Postmaster holds off on changes
After outcry, DeJoy vows no disruption
WASHINGTON — Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced Tuesday that he is halting some operational changes to mail delivery that critics blamed for widespread delays and warned could disrupt the November election.
DeJoy said he would “suspend” several of his initiatives — including the removal of the distinctive blue mailboxes that prompted an outcry — until after the election “to avoid even the appearance of impact on election mail.”
“We will deliver the nation’s election mail on time,” DeJoy said in a statement.
The reversal from DeJoy, who is set to testify Friday before the Senate, comes as more than 20 states, from New York to California, announced they would be suing to stop the changes. Several vowed they would
press on, keeping a watchful eye on the Postal Service ahead of the election.
The suits, including one filed Tuesday afternoon in federal court in Washington state, will argue that the Postal Service broke the law by making operational changes without first seeking approval from the Postal Regulatory Commission. They also will argue that the changes will impede states’ ability to run free and fair elections, officials from several state attorneys general offices told The Washington Post. The Constitution gives states and Congress, not the executive branch, the power to regulate elections.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is pushing ahead with Saturday’s vote to prevent election-year mail changes and provide emergency postal funds.
“I don’t, frankly, trust the postmaster general,” Pelosi said in San Francisco.
The trouble at the Postal Service, which dates back many years, has flared as a major election-year issue as DeJoy, who took control of the agency in June, has made operational changes that are disrupting mail delivery operations and raising alarms that Trump is trying to undermine the agency ahead of the election.
At the White House, Trump has flatly denied that he is seeking to slow-walk the mail. He leveled fresh assaults Tuesday on universal mail-in ballots. More Americans than ever are expected to choose to vote absentee during the coronavirus outbreak.
“You can’t have millions and millions of ballots sent all over the place, sent to people that are dead, sent to dogs, cats, sent everywhere,” Trump told reporters.
“This isn’t games and you have to get it right,” Trump said.
Some of the initiatives DeJoy said he was shelving until after the election had already been announced.
“I came to the Postal Service to make changes to secure the success of this organization and its long-term sustainability,” DeJoy said in a statement Tuesday. “I believe significant reforms are essential to that objective, and work toward those reforms will commence after the election.
“In the meantime, there are some long-standing operational initiatives — efforts that predate my arrival at the Postal Service — that have been raised as areas of concern as the nation prepares to hold an election in the midst of a devastating pandemic. To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded.”
Mail-processing equipment and mailboxes “will remain where they are” and service hours will not change, he said. “We will engage standby resources in all areas of our operations, including transportation, to satisfy any unforeseen demand,” he added.
“The Postal Service is ready today to handle whatever volume of election mail it receives this fall,” he said. “Even with the challenges of keeping our employees and customers safe and healthy as they operate amid a pandemic, we will deliver the nation’s election mail on time and within our well-established service standards. The American public should know that this is our number one priority between now and election day.”
‘FULL-ON ASSAULT’
DeJoy said Tuesday that he is halting the planned removal of mail-processing machines and blue collection boxes, as well as an initiative to change retail hours at post offices. He also said that no mail-processing facilities will be closed and said the agency has not eliminated overtime.
One initiative that DeJoy didn’t single out in his announcement was the newly imposed constraints on when mail can go out for delivery — a change that postal workers have said is fueling delays. The statement also did not specify whether the agency would restore mail-sorting machines that have recently been taken offline.
A Postal Service spokesman declined to comment beyond DeJoy’s statement.
“What’s going on right now is nothing less than a
full-on assault by this administration on the U.S. Postal Service, an institution that millions of Americans rely on every single day,” Bob Ferguson, the attorney general in Washington state, said at a news conference.
Ferguson and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced that they were leading collections of other states in suing to block service changes at the Postal Service, just as the postmaster was making his own statement Tuesday. Both Shapiro and Ferguson said they would not take DeJoy at his word.
“We need to see binding action to reverse these changes,” Shapiro said.
Ferguson’s suit was joined by Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin. The lawsuit names Trump as a defendant, along with the Postal Service and DeJoy, accusing the president of infringing on state power to administer elections through his attacks on mail balloting.
Trump said last week that he was blocking $25 billion in emergency aid to the Postal Service, acknowledging he wanted to curtail election mail operations, 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.
Key Republicans are now sounding the alarm.
In the pivotal swing state of Ohio, Attorney General Dave Yost called on the president to postpone any needed changes to the Postal Service until after Election Day. GOP Sen. Rob Portman and other Republicans in Ohio’s congressional delegation urged DeJoy to “ensure timely and accurate delivery of election-related materials.”
DEMOCRATS’ PRESSURE
Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, welcomed DeJoy’s decision but said the Postal Service needs pandemic-related financial relief. “It’s time for Congress to deliver,” he said.
Pelosi is gaining GOP support for Saturday’s vote, according to two Republican aides granted anonymity to discuss the situation. She is calling lawmakers back to Washington for the “Delivering for America Act,” which 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 approved as part of the coronavirus rescue that is stalled in the Senate.
Democrats held events in cities nationwide, some pressuring Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to resume session. One protest was in Atlanta, where GOP
Sen. David Perdue faces a tough reelection.
McConnell though is unlikely to change the Senate schedule. In Kentucky, he said he viewed the postal legislation as an opportunity to resume talks over a broader relief bill. “I don’t think we’ll pass, in the Senate, a postal-only bill,” he told the Courier-Journal.
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 that could imperil not only the election, but what some call a lifeline for those receiving mail prescriptions and other goods during the health crisis.
The Postal Service is among the nation’s oldest and more popular institutions, strained in recent years by declines in 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 prefund retiree health benefits that advocates in Congress want to undo.
Postal workers say they are increasingly worried about their ability to deliver for the fall election.
HEARING AHEAD
“Postmaster General DeJoy cannot put the genie back in the bottle,” Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., who chairs the House subcommittee responsible for postal oversight, said in a statement.
“Sunshine in the form of public pressure has forced Mr. DeJoy to completely reverse himself. While this is a victory for all voters and every American that relies on the USPS, congressional oversight cannot be interrupted. If Mr. DeJoy has nothing to hide, he will come to Congress with answers to our questions about the service disruptions that have defined his tenure as Postmaster General. Accountability is the cornerstone of our democracy.”
On Tuesday, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows blamed many of the delays on decisions made during the Obama administration. “President Trump at no time has instructed or directed the post office to cut back on overtime, or any other operational decision that would slow things down,” he said.
“Postmaster General DeJoy has nothing to be ashamed of,” Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said in a statement. “The Postal Service has been in dire straits long before Mr. DeJoy’s leadership and he rightfully took action to improve its efficiency and operations to better serve the American people.”
One initiative that DeJoy didn’t single out in his announcement was the newly imposed constraints on when mail can go out for delivery — a change that postal workers have said is fueling delays. The statement also did not specify whether the agency would restore mail-sorting machines that have recently been taken offline.