House Democrats ask FBI to investigate Postmaster General, USPS board over mail delays
Postmaster General DeJoy to testify before Senate; American Postal Workers Union president Mark Dimondstein weighs in.
The new postmaster general has instituted a number of policies "that are truly slowing down mail,” Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, told “America’s Newsroom” on Tuesday.
Dimondstein made the comment in anticipation of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testifying on Friday about the U.S. Postal Service amid the battle over mail-in ballots before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
The hearing will come after congressional Democrats over the weekend demanded DeJoy and the chairman of the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors Robert Duncan testify over recent “sweeping and dangerous operational changes” at the agency that they claim are “slowing” the mail and “jeopardizing the integrity of the 2020 election.
A source familiar with the plans told Fox News that DeJoy has agreed to appear on Monday.
Host Trace Gallagher asked Dimondstein on Tuesday if he believes, as Democrats contend, that DeJoy “is trying to sabotage the election by making cuts that slow down the flow of mail?”
“I can't really judge the motivation,” he said in response. “We just have to look at the deeds and the deeds thus far is the new Postmaster General has instituted a number of policies that are truly slowing down mail. The customers see it. We're hearing from customers all over the country. The postal workers see it. Mail is getting backed up.”
“You just can't arbitrarily do away with all overtime because the work is still there, and it's one of the policies,” Dimondstein continued. “Part of it is the COVID world, there are a lot of postal workers on leave, 40,000 have been quarantined. We're out here on the front lines connecting the people of the country.”
Last month, it was revealed that the U.S. Postal Service would undergo a myriad of changes, including slashing overtime pay for workers and the potential for delayed mail deliveries for customers due to multibillion-dollar revenue losses during the coronavirus pandemic.
Funds for the postal service will likely dry up by the end of September if Congress doesn’t intervene. DeJoy has pushed for employees to have a "different mindset" and be receptive to frugal changes.
DEMOCRATS DEMAND POSTMASTER GENERAL, CHAIRMAN OF USPS TESTIFY ON MAIL-IN BALLOTS
“There’s been change in mail transportation runs that are slowing down the mail, so whether the intent is one thing or the other, the actual deed is what has us concerned,” Dimondstein said on Tuesday. “We hope he comes before this hearing and fixes some of these problems.”
Shortly after Dimondstein’s appearance on “America’s Newsroom” on Tuesday, DeJoy announced that planned U.S. Postal Service reforms, which have sparked fears of delayed mail deliveries, will be postponed until after the election.
The reform on overtime has been overturned for the time being with DeJoy saying in a statement Tuesday that “we reassert that overtime has, and will continue to be, approved as needed."
DeJoy also said that retail hours at post offices will not change, mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes will remain where they are, and no mail processing facilities will be closed until after the election.
On Tuesday, Gallagher also brought up “one of the problems stated again and again” as it pertains to mail-in voting and that is that “the post office says you need to mail your ballot back in a week ahead of time, but half the states will allow them to mail the ballot out after the deadline.”
Gallagher then pointed out that the post office can’t process all the ballots “that fast” and asked Dimondstein if that is “a fair assessment?”
“Yes, that I would agree with,” Dimondstein said, adding that “the post office doesn't run elections, the states do.”
“Postal workers have been doing mail-in voting for generations of military personnel going back to the Civil War,” he continued. “It works, it’s secure, it’s not fraudulent, but the states who are running the elections and the local jurisdictions do have to take into account that mail has to move one way or the other.”
He went on to explain that “our recommendation is obviously people are going to have to vote absentee and [using] mail-in ballots if they are going to be able to vote safely.”
“Tens of millions of people are going to have to vote that way to have access to the ballot box,” Dimondstein said. “We should all unite and believe in that. We want people to vote, we want large turnout no matter who people are voting for and what issues they are voting on so our advice is vote early, vote quickly.”
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He then offered another alternative for voters, explaining that if "it's too tight, most of the states allow the mail ballots to come to the home, you can fill it out and they have dropoff points.”
Fox News' Chad Pergram, Brooke Singman, Vandana Rambaran and Kelly Phares contributed to this report.
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