, a task force on the U.S. postal system put together by the first Trump administration concluded that the “USPS’s comprehensive delivery network that covers every address in the country is a critical part of the nation’s infrastructure that cannot be replicated by private actors.”

There’s also bipartisan opposition to privatizing USPS in Congress.

This week, a 14th House Republican — Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington — signed on to a resolution saying Congress should make sure the Postal Service stays an independent federal agency and not privatized. The resolution, which was introduced by Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts and is currently stuck in the House Oversight Committee, now has 218 sponsors. A Senate version of the resolution also has a bipartisan, but smaller, group of supporters.

The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars to keep it running, relying instead on its stamp sales and other service fees.

To help stabilize its finances, USPS raised the price of a first-class “forever” stamp on Sunday by almost 7% to 78 cents, among other increases. While it is one of the world’s lowest prices for mailing a letter domestically, it also marks the seventh price hike by USPS in the past four years.

Editor’s note: USPS is a financial supporter of NPR.

Edited by Benjamin Swasey

The explosion that killed three Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies on Friday morning wasn’t the first time a deputy was killed while training.

Sheriff Robert Luna said the blast at the Biscailuz Training Center in East Los Angeles marked the deadliest day in department history since 1857.

But the most recent death at a training facility occurred last year, when a deputy died from burns suffered in a fire that erupted in a shooting range.

Most of the roughly 150 deputies who have died in the line of duty were killed under chaotic circumstances — shot or stabbed by suspects, struck by friendly fire, felled by heart attacks on the job and killed in car, motorcycle and plane crashes.

Incidents like Friday’s explosion, which occurred in the training center’s parking lot, are bound to bring more scrutiny and potential legal liability.

The three deputies who died — said to be department veterans from a specialized unit — have not been publicly identified. Luna told reporters at a mid-day news conference it could take months to get to the bottom of what happened.

The family of the deputy who died last year is now suing the Sheriff’s Department, alleging negligence from higher-ups created a dangerous environment. State regulators have fined the county more than $300,000 for alleged safety violations at the shooting range.

The deputies killed Friday at Biscailuz Center were transporting an explosive device collected a day earlier in Santa Monica when it blew up in a parking lot, a law enforcement source who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly told The Times.

Luna said the deputies were assigned to the department’s Arson-Explosives Detail. He described them as “fantastic experts” who had handled many dangerous call-outs to collect ordnance.

The last L.A. County sheriff’s deputy to die in the line of duty was Alfredo Flores, who succumbed in April 2024 to burns suffered from the Oct. 10, 2023 fire at a shooting range at the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic.

Flores, a 22-year deputy and father of four, was doing a regular firearms re-certification when the trailer-style range burst into flames, according to a civil complaint his family has filed against the county.

In a complaint of his own, the range master on duty that day, Mark Thorn, said he and Flores were trapped inside by a jammed door. He escaped, but not before suffering “catastrophic” burns, the complaint said.

The county has yet to respond to either suit.

Flores’ attorney claims the Sheriff’s Department should have known the range was in danger of catching fire. Gunpowder, lead and other combustible material had built up inside the structure, the lawyers wrote. They cited a citation from state workplace regulators, who wrote that “accumulated propellant” inside the shooting range posed a fire risk.

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health in 2024 fined the Sheriff’s Department more than $300,000 for the alleged violations. Sheriff’s officials have appealed the citation.

After the deadly fire, the Sheriff’s Department shut down its range trailers, which it had used since the 1980s as an affordable alternative to permanent firing ranges.

A reserve deputy was killed in a training exercise in 1967. Michael Wigderson was trying to disarm an instructor at a sheriff’s facility in East Los Angeles when the instructor’s gun discharged, according to the bulletin published by the Sheriff’s Department museum. The gun should not have been loaded.

Wigderson died from a gunshot to his stomach and a second deputy was struck in the arm, the bulletin said.

Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.