Trump’s postmaster general testifies

A Senate hearing featuring testimony from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has now ended.

DeJoy took questions from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on the US Postal Service’s operations and concerns about mail-in voting.

The postmaster general denied that he changed USPS policies regarding election mail this year, and assured lawmakers that ballots mailed on time will arrive on time to be counted.

DeJoy announced earlier this week that the USPS is suspending changes he had put in place that have raised concerns about the upcoming election.

Democrats have claimed that DeJoy, who has been an ally of President Trump and Republican donor, is intentionally undermining Postal Service operations to sabotage mail-in voting in the November election — a charge DeJoy denies.

DeJoy acknowledged to United States Postal Service employees last week that recent procedural changes have had “unintended consequences,” but he also described them as necessary.

“When I found out about it, we socialized with the leadership team and looked at what the excitement it was creating so I decided to stop it and we’ll pick it up after the election. But this a normal process that has been around for 50 years,” DeJoy said at today’s hearing.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told lawmakers Friday that USPS plans to “send a letter to every American” explaining “what our process is” for mail-in voting.

Democrats have accused DeJoy of politicizing the postal service by initiating disruptive changes that could affect election mail. DeJoy has reversed many of these changes, and tried to assure senators that he wasn’t taking orders from President Trump, who sees mail-in voting as a political threat.

As CNN has previously reported, election mailers from official sources and third-party groups sometimes cause confusion for voters who sometimes think unsolicited mail with election information signifies that they are not registered to vote or haven’t applied for their absentee ballot correctly. 

Election laws vary drastically by state, so if USPS plans to send the same mailer to all Americans, it will need to be general information about how the postal service handles mail-in voting – and likely not specific guidance about local election rules.  

Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen from Nevada speaks during a virtual hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on August 21.

Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen from Nevada pressed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy for transparency on the changes he’s making at USPS.

“Will you commit to providing this committee with any and all transcripts or minutes of all closed, non-public word of governor meetings from this year by this Sunday? Can you commit to that sir?” she asked the postmaster general.

DeJoy said he couldn’t commit to providing minutes and transcripts because “I don’t know, I don’t have the authority to do some of those things. And that is something that I would need to discuss with counsel and the board’s counsel, so I can’t commit to that.”

Watch:

In an exchange with Sen. Mitt Romney, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy aimed to quell fears that delays in mailing would cause ballots to not arrive to their destination on time to be counted.

“Do you have a high degree of confidence that virtually all the ballots that would be mailed, let’s say 7 days before of an election, would actually be able to be received and counted? If people vote within 7 days of an election — are you highly confident that those ballots would then be received?” Sen. Romney asked.

Watch:

Asked if the Postal Service needed a “massive federal bailout” to be able to deliver mail on election night, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told lawmakers they did not, but said Congress and the federal government did need to act to help USPS navigate the financial downturn brought on by Covid-19.

“We continued to do what we’re supposed to do and at a significant cost impact, you know, and I’m one to try to get to a sustainable model, but in this case we — I believe we deserve some compensation for it,” DeJoy added.

Watch:

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro speaks at a rally at Independence Mall on March 2, 2017 in Philadelphia.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro filed a lawsuit against Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and the Postal Service this morning in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The filing comes as DeJoy is testifying at an ongoing Senate hearing.

In addition to Pennsylvania, plaintiff states named in the lawsuit include California, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts and North Carolina.

The lawsuit alleges “DeJoy illegally bypassed the Postal Regulatory Commission, and that the impact of mail delays violate the Election and Electors clauses of the Constitution,” according to a statement. The plan to file the lawsuit was announced earlier this week. 

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told a Republican-led Senate committee that since his arrival, the Postal Service has removed 700 collection boxes, of “which I had no idea that that was a process.”

When he found out this was happening, DeJoy told lawmakers he and the leadership team discussed it and decided to halt the removals.

DeJoy said there are over 140,000 collection boxes in the US, and over the last 10 years, about 35,000 of them have been removed. He said the decision to remove boxes is a “data-driven method” where USPS looks at utilization of the post boxes, where they place new post boxes and where communities are growing.

With regards to sorting machines, DeJoy said USPS evaluates its machine capacity before deciding to move them.

“The mail volume, you know, is dropping very rapidly and especially during the Covid crisis. And package volume is growing, and when I spoke with the team — when this too became —got a lot of air play, we really are moving these machines out to make room to process packages. We still have hundreds of these machines everywhere and still not any kind of drain on the capacity, DeJoy said.

“I repeat, both the collection boxes and this machine closedown I was — I was made aware when everybody else was made aware,” the postmaster general said.

Watch:

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, speaking to senators this morning, said he supports mail-in voting and has voted that way “for a number of years.”

