House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) informed her Democratic colleagues on Sunday night that the House would be called back to session this week to curtail the Trump-appointed Postmaster General’s structural changes at the United States Postal Service (USPS) that threaten to cause delays that could invalidate Americans’ mail-in votes.
In a letter to House Democrats, Pelosi slammed the “devastating effects” of President Donald Trump’s “campaign to sabotage the election by manipulating the Postal Service to disenfranchise voters,” of which Postmaster General Louis DeJoy “has proven a complicit crony.”
The Democratic leader also noted that the changes could also prevent people from receiving crucial medicine and payments in the mail on time.
“Lives, livelihoods and the life of our American Democracy are under threat from the President,” the Democratic leader wrote. “That is why I am calling upon the House to return to session later this week to vote on Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman 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.”
The restructuring at the USPS directed by DeJoy, a Trump and GOP donor, include the removal of several mail-sorting machines and reduction of overtime for postal workers. Democrats have criticized DeJoy’s changes, accusing him of deliberately delaying the agency’s operations to sabotage states’ mail-in voting systems, which Trump has baselessly claimed causes election fraud.
The USPS has warned multiple states that their mail-in ballots may arrive too late to be counted in the November elections.
The party that knows how to govern is getting back to work unlike the heartless, cruel and corrupt party who only knows how to grab power and enrich themselves and their cronies!
Kudos to the Speaker Pelosi and other who have rallied to get Congress to deal with the crime against USPS!
In a Wapo Op-Ed, Timothy Snyder opined that we should learn from what is happening in Belarus and that there are what he calls as “the six Ps” of defending an electoral victory against authoritarian chaos: preparation, predominance, protest, peace, persistence and pluralism.
Postal Service Approval 91%
Trump approval Rating 40%
Do the Math
Get it front and center
Loud ever day , all day
The people are behind you
If he refuses to show
Arrest him
I’ve got no expertise and no familiarity so I can’t read the strategic aspects of the DeJoy coup; hence, take this w/ several salt-boulders, but:
Is it just possible that Trump/DeJoy/(Kushner? prolly) pulled the trigger on this sabotage too early? That would be on-brand for these half-wit proto-fascists. Is there time for House/Dems to arrest the damage?
As I say, this is not a rhetorical question–I don’t know but would welcome commentary.
I’m heartened by her sense of urgency, but I don’t know enough about how USPS is run to know what they can do. They can pass a bill, but the Senate doesn’t have to pass it and Trump doesn’t have to sign it. Are they hoping just to generate awareness and have public pressure force the signatures? I’m not sure the Repubs can be motivated by public pressure anymore, since they see their chance at permanently keeping their positions of power without needing public approval.
Pelosi is planning to pass a stand alone bill on the postal service, restricting De Joy from implementing the operational changes (and reversing some?). I suspect the funding that was in the Heroes Act will be added/moved to this bill. The point of it will be to get the GOP on record as either pro or anti-postal service. Most will, predictably, vote with Trump giving Dems a potent issue in red counties. You could see an issue like this flipping 10 seats in the House and giving some Senate candidates in red states an edge.