DeJoy swears to halt changes at postal service but is the damage already done?
Facing copious heat for his removal of mail-sorting machines and blue mailboxes and the closure of some mail-processing facilities at the U.S. Postal Service, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy issued a statement today rescinding all policy changes at the USPS until after the November election.
“To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded,” DeJoy said after being called to testify before angry Congressional committees beginning this coming Friday.
DeJoy was asked to report to Congress to explain the sudden deterioration of mail services after he began an efficiency initiative at the Postal Service that eliminated staff overtime, closed facilities, and removed necessary equipment suspiciously around the same time that Donald Trump saw his negative opinion polls and started railing against mail-in voting which he inexplicably saw as more dangerous than the identical absentee voting that he has regularly utilized to exercise his own franchise.
Given that DeJoy had no previous Postal Service experience before being appointed to his position and the fact that he is a major donor to Donald Trump with investments in companies that compete with the USPS, his reassurances regarding the ability of the mail carriers to handle the volume of increased voting by mail in October and November was met with skepticism.
“The Postal Service is ready today to handle whatever volume of election mail it receives this fall,” DeJoy said today.
“Even with the challenges of keeping our employees and customers safe and healthy as they operate amid a pandemic, we will deliver the nation’s election mail on time and within our well-established service standards. The American public should know that this is our number one priority between now and election day,” he claimed.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) generously responded to DeJoy’s statement as “a start,” but wanted to ensure that the damage already inflicted on the Postal Service is reversed and that the Postmaster’s conflicts are thoroughly investigated.
This is a start. But we still need to reverse all the damage, fully fund @USPS, & investigate DeJoy’s conflicts. And we need to keep our eyes on DeJoy so he keeps his promise & doesn’t find new ways to dismantle the USPS.
I’ll be watching DeJoy’s actions – not just his words. pic.twitter.com/DNlGKqZSwt
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) August 18, 2020
Others on Twitter were even more skeptical and urged the public to keep up the pressure on the Trump administration.
It seems like the jury is still out on whether the problems with the Postal Service have been solved by the public outrage over Trump’s attempts to undermine the USPS in order to make it more difficult for Americans to vote against him.
At least one type of jury will get to inquire further into the burgeoning scandal when DeJoy begins his congressional testimony on Friday. Stay tuned for updates.
Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.
Original reporting by Emily Gooden at The Daily Mail.
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