House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants the House to get back in session this week to vote on a measure that would prevent the U.S. Postal Service from making any changes that would affect mail-in voting for the November election.
In a letter sent to House members and posted to her website, Pelosi said it's crucial that lawmakers act before the Trump administration forces the Postal Service to make cuts that could "sabotage the election."
"Alarmingly, across the nation, we see the devastating effects of the president's campaign to sabotage the election by manipulating the Postal Service to disenfranchise voters," the letter reads. "Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, one of the top Trump mega-donors, has proven a complicit crony as he continues to push forward sweeping new operational changes that degrade postal service, delay the mail, and — according to the Postal Service itself — threaten to deny the ability of eligible Americans to cast their votes through the mail in the upcoming elections in a timely fashion.
"These delays also threaten the health and economic security of the American people by delaying delivery of life-saving medicines and payments. In 2019, 1.2 billion prescriptions were delivered through the Postal Services, including almost 100 percent from the VA to veterans.
"Lives, livelihoods and the life of our American Democracy are under threat from the president."
The letter adds, "That is why I am calling upon the House to return to session later this week to vote on Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman [Carolyn] Maloney's 'Delivering for America Act,' which prohibits the Postal Service from implementing any changes to operations or level of service it had in place on January 1, 2020. House Democratic Leader [Steny] Hoyer will soon be announcing the legislative schedule for the coming week."
Earlier Sunday, Democrats stepped up their efforts to rein in a cost-cutting campaign by DeJoy that has stoked fears about holding up mail-in ballots ahead of the November election.
Top Democrats in Congress called on DeJoy and another top postal official to testify this month at a hearing on a wave of cuts that has slowed mail delivery around the country, alarming lawmakers ahead of the Nov. 3 election when up to half of U.S. voters could cast ballots by mail.
At least six Democratic state attorneys general were in discussions about what legal means they might pursue to stop changes to the Postal Service that could affect the election outcome, the Washington Post reported, citing interviews with multiple attorneys general.
Congressional Democrats called on DeJoy, a Trump donor, and Postal Service Chairman Robert Duncan to testify at an Aug. 24 hearing of the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform.
"The President has explicitly stated his intention to manipulate the Postal Service to deny eligible voters access to the ballot in pursuit of his own re-election," Democrats including Pelosi, Maloney, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement. "The Postmaster General and top Postal Service leadership must answer to the Congress and the American people as to why they are pushing these dangerous new policies that threaten to silence the voices of millions, just months before the election."
DeJoy did not respond to a request for comment.
Schumer in a statement called on the Postal Service's board of governors to remove DeJoy if he "refuses to come before Congress."
Democrats have accused Trump, who is trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden in polls, of trying to hamstring the cash-strapped Postal Service to suppress mail-in voting.
Trump on Thursday said he had held up talks with Congress over a fresh round of coronavirus stimulus funding to block Democrats from providing more funds for mail-in voting and election infrastructure.
Trump later walked back those comments, saying he would not veto a bill that included funds for the Postal Service. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told CNN on Sunday said he would agree to $10 billion to $25 billion in fresh Postal funding. The Democratic-controlled House approved $25 billion in a bill passed in May.
The Washington Post reported that the attorneys general of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Washington and North Carolina were in talks about legal steps to stop changes to the Postal Service that could influence the election's outcome.
"This is not just terrible policy, but it may be illegal under federal law and other state laws as well," the newspaper quoted Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring as saying.
Officials at offices of the six attorneys general could not immediately be reached for comment on Sunday.
Mark Dimondstein, the head of the 200,000-plus-member American Postal Workers Union, on Sunday said the Postal Service's Republican-dominated governing board sought more than $25 billion.
'TIME FOR CONGRESS TO ACT'
Appearing on Fox News, he said the service required emergency funds due to the pandemic-driven economic slowdown, pointing out that it received no funds in a stimulus package passed in March.
"The Congress and this administration took care of the private sector to the tune of over $500 billion," said Dimondstein. "The postal office did not get a dime. It's time for Congress to act."
Separately, Meadows told CNN's State of the Union that the White House fears a surge in mail-in voting could delay election results and leave the naming of the new president to the speaker of the House.
"A number of states are now trying to figure out how they are going to go to universal mail-in ballots," Meadows said. "That's a disaster where we won't know the election results on Nov. 3 and we might not know it for months and for me that's problematic because the Constitution says that then a Nancy Pelosi in the House would actually pick the president on Jan. 20."
Trump has repeatedly and without evidence said that a surge in mail-in voting would lead to fraud. Voting by mail is nothing new in the United States, as one in four voters cast ballots that way in 2016.
© 2024 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.