Politics is a business, whether people want to believe it. Our we leave this segment to go live to a Senate Hearing with postaster louis dejoy on Office Operations going into november. Mr. Dejoy, your decisions have cost americans their health, their time, their livelihoods, and their peace of mind. I believe you owe them an apology or the harm you have caused, and all of us some very clear answers today. Isuntry is anxious is anxious about whether the damage you have inflicted can be reversed and what other plans you have in store which could further disrupt liability and Timely Delivery of the Postal Service. If you plan to continue pursuing these changes, i think my colleagues and many of our constituents will continue to question whether you are the right person to lead this indispensable institution. Thank you. The tradition of this committee to swear in witnesses. Raise yourmr. Dejoy, right hand. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god . Postmaster dejoy i do. As postmastered general, and you spend more than 35 years developing and managing a successful nationwide Logistics Company as chairman and ceo of new breeze logistics. Beginning in 2014, mr. Dejoy served as the ceo of Xpo Logistics and after his retirement in 2015 he joined the companys board of directors where he served until 2018. Mr. Dejoy. Postmaster dejoy good morning chairman, Ranking Member pierce and members of the committee. Thank chairman johnson for calling this hearing. Proud to be with you on behalf of the women and men of the United States Postal Service the on june 15 i became 75th postmaster general. I did so because i believe the Postal Service placed plays a positive role in the lives of the American Public and lives of the nation. I also welcome the opportunity to lead this organization because i believe theres an opportunity for the Postal Service to better serve the American Public and also to operate in a financially sustainable manner. Established the Postal Service to fulfill a Public Service mission to provide prompt, reliable, and universal Postal Services in an efficient and financially sustainable fashion. Our ability to fulfill that mandate is that fundamental risk. Changes must be made to ensure our sustainability for the years and decades ahead. Model, established by congress, requires us to pay our bills through our own efforts. I view it as my personal obligation to put the organization in the position to fulfill that mandate. With action from congress, and our regulator, a significant effort by the Postal Service can achieve this goal. This year the Postal Service will likely report a loss of more than 9 billion. Without change our losses will increase in the years to come. It is vital that Congress Enact legislation that addresses the unaffordable retirement payments , most importantly Congress Must allow the Postal Service to integrate a retiring Health Benefits program with medicare, which is a common sense practice followed by all businesses that still offer Retiree Health care. It also must rationalize our Pension Funding payments. Legislative actions have been discussed and debated for years but no action has been taken. Irg congress to enact i urge congress to enact these reforms and the legislation that would require Financial Relief to account for the impacts of the covid19 pandemic on our financial condition. The Regulatory Commission began about the review Pricing System for years ago. It has been three years since the commission concluded our Current System is not working. We urgently require the prc to mores job in establishing rational regulatory systems around male products. When the congress and p. R. C. Fulfills its obligation to the American Public im sure that much of our 80 billion in punitive losses could be avoided. And our operation will not be in such jeopardy. The Postal Service must also do its part, we must adapt to the reality of our marketplace, generate more revenue and control our costs. That we can chart a path that accomplishes these goals. As postmaster general, i have had the chance to implement the many hidden strengths and have our Critical Mission to the American Public. Despite these longstanding financial problems there is a strong base to build on, and a tremendous desire of the public to succeed. As we head to the election season, i want to ensure this committee and the american that election mail can be delivered on time. The sacred duty is our number one priority. Mr. Chairman, women and men of the Postal Service have demonstrated extraordinary commitment through the covid19 pandemic. We continue to work to keep our employees and customers safe as we fulfill our essential role of delivering medications, benefit checks, and what the public depends on. Since the beginning of the pandemic there has been a public out ordering of support postal employees as they perform their essential service. This is a welldeserved testament to their dedication. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member , i look forward to working with you to restore the Postal Service. I welcome any questions that you and the committee mask. Chairman johnson thank you for that Opening Statement. I want to go through and give you a chance to respond to the false narratives lets talk about the election notices sent out by the Postal Services general counsel one notice that you assumed your duties. Can you talk about what that notice was about, and how important it was that the Postal Service does inform Election Officials so that they can factor this into the deadlines . Postmaster dejoy thank you for the opportunity to about this. First, i would like to emphasize that there has been no changes in any policies with regard to election mail for the 2020 election. , this lettertated ,as sent out before my arrival simply to help educate state election boards, and eventually the American People to make this a broader statement, to the American People are aware of how to successfully vote. Similar letter was sent out in the two thousand 16 election by the former deputy postmaster general. We recognize that during this pandemic, there was great concern about the increase in emphasized the interaction. We had over 50,000 contacts before my arrival with state election boards to help them understand the Mail Processing procedures of the Postal Service. Have my arrival, we established and expanded a task force. We have put up a website, we are putting up a website, and we are working to ensure the American Public has a successful election. Chairman johnson in my Opening Statement i remarked that 150 million pieces of ballots, about coming your volume written testimony, you said in isms of what six what expected, about 2 . Can you assure the American Public in this committee that the postal system has more than enough capacity to handle the number of ballots . Its really a matter of Election Officials understanding what delivery capabilities are . Delivered dejoy we 433 million pieces of mail a day. 150 million ballots, 160 million ballots over the course of the week is a very small amounts. We have adequate capacity and mail volume is down 14 this year. As identified earlier in the week, we will have Additional Resources on standby. If everybody complies with the mail process that we have been identifying, there will be absolutely no issue. Ande is slack in the system additional processes in and around the election that will carry any deviations. The Postal Service stands ready and the board of directors the expansionith of the task force that i have identified earlier in the week. Yesterday, we made the decision to establish a broad bipartisan to interact with us as we move forward. We are comfortable that we will achieve this mission. Chairman johnson something that i think has been blown out of proportion as the retirement of the blue boxes. Can you speak to how that is a normal procedure . First class mail has been down over the decades, the volume almost cut in half. Anytime you have a business where your volume is declining start toatically, you take out different capacities. Can you address the issue of the normal retirements and what the history of that has been not only of the blue boxes but the sorting machines . Postmaster dejoy thank you for the opportunity to speak about that. Today theres about 140,000 in the unitedes states. , it the last 10 years averaged about 3500 35,000 of them have been removed. Its a datadriven method, i have not reviewed it. Every year they look at utilization, where they place post offices and where communities grow. My000 over 10 years, since arrival we have removed 700 collection boxes, of which i had no idea that that was the process. It, i found out about looked at my Leadership Team and at the excitement it was creating so i decided to stop it and we will pick it up after the election. This is a normal process that years. N around 50 we haveast 10 years pulled back about 35,000. On the machines, mail volume is dropping. This is a process that i was unaware of, its been around for a couple of years and we the machine capacity. They run about 35 utilization, the mail volume is dropping very rapidly, especially during the covid crisis. And package volume is growing. When i spoke with the team and this got a lot of interplay, we are really moving these machines. Ut we have hundreds of these its noteverywhere and any kind of drain on capacity. I was made aware and everyone else was made aware, it was not theitical issue within coast within the Postal Service this has gone on in every Election Year and every year. Chairman johnson so this is not a devious plot. Go final question, it will over time, can you describe the operational changes to try to start curbing in these excess costs . 4 billion in overtime penalties , making sure that the system adheres to time deadlines and what that has on aerial on mail delivery. Postmaster dejoy thank you senator. , i spent thed first two weeks even before i joined here really studying the organization. An understanding i how decisions are made, spent hundreds of hours before i arrived, and when i got here, working with the management. One of the first things, the irst big change was how do get the organization, the Management Team, the structure analysis. Ith my i felt we had 600,000 people according to one person and other executives doing important but not integral work. So i worked with the Management Team collectively and to look at our and together we reorganized the organization and, revenue,ess, and cost. That was one change i worked on when i got here. And the day i was sworn and i oig, that from the discussed late deliveries, late dispatch, extra trips, and all of the time and costs associated with this approximating at 4 billion. When we had 13 billion in cash and 12. 5 billion dollars of payments to make in the next and no help in sight. E had no help in sight i needed to look at a positive thatt on cost saving improve the business. The transportation schedule, we run about 40,000 trips a day. Of those trips were late. We were running about 5000 extra trips. Everybody runs their trucks on time. That is what glues the network together. From a election process to delivery, that was not my schedule, that was the Postal Service schedule connected to all of the delivery points that we deliver to each day. Hat had to be on time glue that keeps everything together, and i. Orked with the team we had all of the Vice President s involved with this change, and i submitted in my this chart which shows how we went from 88 on time to 97 ontime delivery. All of that mail that was sitting on docs got advanced. Fromhe late trips dropped 3500 a day to 600 a day. Within one week we made that change. , some mailly processing was not fully aligned with the established schedule. We did have some delays in the mail. And our Recovery Process should have been a few days and it turned into a few weeks. But the change i made was running through our transportation schedule. I believe we will get a billion dollars of savings that it and this is key connectivity to improving the service area once we get the mail on this truck, 90 of the mail that we move around the country will get to its destination point on time. That was not the case, it was actually less that. Changes that i have made. Chairman johnson i think you should be commended for this type of initiative, not condemned. Senator peters. Peters thank you for being here today. I want to start off asking what and making clear, the men and women who work at the Postal Service to check in every day to do their jobs, do it with professionalism, and a passion to move the mail as quickly and efficiently as possible. I think the postal workers, the mail handlers, the letter carriers, they are doing a great job, and are essential workers each day. As we have gone through this issue, and ive spoken to many of those folks across my state, they have grown increasingly frustrated with policies which they say this is nothing they have seen in the past and they see mail piling up in ways that it should not. And it needs to be addressed. Changes, itscy not the men and women on the front line doing this work every day. General, you have heard my opening comments, talking about the fact that i have received over 7500 complaints from folks across michigan but really across the country, folks who have sent in their concerns to me. I sharedning statement some stories of hardships from folks, including beth and mary and their challenges in michigan. I think i heard this in the last answer. You acknowledge that some of the changes put in place have delayed the mail, and with the delay in mail, people can be hurt. Is that true . First of all,oy i do recognize that the quality is one of the reasons im here, to help. There do recognize that have been two changes, the organizational change i dont leave has any in fact on what