Postmaster General Agrees To Testify At 'Urgent' House Hearing

Carla Herreria Russo
Updated ·2 min read

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has agreed to testify before Congress over recent changes to the U.S. Postal Service that have caused major postal delays nationwide and that threaten mail-in voting in the upcoming presidential election.

DeJoy will testify at the hearing before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Aug. 24. DeJoy, whom President Donald Trump appointed postmaster general in May, is a top Republican donor who has reportedly given more than $2 million to the Trump campaign, according to The Washington Post.

Postal Service Board of Governors Chairman Mike Duncan also agreed to testify at the hearing. Politico first reported on DeJoy and Duncan’s decision.

House Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) sent a letter to the postmaster general Sunday, asking him to appear at an “urgent hearing” before the House committee three weeks earlier than Sept. 17, the day he’d originally indicated he was available.

Maloney said in a statement Monday that she was “pleased” that DeJoy was testifying next week “about the sweeping operational and organizational changes he has been making to the Postal Service.”

“The American people want their mail, medicines, and mail-in ballots delivered in a timely way, and they certainly do not want drastic changes and delays in the midst of a global pandemic just months before the election,” Maloney said.

DeJoy is expected to speak about the reported policy changes that have taken hold at the USPS, including the removal of mail collection boxes in at least four states and plans to remove some automatic mail-sorting machines.

Top congressional Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), claimed in their own letter to DeJoy that the changes will have a “profoundly negative impact on mail delivery” ahead of the upcoming presidential election on Nov. 3, which is expected to bring in a surge of mail-in ballots due to the threat the ongoing coronavirus pandemic poses at polling places.

Related...

Top Trump Donor Tapped As New Postmaster General

USPS Removes Mailboxes, Shuts Down Letter-Sorting Machines As Mail-In Voting Looms

Pelosi Calls On House To Return Early To Vote On Postal Service Legislation

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.