Rep. Hoyer good afternoon. As you may know, a recent development has occurred which is a good development, but it will not change what we intend to do. I am pleased to be joined here by senator van hollen, senator warner, Annette Taylor where is a nennette . Representative of what is to be frankfurt to close washington state. Representative sybase. Representative sarbanes. Representative brown is here. And representative wexler is with us. As you know, there has been a great deal of consternation, and that is a gentle word, for the actions that have been proceeding by the Postal Service, whose headquarters is. Ight there what President Trump and louis to ourre trying to do nations Postal Service is reprehensible. Not surprisingly, however, and quite probably criminal. I use that advisedly, but , 18rding to the u. S. Code u. S. Code 1703, whoever being a Postal Service officer or employee unlawfully delays there are a lot of other things i dont want to read it all for time sick because Everyone Wants an opportunity to speak is guilty of a crime subject to a substantial fine and five years in jail. That is how important the congress of the United States and the American People think the delivery of their mail is. In many instances, life critical, for prescription drugs to be delivered to their homes. It is, i think, even more rural areasn where people cannot walk to this, that, or the other. And it is truly lifethreatening not to have the Postal Service working currently. Postal workers being told to cut their routes short. Im told that is going to change for the sorting machines are being dismantled in t processing facilities. We were told seconds ago that is going to be changed. The press conferences around the country have made a difference. And the fact that we are coming back saturday to make sure the u. S. Postal service does its legal duty. And usps leaders are being let go or reassign. We hope that is changing. All of this is happening in the middle of a pandemic. Just weeks before americans start voting in the 2020 election. Millions of people across our country rely on the Postal Service every day to access prescription drugs, paychecks, and other essential items for. Heir lives to politicize and sabotage the Postal Service in order to suppress most is day to suppress votes is dangerous for it is, however, what the president of the United States wants to do. But now it appears their hands have been caught in the cookie jar and taking it out, leaving the cookies in place. We are going to make sure that happens by passing legislation that i would presume in light of this action every republican and every democrat would support. To politicize and sabotage the Postal Service in order to suppress the vote is dangerous to our democracy, it is designed to prevent the people from access. In a very visual way, they took blue boxes away from the American People. No more dramatic example of suppression and prevention for participation. I heard from constituents in my districts i know everybody here has heard from constituents in their district, and they are talking about it. I will go quickly. House democrats will not let this president destroy our postal system, which existed before our constitution and was felt to be a critically Important Service not a Business Service to the American People and to our democracy. That binds usce together and allows us to communicate with one another. And the fact that this postmaster general would have taken actions unilaterally, obviously with the agreement of the president of the United States without giving anybody the right to comment, which is preserved to them under the law, the actions today, where the attorney general as is said they are not going to implement any of those changes until after the. Lection we are going to make sure in law that that is the case, because he should not have done what he has done today, and he must reverse any adverse consequences of the actions that have been taken today. My colleagueuce from maryland, who was at a press conference yesterday in baltimore. Senator Chris Van Hollen of the state of maryland. Sen. Van hollen thank you, steny, and i want to thank steny and my colleagues from the state of maryland were here, congresswoman Eleanor Holmes norton from the district, our friends from virginia, and all of you for joining us for this important occasion where we blow the whistle on what is happening around the country with the new postmaster general under orders from President Trump. And i want to give special workers ande postal the letter carriers and all the men and women who faithfully on time sixmail days a week. The words neither snow nor rain night keepr gloom of the workers from the script completion of their appointed rounds has always been part of the post office grade. We can add it to that recently, hnor a global pandemic. These are essential workers who have been delivering mail on time six days a week even during a pandemic, and they have been doing it for over hundreds of years. And then comes along the new postmaster general, postmaster general dejoy, and suddenly all of us start hearing from our constituents, constituents calling because they cannot get lifesustaining medicines. Im going to read just one. Dear senator van hollen. I misam a