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House Democrat Introduces Bill To Stop U.S. Postal Service Changes

This article is more than 3 years old.
Updated Aug 12, 2020, 12:33pm EDT

TOPLINE

House Oversight chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation Wednesday aimed at reversing recent changes at the U.S. Postal Service by new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy causing noticeable mail delays, as Democrats ramp up their criticism of DeJoy’s leadership and accuse the postmaster general of working on President Donald Trump’s behalf to “sabotage” the November election.

KEY FACTS

The Delivering for America Act would prohibit the U.S. Postal Service from changing its “operations or level of service” until the end of the coronavirus pandemic, leaving in place whatever structures were in place as of January 1, 2020.

“Our Postal Service should not become an instrument of partisan politics, but instead must be protected as a neutral, independent entity that focuses on one thing and one thing only—delivering the mail,” Maloney said in a statement about the legislation.

DeJoy, a Trump donor and GOP fundraiser, implemented cost-cutting measures at the Postal Service that have resulted in reported days-long mail delays, in addition to reports of possible post office closures, mail processing equipment getting removed from post offices and a restructuring of its leadership team that was criticized as a “Friday Night Massacre.”

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have widely criticized DeJoy’s changes, and Democratic lawmakers have initiated an investigation into the changes and called for the USPS’s inspector general to investigate the agency.

Democrats’ criticism escalated amid reports that the USPS is asking election officials to pay higher first-class rates for mail-in ballots to ensure on-time delivery—after previously treating ballots as speedier first-class mail while charging a lower marketing mail rate—which lawmakers likened to a “modern day poll tax” and said is evidence DeJoy is working to “sabotage” the agency and disenfranchise voters.

DeJoy—who Maloney notes holds “between $30.1 million and $75.3 million in assets of competitors or contractors of the Postal Service” with his wife—has denied working on Trump’s behalf or intentionally slowing down the mail, and accused lawmakers of “sensationalizing isolated operational incidents.”

Crucial Quote

“At this juncture in our nation’s history, when the number of Americans voting by mail for this Presidential election is expected to more than double from the last, Congress must protect the right of all eligible citizens to have their vote counted,” Maloney said in a statement. “A once-in-a-century pandemic is no time to enact changes that threaten service reliability and transparency.”

Key Background

Postal workers on the ground have been speaking out against DeJoy’s changes, saying the cost-cutting measures are directly impeding their ability to do their jobs efficiently. “I grew up in a culture of service where every piece was to be delivered, to be delivered every day,” Kimberly Karol, president of the Iowa Postal Workers Union, told NPR, adding that the new policies are “not allowing us to deliver every piece every day, as we've done in the past.” Scott Adams, president of American Postal Worker Union Local 458, told Reuters thousands of letters have been delayed in southern Maine alone as a result of the changes, and the outlet reports delays have been seen in at least 18 other states. Karol noted that the new policies are also making operations perhaps even less efficient; new requirements permit workers to only embark in the morning with mail sorted the night before, requiring them to double back and pick up new batches of mail in the middle of their shifts. “I see this as a way to undermine the public confidence in the mail service,” Karol told NPR. “It's not saving costs. We’re spending more time trying to implement these policy changes, and it's, in our offices, costing more overtime.”

What to Watch for

The mail delays have sparked concerns about the November election and its reliance on mail-in ballots, particularly as Trump, a longtime Postal Service critic, has attacked mail-in voting and suggested in recent weeks that the USPS is not up to the task of handling the influx of mail. In a July 31 letter to Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman, USPS general counsel and executive vice president Thomas J. Marshall warned of “a risk that some ballots will not be returned by mail in time to be counted,” particularly for voters who register to vote or update their registration shortly before election day. USPS officials have hit back at Trump’s suggestion the postal service is ill-equipped to handle a mail-based election, however, with DeJoy saying the agency had “ample capacity” to handle a surge of mail-in ballots. “We have a history of being able to process mail, and we've been developing and perfecting our methods for all that time,” Karol told NPR. “So although the postmaster general is taking actions that are starting to impact that, by having that preparation in advance of these elections, we still have the system that will do that.”

Further Reading

Postmaster General Accuses Congress Of ‘Sensationalizing’ Mail Delays As Bipartisan Outcry Grows (Forbes)

Senate Democrat Investigating U.S. Postal Service Delays As Election Fears Mount (Forbes)

America’s Most Loved Brand? The Post Office—No Matter What President Trump Says (Forbes)

Democrats React To USPS Shake-Up: ‘Sabotage’ And ‘Partisan Games’ (Forbes)

A New Clash Over Mail Voting: The Cost of the Postage (New York Times)

Postal Workers Decry Changes And Cost-Cutting Measures (NPR)

U.S. postal service reorganization sparks delays, election questions (Reuters)

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