we have done. Change ortation sen. Peter i will get into those issues because i want to elaborate further but you will recognize there have been delays and its clear what we are seeing. Mail has been delayed read i have spent a month asking you to provide some documentation as my oversight function here, how you made these decisions and what was put inlysis place. Your staff has repeatedly not answered those questions. Certainly that transparency is unacceptable. What i have uncovered from what little data is made public is on time mail delivery. I have my charges here from the eastern division, this is what you give to your business customers when you look at this line its probably hard to see but there is a redline dipping dramatically, theres a flat line along the top of this start seeing a drop on july 18. Its a big drop in online mail delivery that we are seeing. Fourth Service Change records, and what im hearing and what im seeing in the chart on your website is a significant drop of nail deliveries, mail deliveries but i dont get an answer. Will you commit to giving me these documents which are readily available to the Postal Service, can we get get get those documents . Postmaster dejoy i will meet with our staff and get documents in regard to this change. Change was to adhere to the transportation schedule. Sen. Peter you have that documented and i would love to see the documents as to how that was done. At, ter dejoy if i10 production was not meeting the schedule. And our employees are experiencing the pandemic also and we have significant issues with employee availability in many parts of the country. Me turn to your recent announcement, you are suspending some of the changes that you had made over the last month, the statement is fairly additionalaises some questions. Just yes or no so that we know what was intended, are you suspending your policy on eliminating extra trips . Postmaster dejoy no, the policy was to mitigate extra trips. Sen. Peter we are told that you are limiting overtime and this could add to backlogs, are you limiting overtime or zapping suspended now and people work overtime if necessary to move mail question mark to move mail . Postmaster dejoy we have never eliminated overtime. Sen. Peter i understand it has been significantly curtailed. Postmaster dejoy not by me or the Leadership Team. Sen. Peter its gone down. Its limited. Postmaster dejoy we spent 700 Million Dollars on overtime. Rate now like3 it did when i got here. Sen. Peter if you can submit that i would appreciate it. There will be no post Office Closures or suspensions before november 3 . Postmaster dejoy post Office Closures was not affected by in, there was another process went before i came in after the reaction i did suspend that until after the election. Sen. Peter will you be bringing back any mail sorting machines that have been removed since you have become postmaster general . Postmaster dejoy theres no intentions do that, they are not needed area not needed area not needed. Sen. Peter i have questions about independence and transparency area did you discuss changes or their potential impacts the president or anyone at the white house . A reminder that you are under oath. Postmaster dejoy i have never spoken to the president about the Postal Service except for congratulations when i did the position. Sen. Peter did you discuss this with secretary mnuchin . Postmaster dejoy during the negotiation and russian and discussions i told him that i was working on land, but i never to improve changes service. No great detail. That was it. Sen. Peter prior to implementing the changes, did discuss ask did you them with any Trump Campaign officials . Postmaster dejoy no, these changes and our total analysis i am forward, remember, one person in the organization with a structure and a with othersound me involved in the decisions. Forward, that this would have a negative impact on the election is an outrageous claim. Sen. Peter and did you ever discuss this with mark meadows postmaster dejoy i have not up until mark meadows maybe last week. So you give us your word today under oath that you have not taken any action whatsoever in your past that he has his master general for any political reason or at this yes of any administration officials. Postmaster dejoy my first myxion mail meeting i first election mail meeting i to haveed my team effort doubled down. I was greatly concerned about the political noise we were hearing, and i have had weekly since before the excitement came out. , very very committed committed to having a successful election. And the insinuation is outrageous. Sen. Peter and as we get into the election there has been localn from state and governments about firstclass mail. Do i have the word that you will mandate that states not send out ballots using the more expensive firstclass mail and will you consider the procedures that allow alexion mail to move as egg allow election mail to move as expeditiously as possible. Postmaster dejoy we will deploy processes and procedures to advance any election mail, in some cases ahead of firstclass mail. And the process continues as it has been done in the past . Postmaster dejoy we are not going to change that. Sen. Peter thank you mr. Chairman for the extra time. I appreciate it. Both of ushnson went a little over. We will give seven minutes to. Ther members senator portman . Portman thank you, it is timely. Y lets give a shout out to david janet, our letter carrier, and all postal workers, during this pandemic they are more appreciated than ever. Men and women you employ, mr. Dejoy, pass along our site our thanks area there has been a lot of misinformation and i like getting to the facts. One of the facts that i have learned this morning is that you started the seven days ago. Started 67 days ago. Much of what you have talked about including blue boxes and sorting machines happened before you got there and it was part of a plan. The former postmaster general and up through the ranks its helpful to know that that is what is going on. By aou were appointed Bipartisan Group and we confirm those people it was a unanimous election. I guess it is based on your being a logistics expert. I can tell that you have a passion for the logistics side. Longtermw that the financial picture for the Postal Service is not pretty. Thats been true for a long time. Thats not really something that a postmaster general can do much about. It hires legislation. Feinstein has a bill that requires some additional funding and Everybody Knows its in trouble. We have to deal with this issue. I will ask you some tough questions, but a lot of this comes back onto congress not doing its job in terms of the longerterm financial picture. The immediate need is to make sure that the elections work well and thats your top priority between now and the election, i appreciate that. Everyone of us wants to make sure that we have the ability to have an election that