CHECKS ON THE MAIL
UNION REP TELLS HERALD: LETTERS PILING UP
‘It’s scaring the hell out of a lot of people in the Post Office ...’
As uproar grows about the U.S. Postal Service and mail delays ahead of the election, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday called for the House to return this week to pass Postal Service legislation, while members of the Massachusetts delegation said the postmaster general must resign now.
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Sunday also called on Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to testify at an “urgent” hearing on his operational changes at the Postal Service.
Meanwhile, President Trump over the weekend was asked about DeJoy and the rising concerns that more than 40 states have been warned that ballots for the general election might not make it in time.
Trump backed DeJoy, saying, “He’s a very talented man. He’s a brilliant business person. He’s done great. He’s a very nice man also. And he — Louis — he is working very hard.”
The president, an absentee voter who mails in his ballot, called mail-in voting “ridiculous.”
“Look at what’s happening with this mail-in voting,” he said. “It’s a disgrace. Absentee is good. Mail-in, universal is very, very bad. There’s no way they’re going to get it accurately.”
Pelosi on Sunday wrote a letter to colleagues, calling on the House to return to session later this week to vote on the “Delivering for America Act,” which would prohibit the Postal Service from implementing any changes to operations or level of service from those it had in place at the start of the year.
“Alarmingly, across the nation, we see the devastating effects of the President’s campaign to sabotage the election by manipulating the Postal Service to disenfranchise voters,” Pelosi wrote. “Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, one of the top Trump mega-donors, has proven a complicit crony as he continues to push forward sweeping new operational changes that degrade postal service, delay the mail, and — according to the Postal Service itself — threaten to deny the ability of eligible Americans to cast their votes through the mail in the upcoming elections in a timely fashion.”
Massachusetts Congresswomen Ayanna Pressley, Katherine Clark and Lori Trahan were among the local officials over the weekend calling for DeJoy to resign.
“This administration is at war with the United States Postal Service, which means it’s at war with the American people,” Pressley tweeted. “Not surprising, but no less shameful. Postmaster General DeJoy must go.”
U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, on Sunday requested that DeJoy testify at an “urgent” hearing on Aug. 24.
Massachusetts Congressman Stephen Lynch tweeted, “Time for Postmaster General DeJoy to answer some questions about the sabotage of the United States Postal Service. … The @OversightDems has moved up our Postal hearing to August 24th and we are demanding that PMG DeJoy come and explain to the American people why he is undermining the delivery of mail across our country.”