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House Democrats questioned Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s announcement on Tuesday that he would delay postal changes until the end of the election and go ahead with a vote on Saturday to ban disruption of the postal service.
“Well, we’re going to make sure in law that that’s the case,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Said on Tuesday of DeJoy’s reversal on the changes. operational.
Hoyer called President Trump and DeJoy’s actions against the Post “reprehensible”, “not surprising” and “very likely criminal.”
POSTER GENERAL: SPARKLY MODIFICATIONS TO DELAYED MAIL WILL BE SUSPENDED UNTIL AFTER ELECTION
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi downplayed DeJoy’s announcement as a “temporary break” from Trump’s “election sabotage campaign”. She said the House would return from recess on Saturday to pass legislation providing $ 25 billion in funding that the USPS board had wanted and prohibiting DeJoy from cutting mail service during the coronavirus pandemic .
“Nice try, Postmaster General DeJoy, but the House will continue to pass our bill to ensure mail delivery during elections,” Pelosi tweeted, along with his hashtag: #OfMessWithUSPS
Amid national concerns over mail delays, and even protests outside his Washington home, DeJoy announced earlier Tuesday that his cost-cutting measures would be suspended.
“To avoid even the appearance of an impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until the end of the election,” DeJoy said in a statement.
He continued, “Retail hours at post offices will not change. Mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes will remain where they are. No mail processing facilities will be closed. And we reaffirm that overtime has been and will continue to be approved as required. “
DEMOCRATS ASK POSTER GENERAL AND USPS PRESIDENT TO TESTIFY ON POSTAL BULLETINS
The alarm bells went off nationwide when Thomas Marshall, general counsel and executive vice president of the Postal Service, sent letters warning 46 states and the District of Columbia that the USPS cannot guarantee that all the mailed ballots will arrive in time to be counted in the November election. , the Washington Post first reported.
During his three months on the job, DeJoy implemented a series of cost-cutting measures, including a crackdown on overtime that postal workers had used to clear mail backlogs, and he also approved the elimination of 671 mail sorting machines, or around 10%. of inventory, the paper reported.
On top of that, there has been a highly visible removal of blue mailboxes across the country which has sparked an uproar on social media.
Senator Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Said DeJoy and Trump were “caught in the act”.
“We have enough concerns with foreign interference,” Van Hollen said, referring to Russian interference. “We don’t need internal work to try to fix our elections. That’s what was going on here. We caught them in the act. But now we need to pass legislation to make it absolutely clear that this is unacceptable. “
POSTAL SLOW DOWN, REMOVAL OF THE MAILBOX BEFORE THE NOVEMBER ELECTION SPARK MOUNTING PROBLEMS
Saturday’s House vote will reverse DeJoy’s changes that caused the postal service to delay just before an election that will rely heavily on postal voting, which Trump opposes.
Democrats also called a House Oversight Committee hearing Monday to hear DeJoy and USPS Chairman of the Board of Governors Robert Duncan to discuss changes to the mail service during the coronavirus pandemic.
DeJoy’s statement on Tuesday came shortly after 14 state attorneys general announced a federal lawsuit challenging the changes to the USPS, alleging the changes could undermine the 2020 election.
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Fox News’s Evie Fordham and Jason Donner contributed to this report.
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