Postal Service:

Pelosi advances bill to block changes amid pandemic.

WASHINGTON — Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday she is calling the House back into session from its summer recess this week to vote on a bill prohibiting the U.S. Postal Service from implementing any changes to operations or level of service. The action comes amid growing concerns that the Trump White House is trying to undermine the agency during the pandemic while states expand mailin voting.

In a letter to Democratic lawmakers Sunday, Pelosi also called on her colleagues to appear at a post office in their district Tuesday for a coordinated news event. “In a time of a pandemic, the Postal Service is Election Central. Americans should not have to choose between their health and their vote,” she wrote.

House Democrats are expected to be in session next Saturday, a senior Democratic aide said on condition of anonymity.

Earlier Sunday, Democratic lawmakers demanded that leaders of the Postal Service testify at an emergency oversight hearing Aug. 24 on mail delays. The House Oversight and Reform Committee said it wants to hear from new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and from the chair of the Postal Service board of governors, Robert Duncan.

DeJoy, an ally of the president who took control of the agency in June, has pledged to modernize the moneylosing agency to make it more efficient, and has eliminated most overtime for postal workers, imposed restrictions on transportation and reduced of the quantity and use of mailprocessing equipment.

“The postmaster general and top Postal Service leadership must answer to the Congress and the American people as to why they are pushing these dangerous new policies that threaten to silence the voices of millions, just months before the election,” congressional Democrats said in a statement announcing the hearing.

The president’s critics contend Trump has made the calculation that a lower voter turnout would improve his chances of winning a second term. “What you are witnessing is a president of the United States who is doing everything he can to suppress the vote,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, independentVt., said on on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”