He vowed that the USPS would “deliver every ballot and process every ballot in time that it receives.”

“I think the American public should be able to vote by mail,” DeJoy said, adding that the Postal Service will support it.

Watch:

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy speaks during a virtual hearing in front of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on August 21.

At a Senate hearing Friday morning, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy denied that he changed USPS policies regarding election mail this year. 

DeJoy’s denial comes after two weeks of controversy and crisis surrounding USPS, with DeJoy facing bipartisan criticism over policy changes and accusations of politicization by senior Democrats.  

Watch:

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said he did not speak to President Trump about controversial operational initiatives that some Democrats claimed could undermine mail-in voting ahead of the election.

DeJoy — a Trump ally and Republican donor — said he has only spoken about USPS to the President when he first accepted the job.

“Did you discuss those changes, or their potential impact on the November election with the President or anyone at the White House? And I’ll remind you you’re under oath,” Democratic Sen. Gary Peters asked.

Following public outcry, DeJoy, announced Tuesday that the changes would be suspended until after the election.

Watch:

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy speaks during a virtual hearing in front of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on August 21.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy defended his leadership of the US Postal Service this morning during his opening statement, and assured the Republican-led Senate committee that he and USPS are committed “to delivering the nation’s election mail securely and on time.”

DeJoy stressed the USPS is “at fundamental risk” of not fulfilling its mandate in coming years “to provide prompt, reliable, and universal postal services to the American public – in an efficient and financially self-sustaining fashion” due to the financial hardships that have been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. He called on Congress to swiftly pass legislation to provide financial relief.

“Our business model – as established by Congress – requires us to pay our bills through our own efforts. I view it as my personal obligation to put the organization in a position to fulfill that mandate,” DeJoy said.

“I urge the Congress to expeditiously enact the reforms and I urge the Congress to enact legislation to provide the postal service with financial relief to account for the impacts of Covid-19 on our financial condition,” he said.

“Despite our deep, longstanding financial problems, there is an incredibly strong base to build upon – and a tremendous desire of the public for the Postal Service to succeed,” DeJoy added.

Watch DeJoy’s opening statement:

Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, the ranking member on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, speaks during a virtual hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on August 21.

Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, the ranking member on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said he has received more than 7,500 reports from people in his state of Michigan and across the US who are concerned about what’s happening at the United States Postal Service.

“They have written to me about skipping doses of their medication, and their small businesses losing their customers or having to layoff employees. All because of changes you directed,” he said in his opening remarks.

Peters went on to say that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s decisions “have cost Americans their health, their time, their livelihoods and their peace of mind.”

“The country is anxious about whether the damage you have inflicted so far can be quickly reversed and what other plans you have in store that could further disrupt or damage reliable, timely delivery from the Postal Service,” he added.

 Watch:

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is testifying in front of the Republican-led Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee this morning.

The hearing is the first time that DeJoy, a fundraiser and ally appointed by President Donald Trump, will publicly answer questions about recent changes to the US Postal Service that have sparked public outcry.

Here are some key things to know about DeJoy:

What led to this point: Earlier this month, postal workers across the country sounded alarms over changes DeJoy had made to USPS since taking over in June. The changes included cutting overtime and limiting post office hours, which workers said were causing massive delivery delays. With millions of Americans expected to vote by mail this November due to the coronavirus, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle began to worry this could impact the election.

While lawmakers began asking questions on changes, state officials voiced increasing concern following letters from the Postal Service to more than 40 states warning that ballots may not be delivered in time for the election. Around the same time, CNN obtained internal documents showing a reduction plan to remove nearly 700 high-volume mail sorters from postal facilities across the country.

And then came the images of iconic blue mailboxes being carted away on trucks. DeJoy and some Republicans defended the changes as necessary to combat the Postal Service’s dire financial situation, but Democrats weren’t buying it.

The series of changes, coupled with Trump’s battle against mail-in voting, has fueled concerns that the Trump administration is using the Postal Service to interfere with the election.

Fresh off the Democratic National Convention, vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris is back to her day job as a US senator for a high-profile showdown with the embattled head of the US Postal Service over changes that could impact the 2020 vote.

But Harris, who attracted national attention as a fierce participant in Senate proceedings, doesn’t plan to ask questions during Friday’s virtual hearing.

The former California prosecutor will instead submit a “lengthy list of questions” in writing to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, an aide told CNN.

Harris’ decision not to verbally participate in the hearing appears to be a sign of her new role as Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s running mate, a position often seen as one where it’s most important to “do no harm” to the top of the ticket. It also could be an indicator of how the Biden camp plans to deploy Harris in the homestretch of a campaign where Biden’s team has worked to make a referendum on President Donald Trump.

