WASHINGTON Backlash mounting, President Donald Trump’s embattled Postmaster General Louis DeJoy will appear Friday before the Senate to testify on mail delivery delays and service changes that lawmakers and others are warning could imperil the November election.
Trump has flatly denied he was asking for a slow-walk of the mail. But his newly-installed postmaster, a Republican donor with no previous postal management, is facing pressure by Democrats to halt any changes as millions of Americans prepare to vote by mail during the COVID-19 crisis. Demonstrations are being held Tuesday in several cities.
The top Democrat on the Homeland Security panel seeking DeJoy’s testimony called the Postal Service a lifeline to Americans.
We must ensure they can continue to count on dependable and timely delivery, said Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich.
The crisis at the Postal Service has erupted as a major election year issue as DeJoy, a Trump ally who took control of the agency in June, has swiftly engineered cuts and operational changes that are disrupting mail delivery operations and raising alarms among workers.
The concerns are amplified by Trump’s complaints against mail-in ballots that are expected to flood the mail as Americans wary of crowds choose to vote absentee this year instead of risking health concerns by voting at polling places during the coronavirus outbreak.
Congress is not in session but Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling the House back to Washington over the crisis at the Postal Service, setting up a political showdown amid growing concerns that the Trump White House is trying to undermine the agency ahead of the election.
The House is expected to vote Saturday on legislation that would prohibit changes at the agency. The package will also include $25 billion to shore up the Postal Service, which faces continued financial losses.
DeJoy and the head of the Postal Service board of governors are also set to testify Monday in the House.
We have to save the Post Office from the President now, Pelosi said late Monday on MSNBC.
The Postal Service is among the nation’s oldest and more popular institutions, strained in recent years by declines first-class and business mail, but now hit with new challenges during the coronavirus pandemic. Trump routinely criticizes its business model, but the financial outlook is far more complex, and includes an unusual requirement to pre-fund retiree health benefits that advocates in Congress want to undo.
Ahead of the election, DeJoy, a former supply-chain CEO who took over the Postal Service in June, has sparked nationwide outcry over delays, new prices and cutbacks just as millions of Americans will be trying to vote by mail and polling places during the COVID-19 crisis.
Trump on Monday defended DeJoy, but also criticized postal operations and claimed that universal mail-in ballots would be a disaster. He told reporters he wants “to have a post office that runs without losing billions and billions of dollars a year.”
The decision to recall the House carries a political punch. Voting in the House will highlight the issue after the weeklong Democratic National Convention nominating Joe Biden as the party’s presidential pick and pressure the Republican-held Senate to respond. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sent senators home for a summer recess.
McConnell distanced himself Monday from Trump’s complaints about mail operations. But the Republican leader also declined to recall senators to Washington, vowing the Postal Service is going to be just fine.
“Were going to make sure that the ability to function going into the election is not adversely affected, McConnell said in Horse Cave, Ky. And I dont share the presidents concerns.
Two Democratic lawmakers have called on the FBI to investigate whether DeJoy or members of the independent Postal Board of Governors may have committed a crime in slowing the mail.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats, meanwhile, urged the postal board to use authority under a 1970 law to reverse operational changes put in place last month by DeJoy. If he declines to cooperate, “you have the authority, under the Postal Reorganization Act, to remove the postmaster general,” the senators said in a letter to board members.
Congress is at a standoff over postal operations. House Democrats approved $25 billion in a COVID-19 relief package but Trump and Senate Republicans have balked at additional funds for election security. McConnell held a conference call Monday with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and GOP senators on the broader virus aid package.
The Postal Service said it has stopped removing mailboxes and mail-sorting machines following complaints from lawmakers and customers. It said it would stop removing its distinctive blue mailboxes through mid-November.
The legislation set for Saturday’s vote, the Delivering for America Act, would prohibit the Postal Service from implementing any changes to operations or level of service it had in place on Jan. 1. The package would include the $25 billion in earlier funds that are stalled in the Senate.
DeJoy, the first postmaster general in nearly two decades who was not a career postal employee, has pledged to modernize the money-losing agency to make it more efficient. He eliminated most overtime for postal workers, imposed restrictions on transportation and reduced of the quantity and use of mail-processing equipment.
Trump said last week that he was blocking emergency aid to the Postal Service, as well as a Democratic proposal to provide $3.6 billion in additional election money to the states to help process an expected surge of mail-in ballots. Both funding requests have been tied up in congressional negotiations over a new coronavirus relief package.
Meanwhile, the Postal Service is seeking a short-term rate increase that would raise prices on commercial domestic competitive parcels, including Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, first-class package service, Parcel Select and Parcel Return Service. The agency cited increased expenses, heightened demand for online packages due to the coronavirus pandemic and an expected increase in holiday mail volume.
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Associated Press writers Darlene Superville and Jill Colvin in Washington and Bruce Schreiner in Frankfort, Ky., contributed to this report.
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