Pelosi to Recall House for Postal Service Vote as Democrats Press for DeJoy to Testify

[postareale]

Pelosi to Recall House for Postal Service Vote as Democrats Press for DeJoy to Testify
The House will cut short its summer recess to consider legislation that would counter changes at the Postal Service that critics say undermine casting ballots by mail.

The New York Times

By Emily Cochrane and Catie Edmondson
Aug. 16, 2020

WASHINGTON — Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California announced on Sunday that she would call the House back from its annual summer recess for a vote this week on legislation to block changes at the Postal Service that voting advocates warn could disenfranchise Americans casting ballots by mail during the pandemic.

The announcement came after the White House chief of staff on Sunday signaled openness to providing emergency funding to help the agency handle a surge in mail-in ballots, and as Democratic state attorneys general said that they were exploring legal action against cutbacks and changes at the Postal Service.

The moves underscored rising concern across the country over the integrity of the November election and how the Postal Service will handle as many as 80 million ballots cast by Americans worried about venturing to polling stations because of the coronavirus. President Trump has repeatedly derided mail voting as vulnerable to fraud, without evidence, and the issue had become a prominent sticking point in negotiations over the next round of coronavirus relief.

The House was not scheduled to return for votes until Sept. 14, but is now expected to consider a Postal Service bill as soon as Saturday, according to a senior Democratic aide familiar with the plans. Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the majority leader, is expected to announce the final schedule on Monday.

“Lives, livelihoods and the life of our American democracy are under threat from the president,” Ms. Pelosi said in a letter to Democratic lawmakers. “That is why I am calling upon the House to return to session later this week.”

The abrupt return to Washington was announced just hours after Democrats called on top Postal Service officials to testify on Capitol Hill this month about recent policies that they warned pose “a grave threat to the integrity of the election.” It also demonstrates the growing alarm over changes the Postal Service is enforcing under its leader, Louis DeJoy, the postmaster general and a Trump megadonor, less than three months before a general election. Some of the changes, which Mr. DeJoy describes as cost-cutting measures, include ending overtime pay and the removal or transfer of some sorting machines.

The move also increases political pressure on Republican senators facing competitive re-election in rural states like Montana and Alaska that are heavily mail dependent, some of which have already expressed unease with delays in mail delivery. (Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, called on the Senate to return and act on a coronavirus relief package that included funding for the agency.) It is unclear whether the Senate will take up the legislation, which would require the agency to maintain current service standards until Jan. 1, 2021, or until after the pandemic is over.

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, demanded on Sunday that Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, bring senators back to Capitol Hill to take up the House measure that he said in a statement “will undo the extensive damage Mr. DeJoy has done at the Postal Service.”

Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, said on Sunday that no mail-sorting machines would be dismantled before Election Day and insisted that the notion that they would be was a false “political narrative by my Democrat colleagues.”

“The president of the United States is not going to interfere with anybody casting their votes in a legitimate way, whether it’s the post office or anything else,” he said, speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

But Democrats point to the Postal Service’s decision to tell states last month that it may not be able to meet their deadlines for delivering last-minute mail-in ballots.

“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,” top Democrats said in a joint statement on Sunday. Mr. DeJoy had been scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee in late September, and lawmakers have already requested information about the changes.

[PostmanBitesDog]

Oh, this is going to be fun...

USPS.jpg

Tweeted a few minutes ago by the powerful House Committee on Oversight and Reform (chaired by Carolyn B. Maloney), and now breaking news on the major news networks.

Here's the subpoena memorandum: Notice of Intent to Issue a Subpoena to Postmaster General (August 31, 2020).

[Janet Brum]

Great, about time they all go down.

[PostmanBitesDog]