The testimony is also scheduled the morning after Harris’ running mate gives the biggest speech of his career to date, a time historically reserved for cable networks to reflect on the nominee’s speech — and not testimony involving the vice presidential nominee.

Harris is one of six Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, where DeJoy is testifying for the first time amid an uproar over cuts to USPS service that Democrats warn threaten the ability for mail-in ballots to be delivered in a timely fashion.

Some postal union leaders expressed skepticism that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s Tuesday announcement that mail-processing equipment will remain in place would fully restore the capacity of the Postal Service.

DeJoy announced that all changes being made to the USPS — including moving mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes — would be suspended until after the Nov. 3 election, but more than a dozen postal union leaders across the country have told CNN that sorting machines have already been removed or taken out of service.

CNN previously reported that documents indicated 671 machines used to organize letters or other pieces of mail were slated for “reduction” in postal facilities this year. The Postal Service said in a statement last week that it “routinely moves equipment around its network as necessary to match changing mail and package volumes.”

Miriam Bell, general president of a local chapter of the American Postal Workers Union in North Carolina, said seven sorting machines at a Charlotte postal facility have been either separated out, dismantled or entirely removed in recent weeks.

Asked if she expects them to return, Bell said, “We truthfully do not know,” adding, “it is highly unlikely they will be put back in place.”

Roscoe Woods, president of APWU Local 480-481, said a dozen machines at a distribution center in Pontiac, Michigan, had been removed from service in recent weeks, and despite DeJoy’s announcement, he said he has heard from postal management that the machines are not supposed to be put back to work.

“As of today, they were told not to power them back up,” Woods said.

Read more here.

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson will accuse Democrats of attacking Postmaster General Louis DeJoy for political gain, according to his prepared opening statement for today’s hearing.

Johnson accuses Democrats of ignoring the long-term financial problems that DeJoy is trying to address, and that their concerns about the election are overblown. 

“It is Postmaster DeJoy’s commendable attempt to reduce those excess costs that are now being cynically used to create this false political narrative,” Johnson plans to say. “According to Democrats, the postmaster is trying to sabotage the Post System to disenfranchise voters in the upcoming election. Notices that were sent before he was sworn in, meant to inform election officials to factor in normal postal capabilities in setting their ballot deadlines, are being used as evidence of this conspiracy theory.”

Johnson added: “As long as election officials factor in normal postal delivery capabilities, and in light of the 17% decline in weekly volume, the postal system has more than enough excess capacity to handle mail-in balloting.”

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced earlier this week that the US Postal Service is suspending changes he had put in place that have raised concerns about the upcoming election.

Among the things Dejoy says will happen: 

He also said there will be “standby resources” available on Oct. 1 and that there will be a task force established to “ensure that election officials and voters are well informed and fully supported by the Postal Service.”

Some background: Democrats have claimed that DeJoy, who has been an ally of President Trump and Republican donor, is intentionally undermining Postal Service operations to sabotage mail-in voting in the November election — a charge DeJoy denies.

DeJoy acknowledged to United States Postal Service employees last week that recent procedural changes have had “unintended consequences,” but described them as necessary.

The postmaster general, who started in June, also addressed the new postal service restructuring, calling it a “strategic plan to achieve operation excellence and financial stability.”

DeJoy described the financial situation of USPS as “dire” due to declines in mail volume and the coronavirus pandemic.

Despite Democrats’ attempts to get billions in stimulus funding for USPS, DeJoy said the agency’s “critics are quick to point to our finance, yet they offer no solutions.”

The USPS’ new procedural changes were laid out in a July memo and include staff hours being cut. CNN also obtained documents that indicate plans to remove hundreds of high-volume mail-processing machines from facilities across the country.

The House is set to return on Saturday to vote on legislation that would provide $25 billion in funding for the financially strapped agency.

President Trump has repeatedly tried to draw a distinction between “mail-in voting” (which he thinks is bad and open to fraud) and “absentee voting” (which he says is good and might help him get reelected).

It’s a confusing distinction because it doesn’t really exist. Read CNN’s fact check on it.

He has adjusted his rhetoric in the past few weeks. It’s not just “mail-in” voting he now opposes, but rather, as he has put it, “universal mail-in voting.” During a press conference last week, he explained why he’s all for absentee voting, but opposed to mail-in voting:

“Absentee voting is great. You request — I’m an absentee voter because I requested, I got, and then I sent in my vote. So that works out very well. That’s what we’ve had. But now they want to send in millions and millions of ballots.”

However, in contrast, he said universal mail-in voting would be very, very bad.

“Universal mail-in voting is going to be catastrophic. It’s going to make our country a laughingstock all over the world. You can’t send out millions of ballots,” he said.

