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The House of Representatives kicked off a heated debate on Saturday morning over a $ 25 billion United States Postal Service (USPS) funding bill that Democrats say is needed to stop President Trump from trying to “destroy” the post office before the 2020 postal election, while Republicans rejected this “conspiracy theory” and lambasted Democrats for organizing a purely political vote between two presidential conventions.
“I’m on the floor of the House of Representatives again watching a cartoon,” said Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark. “The only outcome this debate is going to have today is the value of entertainment – nothing substantial.”
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Democrats, however, called Saturday’s rare session a “five-alarm fire” after Postmaster General Louis DeJoy began operational and equipment changes that slowed mail delivery for their constituents. Meanwhile, Trump continues to attack postal voting ahead of an election that will increasingly rely on mailed ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s an emergency,” said Representative James McGovern, D-Mass. “And on top of that, we have a president who doesn’t want every vote counted in the next election because he believes if we count every vote he will lose. We’re in the middle of a pandemic. people will vote by mail. “
“This president is on the way to war to destroy the postal service,” added Representative Mark Pocan, D-Wis.
But Representative Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., Said Democrats are using the USPS to craft “a new Trump conspiracy theory” even though the president doesn’t control the Postmaster General.
“It sounds crazy, but too typical for Democrats who hate Trump,” Lesko said.
The House bill, the Delivering for America Act, would infuse the $ 25 billion post office, reverse service changes DeJoy enacted, and prevent the USPS from taking action that could slow mail until after the coronavirus pandemic or January 31. 2021 – whichever is later.
The White House has previously threatened to veto the bill saying “USPS doesn’t need a $ 25 billion bailout.”
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The House GOP pushed a “no” vote and an aide said they didn’t expect to lose large numbers of Republicans in the final vote later on Saturday.
Republicans played down concerns about service delays at the post office and said DeJoy was taking cautious operational steps at the budget-constrained post office. They said if Democrats really wanted to do something meaningful, they would include a bipartisan vote on some coronavirus relief measures on Saturday.
Democrats are highlighting the $ 3 trillion heroes law they passed in May and have since waited for the Republican Senate to act on a new stimulus bill. This coronavirus measure also included postal funding that Republicans rejected.
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., Called the USPS vote a “theatrical moment” between the Democratic and GOP conventions that has no chance of becoming law.
He called the proposal “stupid” and “a joke” and questioned why Democrats want to give DeJoy $ 25 billion, when they called the new Postmaster General a GOP mega-honorary for doing Trump’s request.
“We’re going to hear a lot of terrible things about her [DeJoy], but at the end of the day my [Democratic] friends are going to vote to give it $ 25 billion, “Cole said.” And they’re going to do it in a bill that has no reforms and just says you can’t change a thing. Now how smart is that? “
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“Do we need this money? Absolutely not,” Cole said.
Amid growing concerns about mail delays, restrictions on overtime and equipment removal, DeJoy announced this week that he would delay changes to operations until after the election.
“To avoid even the appearance of an impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until the end of the elections,” DeJoy said in a statement Tuesday. On Friday, he sought to reassure Senate lawmakers that ballots will be counted if received within seven days of the election, while acknowledging a “drop in level of service.”
But Democrats say they want the legislation to overturn policy changes, such as restoring sorting machines that have been removed and making USPS cutbacks illegal.
House legislation would ban the reduction of hours of service at postal facilities, the decommissioning of mail sorting machines and the elimination of community mailboxes. The bill would also ban any limits on overtime pay, hiring freezes, postponing postal service and treating election mail as anything other than first class mail.
USPS legislation is not expected to get a vote in the GOP-led Senate and Trump is expected to veto it if it makes it to his office.
“We will pass the bill and it will be bipartisan today,” House of Commons Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said on Saturday. “And then we’ll send it to the Senate. (…) Public sentiment is everything. They will hear their constituents because it happens to them. Not getting your mail in a timely manner arrives at home. Not receiving your mail. prescriptions, especially for our veterans, are knocking at home in a way that is detrimental to our country. “
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