is wellrun where people have their votes counted. Many will be using the Postal Service. Do you support absentee voting and voting by mail generally . Postmaster dejoy [indiscernible] for numberd by mail of years. Service delivers and processes every ballot in time. Sen. Portman so you do support voting by mail. Postmaster dejoy i think the American Public should be able to vote by mail and the postal support it. So i guess thats yes. Sen. Portman its the states that will decide this, not the congress or the post office. Many states will do it. We have had absentee voting in to give you do not have a reason. It works well. I vote every year by absentee because i dont know where im going to be, in washington or ohio, based on our schedule. It has worked well. And in ohio we have a lot of ways for people to vote and its hard to cheat in ohio. Its an important thing. Theres a lot of News Coverage about the Postal Service sending letters to 46 states, including ohio ndc to let them know that they cannot guarantee that all ballots will arrive on time. Is this due to a lack of funding or state laws on voting and the time it takes to turn around receiving and delivering ballots . Not aster dejoy this is change from anything we have done in previous years. It was more detailed with more emphasis put on it, partly because of the expected rise in vote by mail, but also the pandemic. Ist the team set out to do make the election boards, and the American Public aware of what our processes were, and if you follow these process, theres no extra effort on our part to get the ballot in, which mitigates the risk of a potentially not getting there. Sen. Portman thats important to note, this has been a problem for years. Think the post office has to coordinate better with state election systems. I think state election systems have to coordinate better with the post office. In ohio, theres a difference between when you can cast your ballot and when it is postmarked , and to get that to the post isice and back to you, this very hard to do, logistically. You have to make sure that there adequate time adequate time. Yes, the balance was sent out the the ballot was sent out the day before the election and its almost impossible for the voter to vote and the ballot the ballots to get to the vote in time for the election. This is a wellthoughtout effort to safeguard the election. Sen. Portman this is an opportunity to speak to the voters of the country, would you advise them to wait until the last minute . Postmaster dejoy the general word is vote early. Sen. Portman thats important. The timeframe is really close. If you request an absentee ballot you have to make sure that it will be delivered in time. I am concerned about the delays we have seen, we have had a number of veterans contacting us who said they were unable to get medication and there was heartbreaking story. The inhaler refill for a vietnam vet was refilled through the mail. And he ran out before it arrived. And they said they would not pay for another one because it had already been shipped. Let me ask you about that. The medications shipped through the mail, are you focused on that issue . What can we do to correct that . We are workingy to get theshly and to handle the we all feel bad about the level of service. We serve 161 million people, we 99. 5 of the time. Efforts tonificant continue to improve on that process. And everybody is working feverishly to get that right. Sen. Portman i hope you will make sure that the medication is delivered in time and you said that there are efforts made because this is a lifeline for people. Service,ou for your and the answers you have given today. Chairman johnson i want to remind our Committee Members to please keep your questioning and factor in the answer to seven minutes. Carper . Is the senator there . Move on to senator langford. I think senator carper is there, i think they are queuing it now. I am on mute. Thank you for scheduling this hearing. I urge you to do this three weeks ago, and thank you for finally returning my call. I called for three weeks to try. O get the call you might be wondering mr. Dejoy about the skepticism. We get constituent services , we haveevery week seen an increase in concerns about the Postal Service and its not just my office, its offices all over the country. I was excited when you took office, even this morning i had fromsage from joe mansion West Virginia at the charleston , they serve center five states. This is localities all over the country. Eres why im we have a president who does not want to vote by mail, we have a president who would like to see the Postal Service not do well. To makebeen working sure that we have a meaningful there has been Voter Suppression in this country almost from the get go. Even Benjamin Franklin said we. Re not going to do that women did not get to vote, blacks did not get to vote. We had Voter Suppression. How can people vote for candidates . Seen poll taxes and literacy tests, all of this. When i see with going on with a president who wants to get rid of vote by mail, we should not be surprised when we see this sort of service to grade across the country. Across the country. It was not that long ago that we had mail delivery within three days coasttocoast. People seem skeptical and they have the right to be skeptical. After the public uproar we have delays as well as additional operation changes we are going to need more information, especially given the reports that have come out last night, showing that you and your team are considering changes that were slowed down mailing further. Service reductions to alaska, hawaii, order ricoh, nearly u. S. Citizens doubling the cost of voting by dramatic portion dramatic impacts on communities that rely on the Postal Service. We need to be worried about this, and i am. Simple yesd give me or no answers. There will be an opportunity to respond but i am looking for yes or no answers. Are you considering dramatic Service Changes that i have just outlined and that we have learned about in the last 48 hours . Just yes or no . There is adejoy dramatic dramaticnsidering changes to improve service to the American People. Sen carper [indiscernible] as i said, ijoy did not direct that. I stopped it. Its not material to anything that we do and i will be sticking with where we are at now. There was an admittance that they did not want the Postal Service to have resources and when asked the president said if we dont make a deal, that is with congress, that means they dont get the money, that is the Postal Service. That means they dont get universal mailin voting. It just cant happen. No wonder we are so skeptical. My understanding is that you have never had more than a passing acquaintance with this president but you are a huge , and you supporter were involved in raising money in charlotte, north carolina. No wonder we are skeptical about this when we have the president talking down the Postal