resident of the herald and suffers from. Byailed the box home to me Priority Mail on friday, july 31. I was told they would arrive on monday, august 3, which is the day i flew back to maryland. Today is august 7, and my box has yet to arrive. My meds are in that box, and today was the last dosage i had with me. Ups, and theyx to were informed it arrive in gaithersburg on august 5, but it is probably somewhere in the warehouse there. We have a hearing from seniors who cannot get the medicines, from veterans and seniors and retirees who are desperately waiting for the retirement checks, and Small Businesses whose operations are being disrupted. When we called our post offices to find out what happened, everybody said, well, these orders have come from above. And all roads led right here. Right here to this headquarters. Lenfant plaza and postmaster general dejoy. What we learned was that he had put in measures that slowed down the mail. They include the removal of sorting machines from post offices. In fact, congressman sarbanes and i were in baltimore yesterday and learned that the Central Distribution center had four of their machines that had been removed from the post office. That was part of the slowdown. Now, as congressman hoyer said, if any of these postal workers had unlawfully delayed or detained the mail, they are committing a violation of the criminal statute. And they could be prosecuted. But that statute also covers Postal Officers. And that includes this postmaster general. And i can tell you Everybody Knows that it is unlawful to interfere with the post office in order to try to cook and fix and disrupt a United States election. Which is what this postmaster general was doing on the orders of donald trump, who told the country on National Television and via twitter that he is interfering with the post office because he doesnt like mailin ballots. We need to pursue that line, we need to call upon the board of governors to remove this postmaster general. As congressman hoyer said, they got caught redhanded. That is what happened here. They got caught redhanded. We just saw the statement of the postmaster general saying he does not plan to make any additional changes. Ok. That is good. We need to watch that diligently. But they need to reverse the measures that they have already put in place. And that is why youre going to see hearings in the senate and in the house, and that is why i want to salute steny hoyer and congressman hoyer and the other members of the house, Speaker Pelosi, for bringing back the house to pass a bill that says very clearly that you cannot make any changes, not a single change, until january 1 of next year at the very earliest. They got caught redhanded. The post office is enshrined in the constitution. They all swore an oath to uphold the constitution. They are violating that oath, and we need to hold them to it to make sure that we have this election. Ers committee issued a report about russian weerference in 2016, and know that the russians are engaging in interference in 2020. We have to worry about foreign interference. We dont need an inside job to try to fix our elections. This is what was happening here. We caught them redhanded. But now we have to pass legislation to make it absolutely clear that this is unacceptable. And so now i will turn it over to the next of my colleagues, i believe it is senator warner, and thank him for all his efforts. Sen. Warner thank you, chris, thank you, steny. Thank you to all my colleagues. We will hear from a retired postal worker. I will reinforce what has already been said. Steny talked about his constituents. Im sure each member will talk about constituents calling in, they couldnt get the mail delivered, they can get their drugs, their medicines. Two quick stories from in virginia. Whoserom a constituent 91yearold mom had been waiting 10 days for her medicine. She was flipping out about when she was going to get it. Another individual said he had been notified by his creditcard company that he was going to get a big late fee, even though he sent his bill in 10 days early. What do all these have in common . They all have in common that they all took place after june 16, when the new postmaster general, mr. Dejoy, was appointed. This starts at the top. We have called upon the board of governors to remove mr. Dejoy and put someone in who has basic competency. We have elections this year. In virginia, we changed our rules. Voters can start voting as early as september 19. If they are not able to vote because you have a president of the United States that is trying to do everything legal and otherwise to impede mailin or absentee voting, and you have seeing an effort to try to steal the election. Chris mentioned, coming on top of the bipartisan report of the Senate Intelligence committee that laid out today what happened four years ago with outside intervention, we confirmed by the Intelligence Committee last week that russia and others are back. The last thing we need is more sabotage being manipulated by the building behind us. Final comment. Last night, before the Dnc Convention came on, and we came upon an old movie, some of you wont remember it from the 1990s called the postman. Kevin costner was in it. It was eerily reminiscent, there had been a