But here’s the thing: A whole lot of absentee voting (most of it!) is done by mail. An absentee vote is a vote cast outside of the voting booth, traditionally for very specific and limited reasons. There’s been some version of absentee voting by mail since the Civil War, when troops voting from the battlefield helped Abraham Lincoln win reelection.

It’s worked so well that several states have moved to all mail-in voting system, where they automatically send ballots to all registered voters. Oregon is the classic example of “universal mail-in voting” since mail-in voting is all they do.

The distinction, as it seems to exist in Trump’s mind, appears to be between states that conduct their elections primarily by mail and those that require voters to request a ballot to be turned in by mail.

Trump says automatically sending mail ballots to all registered voters is bad. But having to request your mail ballot is good. The first system is often called “universal vote-by-mail” or “all-mail” election. The second system is called “absentee voting” and can be “no-excuse” or no excuse required.

This year’s election — partly because of a general trend toward away from polling-place voting and partly because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic — is going to see more mail-in ballots than ever. According to a new CNN poll, in which 34% say they prefer to vote by mail in the presidential election, 22% say they want to vote early at a polling place, and just 43% say they would prefer to vote in-person on Election Day.

That represents a 10-point increase over the share who voted by mail in 2016: 24%, according to the US Election Assistance Commission.

There are 50 US states and in 42 of them, for this year, anyone who wants to vote by mail can do so.

Read the full story here.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is emerging from obscurity and into a glaring hot spotlight lately, raising alarms with aggressive new strategies that have upended the United States Postal Service just as it heads into possibly the most consequential moment of its history – the great vote-by-mail election of 2020.

DeJoy’s administration has slowed delivery, removed high-speed letter sorters from commission and issued a stark warning to election officials that mail-in ballots will no longer automatically be moved as priority mail. On top of that, the USPS has started reducing post office operating hours across several states, cut overtime for postal workers and removed some of their iconic blue letter collection boxes.

In the wake of what DeJoy is calling a “restructuring,” the agency’s inspector general is now reviewing these policy changes. Democrats are amping up demands that DeJoy rescind his changes and get the agency ready for the flood of mail-in ballots necessitated by the pandemic. Former President Barack Obama characterized the administration’s approach to the postal service as “a knee-capping” – sabotage by an executive who dislikes mail-in balloting and also has power over the agency that makes it possible.

Charged with securely shepherding millions of Americans’ votes, the USPS is shouldering a growing sense of mistrust from all sides. Each day a bill payment is marked overdue or a birthday card arrives later than expected is another day for voters to wonder: Will the Post Office be up to the task this election?

DeJoy acknowledged to employees last week that the slowdown is a direct result of his policies. In a memo to postal service staff and workers, he allowed there had been “unintended consequences” but promised that the changes will eventually mean “transformation into a financially stable organization” – a longtime conservative goal for the fiscally-challenged agency. Election experts may be worried about the post office role in a free and fair election, but DeJoy revealed that he, like Trump, is focused on the bottom line.

For the two months of his tenure, postal workers and election observers have been watching DeJoy closely and wondering to what extent he’ll serve Trump’s interests during the 2020 elections. The week’s events served to highlight just how in sync with his boss he may be.

“He’s a fantastic man,” Trump said when asked Saturday evening during his news conference at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey, if he backs DeJoy’s changes at the agency. “He wants to make the Post Office great again.”

President Trump said last week that he opposes much-needed funding for the United States Postal Service because he doesn’t want to see it used for mail-in voting this November.

By directly linking USPS funding to mail-in voting, Trump is fueling allegations that he is trying to manipulate the postal system for political gain. The pandemic has led to record-shattering levels of voting-by-mail, but Trump has tried to restrict the voting method because he says it will hurt his re-election and Republicans across the board.

During an interview on Fox News, Trump said that if USPS does not receive the additional $25 billion funding request that Democrats included in the ongoing stimulus negotiations, then he believes the Post Office won’t be able to handle the influx of mail-in ballots in the upcoming election.

“But if they don’t get those two items that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting because you they’re not equipped to have it,” Trump added.

Trump has criticized mail-in voting for months, baselessly asserting that it will lead to voter fraud.

Remember: There is not widespread voter fraud in US elections, and nonpartisan experts say neither party automatically benefits when states expand access to mail-in voting.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded to Trump’s claims during an interview on MSNBC, saying the $25 billion for USPS was proposed by the agency’s Board of Governors, not Democrats.

“In the legislation we have $25 billion, that is the number that is recommended by the Board of Governors of the US postal service,” Pelosi said in the interview, also noting that “a bipartisan Board of Governors, 100% appointed by Donald Trump, they recommended $25 billion dollars.”