Service and vote by mail. Another yes or no, and you can expand [indiscernible] do you have support for [indiscernible] will you remain independent of this administration . Postmaster dejoy yes i will remain independent. Sen carper thank you. During our call earlier this week you said that you you support additional assistance for the Postal Service, so do we. A 10 15 billion and billion line of credit along with some very strict conditions there have been declines in first class mail. It is 15 below last year. But that package volume is higher. My guess is those will come down after the pandemic. This is to say the postal cashces 15 billion in quickly disappeared. Must try of governors to cover the loss from covid19. Do you support the federal appropriation to the Postal Service to cover the covid related losses . Yes or no . Yes. Aster dejoy the covid19 related losses i do support. Sen. Carper thank you. General, myer family has had military involvement throughout our lives. Youngest brother died in an attack in the western pacific in 1944. He gave his life. My father is a veteran. I am a veteran. We have generation after generation of americans who have been willing to risk their lives, so we will have the right to vote. We have people who are sick and afraid of going onto voting this year because they are afraid to stand in lines and get a virus at that would take their lives. I urge you to work with us. Build up as as we Postal Service we can all be proud of. Thank you. Thank you, chairman. Thank you for your service, postmaster dejoy. Apparently, from what i heard, there was never mail that was late, never financial problems, never challenge to mailin votings, until when you arrived, then apparently all chaos has broken out in the post office in the last two months. Before that, there was no complaint about the post office, ever. I want to thank you for your service and thank the men and women that do a remarkable job every day across the country, those in the unions, those getting things out, getting medicine out, taking care of the firstclass mail and everything. I appreciate your service. I appreciate you are stepping up to lead an organization that needs help, that congress has for decades hounded on postmasters on why they are not doing reforms and why we have not found more efficiencies. You stepped into this role and it looks like you took the work from the Inspector General, the work from the Regulatory Commission, and you have said, lets implement these things. Now congress is shifting from beating up on postmasters for not doing work, to now beating up on you for doing the work. So i want to say thank you for taking the risk to actually take this on. I want to run through several questions, some of them have not been addressed yet. There were stories that came out and were trending on social media that you were walking up the post boxes in burbank to prevent people from voting. Were you locking up boxes in burbank to keep people from voting . Postmaster dejoy senator, the stories i have heard of my ability, and the places i am able to get to in the same day, theyre remarkable. No, i would have nothing to do with collection boxes. Senator langford you mentioned earlier there have been 75 thousand boxes that have been retired over the past 10 years. Apparently, any blue boxes that have been retired are your responsibility over the last 65 days, from the last 10 years. You mentioned at some of the willboxes being retired, they be retired by the election or summer in the future or sometime in the future . Postmaster dejoy my commitment to the American People is we have stopped. , weut out the statement directed everybody to stop, stop reducing the postal hours, stop shutting down the machines, bringing back the collection boxes. That is basically what we did. Sen. Lankford until the election. Will that pick back up after the election . You talked about the sorting machines. Some of them are older. Some of the machines are not needed anymore. Will that stop forever . I am trying to figure out, will he try to build up efficiencies in the post office. This has been an issue for a long time. Postmaster dejoy right now, haveegislation is that we are delivering to millions of addresses during the week. I am committed to that. Thats the strength of the Postal Service. And that we be self sustained. Those are the two things i am working towards. We are not self sustained. We have a 10 billion shortfall. And over the next 10 years, we will have a 245 billion shortfall. Thewe need to Management Team and of the board there is a path we are planning, ok, with the help of legislation, with some cost impacts, with new revenue andies that will help pricing freedom from the prc, we believe we can do that. One thing not in the plan is not doing anything until the election. This is an ambitious plan because we have town billion dollars to bridge. 10 billion to bridge. We have initiatives that we are looking at, like the alaska bypass plan, that is on the table. And there is an Unfunded Mandate that costs millions of dollars a year. What i asked for is only the mandates. That is a way for us to get healthy. Pay something for the Unfunded Mandates. If we have 25 billion this year and we do not do anything, we will be back in two years. Maybe we should change the legislation and not make us be selfsustaining. But this is our mission, to be selfsustaining and deliver at a high level of precision. I and committed to both. I they both can be done with a little help coming from the congress and from the postal regulatory. Sen. Lankford congress has been unwilling to act on this for a long time. It has been over a decade that congress has discussed reforms in the post office, but it always boils down to, will it change the distribution areas that may or may not be needed in a state i live in, or the structure i am familiar with. If it changes my area, i want to block it. So it has been a challenge. I ive heard from folks saying the post office is so severely cut now, they cannot meet the capacity to get the balance out, folks in urban areas, rural areas. And the senior letter, the same thing in 2016, they sent a letter out saying, you need to send things out early. Thank you for doing that. You should not be criticized for doing that. You should be encouraged. But my question is, folks who thislenge this essay the say they will not be enough elections, but do you have capacity now for christmas and mothers day, the two biggest days for mail . Yes, we havejoy capacity for those days. Sen. Lankford i looked last year at the week of december 16, the post office delivered 2. 