pandemic, society was breaking down, and the bad guys were out and around. And you know what was the group that people suddenly saw as a hope that there might be a brighter day . Kevin costner became a postman, and led to the resurrection of the u. S. Postal service. It was strange how that film of fiction that i happened to catch last night almost seems to be being repeated in 2020. America deserves better. We need to hold this postmaster accountable. Mitch mcconnell, bring the senate back to town so we can pass legislation to the house. With that, let me bring up annette weaver, a retired postal worker. Shouldnt speak to these issues directly. Annette good afternoon. My name is Annette Taylor. Sen. Warner oops. Annette that is all right. First of all, i want to personally thank congressman hoyer. He is my congressman. We consider him steny. We all know who steny is. I was a 32year employee of the Postal Service. Prior to that, i was in the air force for eight years. I got my job with the Postal Service right out of the military. I was very proud to get this job, because i felt it was an essential job that connected the whole United States together. It just was an overwhelming thought that when i put on that uniform, that i was now a representative of the Postal Service. And i was very proud to be a Postal Service employee all those years. I love my job, i raised my children on a good salary and benefits. And i am here today to tell you about how important the Postal Service is to the public from a letter carriers perspective. Letter carriers connect over 160 Million People and businesses in a day in the United States and also businesses throughout the United States. They depend on us to deliver their medications, supplies, especially now in this covid situation, and now as we grow closer to the election, also balloting. It is important that we have our mail process promptly. As letter carriers, we always felt that if we left something behind us, we felt really bad, even if it could wait the next day. We wanted to take every piece of mail behind us every single day. That is no longer the case. For 40 years, the Postal Service has not needed taxpayer funds. And we now need taxpayer assistance. We have experienced staggering losses with volume and revenue, like all other businesses. All of this is damaging postal operations. We need a bill which would allow us to ensure the u. S. Has funding and support to prevent delays and to continue the essential service that we provide. Thank you. A bipartisan poll of voters shows that 92 of voters are behind and support direct funding to the Postal Service. Important is really to keep that in mind when we move forward with any actions with the Postal Service. Thank you very much. Rep. Hoyer Eleanor Holmes norton, the congresswoman who represents washington, d. C. Del. Norton thank you, leader hoyer. I came here today to focus on one thing, and that is the bill that will be discussed monday, called delivering for america act, that would keep the Postal Service from making the changes the new leadership has already embarked upon thank you on level of service until january 1, 2020. Leader hoyer announces that the Postal Service has already agreed. Rep. Hoyer minutes ago. Norton minutes ago, he says, to postpone any changes in post Office Operations and levels of service until january 1, 2020. That is exactly what our bill says. I was not going to talk about any other part of the act except course, itt that, of takes time to get an act passed. Now it looks like what we are seeing all over the country is is producing the desired effect, to keep the post office from leaving an indelible scar that would keep mail ballots perhaps from being counted. Bear in mind that the United States held a successful election in the middle of a civil war. Surely we can do that again. But the experience from the primaries lead us to believe we were headed, and may still be headed, for a pandemonium of results in the new november elections that may leave lasting uncertainty. I am sure all of us wish that we enjoyed the 90 Approval Rating that the congress of the United States enjoyed that Approval Rating that the Postal Service does. And of course, this new postmaster, louis dejoy, will be appearing on the committee in which i serve on monday. Since his appointment, to give you some notion, here in the delivery, for example, in ward 8 of our city reports that people havent received their mail for two weeks. I am in the midst of a wardby ward investigation now. Understand that this is being experienced nationwide. So much so that the speaker of the house has called us back for an emergency session on saturday. During our hearing on monday, i want to give you some notion of what i will be asking the postmaster. Because we had hold of a july 15 memorandum that was leaked directing, actually directing in writing, employees to leave mail behind in Distribution Centers and directing against any overtime. I am going to question him on an august 7 Postal Service memo, a memo from the Postal Service itself, which criticizes the new postmasters sidelining of 23 executives who have all of the Institutional Knowledge of the Postal Service. And instead, centralize everything around the new postmaster, dejoy. I want to know why my