House Democrats will vote to block Postal Service changes
The Trump administration’s cutbacks to the U.S. Postal Service could impact the election, as millions more mail-in ballots are expected due to the pandemic.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday night announced she’s calling the House back to Washington, D.C., this week to vote on a bill aiming to block the Trump administration’s changes at the U.S. Postal Service.
Pelosi said the House will vote on the “Delivering for America Act,” a bill by House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney that Pelosi said “prohibits the Postal Service from implementing any changes to operations or level of service it had in place on January 1, 2020.”
Pelosi’s announcement came as House Democrats railed against the administration’s Postal Service changes, which are slowing down mail processing and could have an impact on the November election, when millions of ballots are expected to be sent through the system.
The Postal Service, currently led by Trump appointee Louis DeJoy, has sent letters to nearly every state in the nation warning that delays in processing mail could impact voters’ ability to have their ballots counted.
“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,” Pelosi wrote in a letter to her House colleagues on Sunday night.
“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,” she added.
Maloney on Sunday also announced that she called on Postmaster General DeJoy to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Aug. 24 — earlier than the Sept. 17 date that DeJoy demanded.
Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN), one of the most moderate members of the House Democratic caucus, tweeted on Saturday that if DeJoy does not show up, the House should have DeJoy arrested.
“It’s not just ballots that are being slowed,” Cooper tweeted. “It’s life-saving medication and checks for our veterans and our elderly. Tampering with the mail is a federal crime, and DeJoy — on Trump’s orders — is tampering.”
Politico reported that the House could vote on Maloney’s bill as early as Saturday.
It’s unclear whether the Senate, run by Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell, would take up the bill.
McConnell has rarely stood up to Trump, and has blocked hundreds of bills passed by the Democratic-led House, bragging that he is the “Grim Reaper” of legislation.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
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