5 billion pieces of firstclass mail during that just one week of december 16, that is a remarkable feat. Have a billion pieces delivered in one single week. So you know right now that you have enough capacity to handle the elections without slowing you down . Postmaster dejoy yes. It is more than that. Besides at the extra activities that the organization is going through, the postal union leaders, the board, the executive Management Team here, on besides just having the capacity to execute, to react to whatever, whatever conditions exist at that particular point in time. Up to and including the pandemic, which we will likely from. See some impacts the American People can feel comfortable that they Postal Service will deliver on this election. Sen. Lankford thank you. Senator hansen. Thank you Ranking Member peters for having this hearing, and thank you mr. Dejoy for appearing before the committee today. My time is short. Because i am told you will not stay for a second round of questions, i would appreciate brief responses. I sent you a letter last week detailing stories from the granite staters about delays in their mail. And i have heard since the oftal service for so many our Service Members, veterans, people who experience disabilities and rural americans, their local post office is their lifeline. And with the change in volume you are seeing, it does not change the need for Timely Delivery of the essential, necessary items the American Public relies on the post office for. For example, when manchester there has been a noticeable slowdown in mail delivery. Mail delays have affected my medication. I started cutting back of my dosage or skipping days to make my medication last. Some of my pills are critical in m. L. L yo will you ensure that whatever changes you make will not delay necessities or medications . Postmaster dejoy , yes and i look forward to working with you on legislation to help this type of service not reach into the future. You. Hansen thank i am glad for some of the statements and actions you have taken. We know how important voting by mail is, and this year even more so. Some states are starting to mail out ballots on september 4, only two weeks from today. You and of Postal Service general counsel have put letters you talked about about your plans to deal with the election mail. You wrote last week that the Postal Service, will utilize Additional Resources and maximize our efforts during the 10 days prior to the election to make sure that all election mail goes through our system. Through these letters that you sent to congress so far, continue full plan for ensuring the processing and delivering of all election mail, or do you have a more detailed Operational Plan with Additional Resources that you alluded to . Postmaster dejoy the letter that was sent to the states from the general counsel speaks about , you know, the mail classifications. Hansen do you have a detailed plan on how you will ensure the kind of delivery that americans count on for voting by mail . Do you have a more detailed plan . Postmaster dejoy there are detailed processes that we are going through. We just expanded plans, we Just Announced at the expanded, um, the expanded committee the Election Committee within the operation. But there are detailed plans that we go through in every election. Hansen can you share them by sunday night with congress, so we can see where they are . Postmaster dejoy i do not think i will have the complete plan by sunday night, we just put the committees together. But i can try to today is friday. I will get back to you. Sen. Hansen i would appreciate them by sunday night, if possible. By the end of next week, ballots will start to go out. Last year, the Inspector General interviewed managers at postal facilities about handling elections. He found facilities typically process political mail as firstclass mail, delivering more than 95 of election mail in 13 days. Will you commit to the goal of delivering 95 of election mail within 13 days, the same as the Postal Service did in 2018 . Postmaster dejoy yes. Sen. Hansen i want to move on to the issues of the decommissioning of sorting machines. At the manchester adjuster bishop facility in my state, four machines have been taken out of service. Three of them are sitting there. I am told one has been dismantled and sold to a company in pennsylvania for scrap metal. The facility only has one other machine that can do the work of the machine that has been sold for scrap. Fails, like it did yesterday when i spoke with the postal workers, sorting stops and in the mail is delayed until the machine can be fixed. Although you have suspended the removal of the sorting machines, the removed machines in manchester have yet to be replaced or brought back into service. You said it is not necessary to do that and there are no plans to do that. I understand the director of Maintenance Operations sent an directing local maintenance managers not to reconnect the machines. Is that true . Postmaster dejoy i have no idea about that. Those Maintenance Operations are still they are within the districts, the sole process was new to me leslie. Last wekk. I can week. I can find out about that. What, when we have only one machine in our Largest Distribution Center in the state, and it breaks and everything has to stop until it is fixed again, that is not efficient, it delays deliveries. What i want to get from you is a plan to make sure that you will sure thatmaking postal workers can deliver every piece of mail that comes into the Distribution Center on the same day it gets there, which has been the practice in the past. By refusing to restart or replace the machines, you are sabotaging the Postal Services ability to sort mail efficiently and you are underlying the commitment to the everyday delivery. Will you commit to having your team look into this and get back to me in writing, on getting these machines back up and running . Postmaster dejoy i do not agree with the premise, but i will comply with your request. Hansen it would be helpful to get a response by the end of the week. [ring] iam running out of time, so will ask a question for the record, because there are growing concerns at that postal workers are being retaliated against when they speak to members of congress or the press about some of the shortages that they are seeing, or the delays as they are seen, the undermining of the Timely Delivery and that they are seeing. I want to make sure that the postal workers who are speaking to protect the American Public, are not retaliated against for doing so. Can i have a commitment today that they will not be retaliated against . Postmaster dejoy yes. Sen. Hansen thank you. You, chairmanank johnson, for holding the searing. Thank you mr. Dejoy for being here. We have had a vote by mail for a long time. It has worked really well. I think the post office in florida has done a good job in making sure it has worked. Ey work hard to make it happen. Can you talk about why you are qualified and what background you bring to being postmaster general, why you are picked by by the Postal Service . Postmaster dejoy uh. Thank you, senator. I mean, there are two things you could look at. You could look at the two big mean, the board will have to speak