DeJoy says Trump attacks on mail-in ballots `not helpful'
WASHINGTON— Postmaster General Louis De Joy told lawmakers Monday that he has warned allies of President Donald Trump that the president's repeated attacks on mail-in ballots are “not helpful,” but denied that recent changes at the Postal Service are linked to the November elections.
DeJoy was testifying for a second day on Capitol Hill, facing tense questions from lawmakers over an uproar in mail delivery delays since he took the helm in mid-June.
“I am not engaged in sabotaging the election,” DeJoy said, adding that, like Trump, he personally plans to vote by mail.
The hearing quickly became a debate over delivery disruptions being reported nationwide. Democrats said the changes under DeJoy's watch ar e causing widespread delays, but Republicans dismissed the worries as unfounded and part of a Democratic “conspiracy” against Trump.
In questioning, Rep. Stephen Lynch, D- Mass., said the upheaval at one of the nation's oldest and most popular institutions was either the result of “gross in competence” or that DeJoy was “doing this on purpose.”
“What the heck are you doing?” Lynch asked DeJoy at a sometimes contentious House Oversight Committee hearing. DeJoy denied any wrongdoing and accused Lynch and other Democrats of spreading misinformation.
De Joy also disputed published reports that he has eliminated overtime for postal workers and said a Postal Service do cumen tout lining overtime restrictions was written by a mid-level manager. DeJoy, who has called election mail his “No. 1 priority,” said he will authorize expanded use of overtime, extra truck trips and other measures in the weeks before the election to ensure on-time delivery of ballots.
De Joy urged voters to request mail-in ballots at least 15 days before the Nov. 3 election so they have enough time to receive their ballot, complete it and mail it back to elections officials on time. Acknowledging an expected surge in mail-in ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic, DeJoy said voters should mail back their ballots at l east seven days prior to the election.
His advice “should in no way be mis construed to imply that we lack confidence in our ability to deliver those ballots,'' DeJoy told the panel .“We can, and will, handle the volume of Election Mail we receive.''
The oversight hearing came two days after the House approved leg isl ati on Saturday to reverse changes at the Postal Service and send $ 25 billion to shore up the agency ahead of the November election. Twenty-six House
Republicans broke with Trump to back the House bill, which passed 257-150, although there was little sign of bipartisanship at Monday's hearing.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., the committee chair and author of the House bill, said DeJoy was using t he Postal Service' s long standing fiscal problems as an excuse “to justify sweeping and damaging changes to Postal Service operations. And we have all seen the results: national headlines about delays of days and weeks, veterans desperately waiting for their medications, sorting machines being ripped out and thrown in dumpsters.”
Maloney's committee on Saturday released internal Postal Service documents warning about steep declines and delays in a range of mail services since early July, shortly after DeJoy took the helm. Delays have occurred in first-class and marketing mail, periodicals and Priority Mail, the agency says in an Aug. 12 briefing prepared by Postal Service staff for DeJoy.
“These new documents show that the delays we have all heard about are actually far worse than previously reported,'' Maloney said.