Post Master to testify to Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Friday

Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) is taking time out from acting as Putin’s useful idiot pursuing his “smear of Joe Biden based on his efforts to end corruption in that country during his tenure as Obama’s vice president,” to hold a hearing on the U.S. Postal Service on Friday in an attempt to preempt the House hearing on Monday and to frame it as “no big deal, nothing to see here” ahead of the Sunday morning bobblehead shows.

CNN reports, Postmaster General to testify before Senate on Friday:

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy will testify before the Republican-led Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Friday, the committee announced Tuesday.

It will be the US Postal Service chief’s first opportunity to publicly answer questions amid accusations that the Trump administration is purposefully handicapping the USPS in an effort to hinder mail-in voting during the pandemic.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee announced earlier this week that DeJoy and USPS Board of Governors Chairman Robert Duncan would testify before their committee on Monday.

Lawmakers from both parties and postal union leaders have sounded alarms over procedural changes instituted by DeJoy this summer, including eliminating overtime and slowing some mail delivery.

DeJoy acknowledged to USPS employees this week that the cost cutting measures have had “unintended consequences,” but defended them as necessary.

Democrats have claimed that DeJoy, who has been an ally of President Donald Trump and Republican donor, is intentionally undermining Postal Service operations to sabotage mail-in voting in the November election — a charge DeJoy denies.

Sen. Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland committee, said in a statement Tuesday that he was “pleased to have secured an oversight hearing … in order to address urgent questions on Postal Service delays.”

Peters, who’s up for reelection in Michigan this fall, announced earlier this month he was launching an investigation into the backlog at the USPS, and because Democrats are in the minority, pushed Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, for a hearing with DeJoy.

In a statement to CNN, Johnson said DeJoy should have a chance to explain the Postal Service’s fiscal challenges ahead of appearing before a “hostile House committee determined to conduct a show trial.”

Like I said, this is an attempt to preempt the House hearing on Monday and to frame it as “no big deal, nothing to see here.”

“I look forward to Postmaster General DeJoy testifying at our virtual hearing this Friday. The Postal Service has had significant financial problems for years, and it is important for everyone to fully understand its current fiscal challenges,” Johnson said.

The financial struggles of the USPS are not new, but the coronavirus pandemic has further strained the mail service.

The House is set to return on Saturday to vote on legislation that would provide $25 billion in funding for the financially strapped agency.

The Postal Service’s internal watchdog is also reviewing DeJoy’s recently imposed policy changes, and his compliance with federal ethics rules.

The first of what may be a series of lawsuits around the nation was filed in New York on Monday. The AP reports, Lawsuit against Trump, postal chief seeks proper funding:

Several individuals including candidates for public office sued President Donald Trump and the U.S. Postal Service and its new postmaster general in New York on Monday to ensure adequate funding for postal operations.

The lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court as multiple lawsuits were threatened across the country as a response to comments the president recently made and actions taken by newly appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to change operations at post offices nationwide.

The lawsuit alleges that Trump and DeJoy are trying to ensure the postal service cannot reliably deliver election mail.

The lawsuit seeks a court order to force adequate funding of the postal service prior to November’s election.

Among plaintiffs in the lawsuit was Mondaire Jones, an attorney and the Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives in New York’s 17th Congressional District, representing Rockland and Westchester counties.

Other plaintiffs included New York State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, a Democrat in a district representing the Bronx and Westchester and two Democratic candidates for New York State Assembly: Chris Burdick, who seeks to represent parts of Westchester County and Stephanie Keegan, who seeks parts of Putnam and Westchester counties.

Besides candidates for political office, plaintiffs included individuals who say they must vote by mail because they fear traveling or because they worry about contracting the coronavirus.

Those individuals included a Chicago resident who recently underwent a bone marrow transplant, a digital colorist for film and television who votes in California, an 85-year old Suffolk County, New York, voter at an assisted living facility and Mary Winton Green, a 97-year old retired philanthropist and Cook County, Illinois voter who first voted in 1944.

“If she cannot vote reliably by mail, she cannot vote at all,” the lawsuit said, noting that her doctors have told her she cannot vote in person.

A message seeking comment was left with the Justice Department and the U.S. Postal Service.

Postal workers around the country who have been reporting work slowdowns, mail piling up in distribution centers, and sorting equipment and mail boxes being removed need to contact the Democrats on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee which has jurisdiction over the United States Postal Service to share your information ahead of the hearing on Friday. If you have not been receiving your VA medications on time, or have noticed slower delivery of your mail, you should also contact members of the committee. Democratic members of the committee include ranking member Gary Peters (MI), Thomas Carper (DE), Margaret Hassan (NH), Kamala Harris (CA), Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), and Jackie Rosen (NV).

If Senator Ron Johnson was actually serious about the financial status of the U.S. Postal Service, which he is not, he would schedule a vote on the USPS Fairness Act, that the House approved by a vote of 309 to 106 back in February, to repeal a 2006 law that requires the Postal Service to create a $72 billion fund to pay for the cost of its post-retirement health care costs, more than 50 years into the future. In Blow to Privatizers, House Passes Postal Financial Relief:

This extraordinary mandate, which applies to no other federal agency or private corporation, created a financial “crisis” that has been used to justify harmful service cuts and even calls for postal privatization.

Eighty-seven House Republicans supported the bill, which now moves to the Senate, where Montana Republican Senator Steve Daines has introduced a companion bill — S.2965.

Without the costs of this retiree health care mandate, the Post Office would have reported operating profits every year between 2013 and 2018. A Trump Task Force on the Postal Service confirmed this in a December 2018 report.

Allowing USPS once again to pay the costs of retiree health care costs on a pay-as-you-go basis as the rest of the federal government and two-thirds of private industry currently do, is the biggest step that could be taken to assure long-term financial sustainability. Current reserves of $47.5 billion could be used to pay expected pay-as-you-go retiree health care costs 10-15 years into the future.

As bill champion Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) put it, it’s time “at long last to undo this stupidity.”

Senator Ron Johnson should also schedule a vote on New York Senator Kirsten Gillebrand’s Postal Banking Act which would not only establish essential banking services to low-income and rural communities, but would create approximately $9 billion in revenue for the Postal Service and safeguard democracy by ensuring Americans across the country have access to vote by mail. As Coronavirus Threatens United States Postal Service, Gillibrand Calls For Legislation To Establish Postal Banking, Fund USPS, And Guarantee Access To Ballot Box.

Democrats are doing their best to preserve the American institution of the U.S. Postal Service, but Republicans have for decades been trying to destroy it because of Charles Koch’s 50-year war on the U.S. Postal Service. One Billionaire vs. the Mail.

The Postal Service remains one of the most trusted of our public institutions, viewed positively by 91% of our population.