district here, the district of columbia, and 46 states have received warnings from the Postal Service that it cannot guarantee that all mail ballots will arrive in town to be counted. Trumps standing in the polls apparently led him to try to sabotage mailin voting as his last hope for retaining power. It is going to fall to those of us who have come here this afternoon, the legislative branch, to take the actions necessary to preserve democracy and democratic elections in our country. Now, who is next . My colleague from maryland. Epresentative sarbanes rep. Sarbanes thank you very much, congresswoman norton. Thank you, congressman hoyerm , for bringing us here today. We know that the post office has a 90 Approval Rating. Annette told us 92 of americans support funding to make sure that the Postal Service is strong. So we know that. But have you ever thought about why that is . The reason for that is because of people like Annette Taylor, it is that special bond between the letter carrier and the customer on the frontline. People who come to rely on the post office. They know they can count on them. They trust them. So when you attack the Postal Service the way louis dejoy has been doing, you are trying to break what has become an institution so revered in this country. You are trying to break a sacred bond between the letter carrier and the customer, between the Postal Service and the public. And that is not right. I will tell you, i hear right now in my mind the voice of elijah cummings, and louis dejoy should be counting his blessings that elijah is not here for this moment. Because i cant even imagine what he would be doing. He cared for the men and women of the u. S. Postal service. He made it a number one commitment of his to try to strengthen the Postal Service. So when you attack the workings of the Postal Service, you are asking these letter carriers to go against their nature. You dont want to leave out on your route unless you have 100 of the mail in your bag. And they are being told to leave with 50 , or 25 . Nature ofainst their commitment and service to their customers. But we are not standing forward. We are not standing for it, and the American Public is not standing for it. The emails and the calls we have been getting in our offices have been saying to us, we have got a problem getting our mail, but you know what theyve been saying more than that . Stand up for the Postal Service, fight back against these changes, honor the people like Annette Taylor, who have been serving us day in and day out for so many years and building that trusted relationship between the public and this treasured institution, the United StatesPostal Service. And now it is my pleasure to turn it over to congressman Anthony Brown from maryland. Rep. Brown thank you, john. You know, since january of 2017, President Trump has sought to underfund and undermine the u. S. Postal service. Primarily for personal and political reasons. And why he would want to do that has been laid bare during this pandemic. An institution, as others have mentioned, annette and the other 100,000 veterans that work at the Postal Service can attest to, it is a revered institution. It is treasured by the American Public. It rivals the u. S. Military, our Public Libraries and schools, our fire departments, to the extent that the public appreciates the men and women, the letter carriers of the u. S. Postal service. When back in march, this country shut down, because of the pandemic, they went out. Through reminded us, rain and snow and heat, the gloom of darkness, and even during a pandemic, the men and women of the u. S. Postal service did their job. And they do their job every day. Because they understand that on any given day, one in every two americans are going to be touched by what they do. Theyre going to help Small Businesses keep their doors open. They are going to help the 300,000 veterans who not out of convenience, but out of necessity, today during this pandemic received their prescription drugs through the u. S. Postal system. We have all talked about emails and contacts to our office. The lions share of the plea offices have received our veterans from the air force, army, navy, and marines. Pleading with us. Maryland,teran from waiting and number of days, didnt get it. Called up the v. A. , they said it was in the mail, they checked with the u. S. Postal service, they dont know where it is. He had to get in his car and drive two hours for his lifesaving prescription. We encourage our seniors and our military, we encourage everyone, to get prescriptions by mail. And what was once convenience is now a necessity. Because we encourage people to stay home. For those that rely on lifesaving drugs to be delivered by the u. S. Postal service, postmaster general dejoy is putting their life at risk. They are out there and continue work00,000 veterans who for the u. S. Postal service who are out there and continue to be out there. They make essential workers they are essential workers. All caps, underlined, italics, bold. They are the essential of essential workers. In november, many of us will go to the polls, early vote or will vote on election day, but more and more americans, not because of convenience, but out of necessity, will vote by mail. President trump