to their evaluation of me, but i have done i think one of the things they like is my experience with large logistical transformations. Did a 3the 1990s, i billiondollar transformation of the Postal Network regarding mail transfer equipment. I have done projects with boeing, they projects with disney, big projects with transformation for verizon. That type of experience, i my commitment to Public Service, i think. I think that impressed them. My engagement and community and in community. And when you look at the steps i did not bring any consultants, i work with the existing Management Team to create an organization and will look to move forward and get selfhelp, and drive improvements, drive service. Revenues. That is something i have been all my life. I built a big business from nothing. And people, there are accusations that this is not a business, but when you have a Delivery Service and you have to be sustainable, the operating model must cover costs. There is no other answer to that than that. We need to take actions to do that. And i have great experience at that. And part of why they like me is because i have a plan, i have a plan for the success of the Postal Service. We can sustain weekly deliveries, that is a strength in us. Now, our pieces for delivery are down under three now from years ago at six or seven. And our goal is to get that backup. If you look at the chart, and you look at where or what our reach is on a daily basis, it is impressive. Costs out of it and this is well known, but we have to drive our cost out of the network and be more efficient to get more pieces into our carriers hands. That is success. Along with legislative help, that will be the future success for the Postal Service as we face a new economy. Sen. Scott in your business life, did you help perform for your customer . Did you have to be on time . Were you able to do that . Postmaster dejoy our contracts had 99. 90 performance metrics on everything that we did, yes. And i think that there is i think that the attitude and energy is here at the postal is here, and the design to do that. We have not had the expectation of that. Thats something i bring to the table. Sen. Scott you personally committed to doing everything you can to make sure people get their mail, get their medicine and ballots, that they get them as quickly as they can under realistic expectations . Postmaster dejoy yes. Sen. Scott how does it make you feel when you have people that make these unsubstantiated claims that you personally have a goal to slow down the mail, so ballots do not get to the election offices on time . That you want to suppress the vote. That you are interested in damaging, personally, the ability of the post office to do their job . Postmaster dejoy that does not deter me at all. I am unbelievably proud and humbled by the number of positive comments i get from employees, the Management Team, and people from around america on my initiatives. Me that we a for can sit here and do nothing. Me that we can sit here and do nothing. You need a do bailout to deliver the mail on election day . Postmaster dejoy no, i do not need anything to deliver the mail on election night, but we do need legislative approval and change freedom from the in the p. R. C. Regulation. And we need to be reimbursed for our cause. When you look at during the pandemic, we still delivered to 99 percent of the american homes. 99 percent of the american homes. And with no revenue. The postal worker was out there, the organization continued to perform, that is why we have high ratings. Stopp t have some stopped going to these rural areas. But we kept doing what we were supposed to do. Ad i am one to try to get to sustainable model, but in this case we i believe that we deserve some compensation for it. Think, if we are going to provide more funding for the post office, that we would like to work with you and others to find out the things we should do to make the changes necessary to make sure that you can do your job, so i appreciate any information you can provide that would allow us to do that. And i want to thank you for your commitment. The people at the post office work hard. So, but, i appreciate your background and your commitment to excellence, and i hope you can do the same thing at the post office. Thank you. Rosen. N johnson senator sen. Rosen thank you for holding the meeting. Thank you, mr. Dejoy, for making yourself available. I want to ask the postmaster general this, we need changes you in the are making and everything you have discussed. Will you commit to providing this committee with any and all transcripts or minutes of all closed, nonpublic board of governor meetings from this year by this sunday . Postmaster dejoy no. Commit . En you will not postmaster dejoy i do not have the authority to do some of those things. That is something i would need to discuss with counsel so i could not to that. Sen. Rosen we will discuss that with you, but lets move on. I want to thank the dedicated postal workers, particularly in nevada. I spoke with many of them yesterday. The majority of them are veterans, veterans and their family. They have done years of dedicated service to this country and this nation, and they are concerned. Earlier this year, you acknowledged you made operational changes to the Postal Service. The removed sorting machines, you had a reduction and elimination of overtime. In las vegas, where they are expecting volume to ramp up, the postal workers i spoke with yesterday are reporting the removal of a sorting machine from the general mail facility, which is down the street from my house. As a former systems analyst, i have a strong appreciation for the data, so i want to talk about the data that you used to create these policies and what you may or may not have analyzed before you made the changes. During the pandemic, Health Officials directed people to stay at home for their own safety. That means for the seniors in our state and across the country, below Postal Service was the only way they would receive prescriptions, household supplies, Social Security checks. My colleagues already mentioned this, for veterans, 80 of a veteransprescriptions are filled by the u. S. Postal service. I have 225,000 veterans in nevada, many of them are relying on this for their Timely Delivery of lifesaving medication. And in small towns across nevada, from one with the population of 269 to a Tribal Community with 658 people, some of my larger role communities, that is all they get, the Postal Service. Answer yes or no. Beforelin mandate implementing policy changes, did you conduct any specific analysis on how your changes it would impact seniors . Yes or no . Postmaster dejoy the policy changes no . Rosen yes or postmaster dejoy the policy changes i embarked upon were not the ones you identified. Sen. Rosen you did not do analysis to see how the seniors would be impacted. Did you do an analysis to see how veterans might be