Congress Grills Postmaster General Louis DeJoy About Postal Delays

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is back on Capitol Hill today testifying before the House Oversight Committee on how changes he implemented have delayed mail. They are also addressing the concerns over how the post office will handle the upcoming mail-in ballots, as well as DeJoy’s relationship with Donald Trump. In her opening statement, House Oversight Committee chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) said:

“These are not isolated complaints, they are widespread…. These steep declines did not start in April or May with the coronavirus crisis, but in July when Mr. DeJoy came on board and began making his changes. Our entire country is experiencing these delays as a result of Mr. DeJoy’s actions”

“When you install someone as Postmaster General after he donates millions of dollars to your campaign, when he rushes to make changes without conducting adequate analysis, and when he withholds key information from Congress and doesn’t level with us, then people begin to ask, what in the world is going on?” “

In his opening statement, Congressman James Comer (R-KY) the ranking Republican on the House Oversight Committee spoke of the bill that was passed over the weekend to help fund the post office. This chain of events shows Democrats are not serious about meaningful reform. The President doesn’t support the bill, the Postal Service doesn’t support the bill, and the Senate isn’t likely to act on the bill. This is a political stunt.

The questioning got heated at times. In one exchange, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) had this to say:

“We can only reach two conclusions. One, either through gross competence you have ended the 240-year history of delivering the mail reliably on time, or the second conclusion that we could gather is that you’re doing this on purpose. And that you are deliberately dismantling this one proud tradition… my last question is this, what the heck are you doing.”

During questioning from Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN), DeJoy refused to answer questions about whether he is making cuts to please the president.

AXIOS also reports on a rather interesting series of questions from Congresswoman Katie Porter:

Under questioning from Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), Postmaster General Louis DeJoy acknowledged at a hearing on Monday that he knows “very little about postage stamps.”

Why it matters: Porter and other Democrats have accused DeJoy, a Trump donor and successful businessman, of being unqualified to serve in his position at a time when the U.S. Postal Service is set to deliver a record number of mail-in ballots ahead of the November election.