and his postmaster general, who brought neither the experience or ompetence commitment or courage to uphold the mission and support the men and women of the u. S. Postal service, is now putting our democracy in jeopardy. So we all have a responsibility, with mr. Hoyer and my colleagues in the house, senator Chris Van Hollen and his colleagues in the senate. We are called to return to the house on saturday to pass legislation that funds the post office and codifies the reversal of actions that this postmaster general took in june. We cannot count on the whims and the capricious conduct of that president and postmaster general to secure our elections. Not only Must Congress come back and pass the meaningful legislation, but today, i stand here and i call for the resignation of postmaster general dejoy, who was putting our democracy and the health of our citizens at higher risk. With that, i invite don beyer, my colleague, to the podium. Rep. Beyer good afternoon. It is hard not to repeat the many wonderful things my colleagues have said about how our district office, our offices downtown are overwhelmed with constituent complaints about the mail. But i think even more importantly about how all human life, all human connectedness is driven by our relations with other people. And in america, where more people live alone than at any time in our history, more people as a percentage live alone than any time in our history, it is mail that connects us. I remember so many times delivering meals on wheels, and the most important part of a meal is human connectedness. Even as a child, until today, one of the most exciting parts of the day is when the mail comes and the dog races through the house to attack. Yes, it is drugs. Yes, it is bills. My wife had me balance the checkbook and discovered that there were five different checks that had never been cashed. It is not that i forgot to mail them, it is that they never got there because the mail. On the way over, we heard on the radio that dejoy was backing off on many of the things he planned to do, from the routes to the overtime and the like. I thought, all you need to do is get the House Majority leader, steny hoyer, to hold a press conference, and everything changes. We are fighting back. Attorney generals, members of congress, local leaders in every possible way, to try to preserve this most american of institutions. Thanksgiving, football, apple pie, none of them are mentioned in the constitution, but the u. S. Postal service, which is our connection to each other. Senator mark warner, our wonderful governor of virginia, knows that whatever rumor would come that they would close the Postal Office somewhere in virginia, all hell would break loose. People realized that is a connection to the rest of the country, the rest of their friends. Lets do everything we possibly can to reverse this, not just to make sure every vote is counted, but make sure the american system, the american democracy, is preserved through our Postal Service. With that, let me give you the distinguished member of congress from virginia, jennifer wexton. Rep. Wexton i was elected to represent the people of virginias 10th congressional district. While i was horrified by these changes being made to sabotage the Postal Service and i heard from constituents about it, i did what i do in these situations, which is i went to my constituents to find out what they thought. So we sent out a brief survey to our list of constituents. Well, our email inbox blew up. In a matter of hours, we heard back from over 3000 constituents who shared their stories. I heard from a woman whose 95yearold father relied on v. A. Medicine to arrive in a timely fashion, and they hadnt been. I heard from Small Business owners who caters to rural clients, who can only be served through the United StatesPostal Service. And i heard from a mother whose daughter has a complex medical disorder that can only be served by supplements that cant be purchased in stores. And yes, i heard from letter carriers who have worked for the Postal Service for decades, who for the first time in their careers were told to leave first class mail behind. So clearly, louis dejoy has messed with the wrong community. It has obviously touched a nerve, and they got caught redhanded, as leader rep. Hoyer says. So i am glad they are backing off making these changes. But you will forgive me for being a little bit skeptical. We are still going to return to washington on saturday. We are still going to pass this legislation. We are still going to send it over to the senate. And if louis dejoy and donald trump are serious about protecting the Postal Service, they will give this blessing to this legislation and donald trump will sign it into law when it passes the senate. So this is what we need to do. We need to protect the Postal Service. I am delighted that you guys are shining a bright spotlight on this. And we are going to do it. So thank you very much. Rep. Hoyer i want to thank all my colleagues for coming and i want to thank all of you for coming. I want to thank ms. Taylor for being here, as well. On behalf of all of us, for all and some of already said that, for all of those who serve our postal system so faithfully, and so energetically, so conscientiously, please let them know how appreciative we are and how appreciative america is. That is what we hear from. We hear from americans who want their Postal Service on the job, keeping them connected. I want to point out to you that the legislation we will consider on saturday will include provisions that the services be restored. It will also include provisions that will say that all election mail, either from election board to voter or voter to election board, shall be considered firstclass mail. That is going to have a cost. We have put in the bill that is going to be considered on saturday a sum that we have put in the cares act and in the heroes act. And it was dropped. At the insistence of the republicans. 25 billion. What everybody ought to know, including all our constituents, that 25 billion was requested unanimously requested by trump appointees on the postal board. It was exactly the figure they asked for that they thought they needed in order to ensure that the United StatesPostal Service has the resources to act, as they are expected to, consistent with the law. I hope they will do that, but we will ensure on saturday, and i would ask senator mcconnell senator mcconnell will pass this. The Postal Service has decided they are going to do it. My request to you is, you dont have to call all senators back, just hotline it. See if there is a single senator who says, no, lets cut the Postal Service, no, lets slow delivery by the Postal Service, no, lets not ensure that somebody who has a disability, a preexisting condition, and will be at danger going to the poll, has not only the right to mail their ballot from home, but to have an expectation that it will be counted, because it will be delivered on time. We will yield for a couple of questions. It is hot, you are hot, i am on, everybody here is hot. Do you suspect there to be any legislative text changes to the bill on saturday . Rep. Hoyer i dont. The reason being what it essentially says is to do what he has now done. By the way, on tuesday, over 18 states, including maryland, and the attorney general for virginia, would be filing suit on tuesday. While i dont want to be too cynical, i dont think the action taken minutes ago was taken because they thought they were going to win that suit. Questions . Senator cowan you brought up the committee were senator, you brought up the committee report. [indiscernible] warner this report is 1000 pages long, twice as long as the mueller report. I would urge every american to read it, to draw their own conclusions. Unprecedented amounts of russian intervention and a myriad of contacts with individuals affiliated and associated with the trump campaign. And what is so disturbing to me , as we see the Intelligence Committee as recently as 10 days russia, out and say china, and iran are back. This white house and as majority leader has not allowed the senate to vote on a single electionsecurity bill. We are better off because people of the Intelligence Community are working harder, the fbi are working harder, some Media Companies are doing better. But the fact that if a russian plans an ad on facebook, there is still no disclosure requirement, something as simple as saying that if a Foreign Government tries to offer you the dirt or misinformation on your political opponent, it ought to be an obligation of that president ial campaign to tell the fbi and not say thank you. We have not passed any of that legislation. Why . Because the majority leader has not let it come to the floor. It would pass overwhelmingly. Rep. Hoyer let me say one additional thing. We understand that the threat from without is serious and must be confronted. Even more serious is the threat from within. [indiscernible] i ask because i see people around the president who heard [indiscernible] is that a concern . Chris at dhs has actually done a pretty good job on election machinery, in terms of improved safety. The question we have now, up oydl today of mr. Fej affirmative attempts to slow down the mais in light of the s attempts to slow down the mail in light of the pandemic, it raises other questions about security. That making any of there is no evidence of that. But what we do need to recognize is the election machinery is better today than it was four years ago. I want to make a suggestion. If you will get the name, address, and telephone number of the individuals involved and get it to the members of congress that might represent them, or Eleanor Holmes who is a senior member, we can track that down. One more question. Thank you all very much. See you around. The u. S. House is currently on a district work period, but Speaker Pelosi has decided to call members back to washington to work on legislation concerning the u. S. Postal service. The chamber gavels in saturday at 10 00 a. M. Eastern with first votes expected about one hour later. Watch that debate and votes live on cspan. Coming up monday, postmaster testifies on dejoy postal operations and the upcoming election. He will appear before the Reform Committee beginning at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan two. It has become a tradition for first ladies to address party conventions. Ahead, we will watch speeches from four of them. Nancy reagan, barbara bush, hillary, and michelle obama. In nancy reagan had beefo