impacted, knowing that so many of our veterans are employed by the Postal Service, and that they are getting their medication, youthey rely on 80 did do analysis to see how the veterans would be impacted . Postmaster dejoy the only change i made was that the trucks to leave on time. Theoretically, everybody should get their mail faster. Sen. Rosen can you look me in the eye, all the seniors and veterans in the eye, and tell us about you one not continue with policies you know will harm my seniors and veterans in nevada, and all across this nation . Can you commit to being sure that they have ontime delivery . Postmaster dejoy i am working toward ontime delivery, yes. I cant commit to that. Sen. Rosen thank you. Can commit to that. Sen. Rosen thank you. What about the late fees, when in the mail is late . The impact that the charges and fees would have all working families. Is there an analysis about the impact of late delivery by you will not, yes or no . Postmaster dejoy the analysis we did was if we moved the mail on schedule, that late deliveries would have been improved. Sen. Rosen obviously, that is not the case. We need to continue. Postmaster dejoy for a variety of reasons. Sen. Rosen deployed Service Members cast their ballots by mail. Did you analyze how your policy changes would impact our servicemen and women across this country and across the globe, how changes would impact them . Postmaster dejoy senator, the announcements we did, which showed we would improve service sen. Rosen that is great, can you provide me by this sunday, if i understand you correctly, you have analysis that will show this should have improved things, although we are finding out through thousands of contacts to our office, to our connections, that this is not the case. This is unacceptable and i would like to see the analysis that this was based on to our office by this sunday. Can you commit to that . Postmaster dejoy no. Sen. Rosen can you commit to providing at all . Postmaster dejoy i will get back to you on that. Sen. Rosen you cannot commit to the American People the analysis that you based your decisions on about their important medications, Social Security checks, and all the other things, you will not commit to be transparent . Postmaster dejoy senator, i will go back and get the truck schedule, the analysis that sen. Rosen can you commit to transparency . Postmaster dejoy yes. Sen. Rosen that means he would provide analysis. Ergo you would provide the data that you used to base these important decisions on that impact peoples lives. Look in the camera, millions are watching who are impacted every day by what you do. Please understand that. I want you to commit to the American People, to transparency, and provide the data that has been used to create these decisions. Postmaster dejoy i do not accept the premise and i will provide you with a transportation schedule that i directed the organization to adhere to. Yes, i will do that. Sen. Rosen we appreciate that. I look forward to seeing that and having future discussions with you. My time is up. Chairperson johnson is the senator available . Do you have me . Chairperson johnson yes. Thank you for your testimony. And thank you for taking a thankless job. And thank you for bringing your business up to do something in my opinion is almost an impossible problem, short of legislative reform, and even with legislative reform i see it almost an impossibility how we would bring up losses. 9 million a year is in a normal sauce. I have been of the opinion that we should not give you more money unless it is attached to reform, that is the only leverage we have. We should attach things to legislation that the post office does not want to usually do. We knew less employees. If the male is dropping Community Less employees. That is where the legacy costs are. We have to go to less employees overtime. We also need to look at the easiest way to continue Personalized Service to each person individually at their house, but do it less frequently. Frankly, people who live 20 miles down the road, if you told them you would get the mail only a couple times a week instead of six times a week, they would live with it. I live in a small town and i think that people could live with that. But people should be told about the problem of continuing to run mass deficits, not just with the post office, but throughout government. And we should not pass out money like it is candiedy, it should e attached to reforms. You are a businessman. As you came in as a venture capitalist here at the post thate, what would you do you are unable to do because it is a Government Entity . What are the legal restraints that prevent you from fixing the 9 billion annual loss the post office has . Postmaster dejoy thank you for the opportunity to address that. Than you inimistic terms of our ability to get to a point of breaking even. Number one, the legislative reform i would ask, as i said in on thetten testimony, integration of medicaid and pension reform. I would like to be kind of liberated on pricing. It is a competitive market now and i would like more pricing freedom. That would help us. I would like some of our Unfunded Mandates addressed. And within the organization, i would be able without much fanfare to do a simple thing, like, adhering to the schedules. If we adhere to schedules, that will improve performance. In transition, there should be or there would be an issue, but everythingeeing right now and once we get packages moving at 97 with trucks running at 97 on time, driving cost out of the system by doing that, that is what i would do in my own business. I would drive new business ideas, which we have, which will bring contributions to serving the American People. In the beginning, we have a plan. Im an optimist trying to pull this off. Will not talk to you about going from six days to five days, because that is the job of congress. I think you have to do that. That would be a bill that would save 1. 5 billion there. I think instead of assessing downe more when they live a dirt road, i would just have less delivery, and i think that would be tolerable. It would be personal service, but less frequent. I think a good makeup shortfall if you could just do that with rural areas. It has been said that some of your competitors, you used the post office for the last mile of delivery, and we do not charge them in adequate amount. They are using the post office. They are using it for that last mile delivery. Is that a problem . To we charge competitors enough if they use the post office for the last mile . Is it competitive . Should we do anything to fix that . Postmaster dejoy senator, if i may, when i first came here and i got this assignment, that was an obvious thing to me, cutting back to four or five days, whatever. And as i have done my research, i have studied the organization and i think the 60 delivery we havedelivery that with the American People, that gives us this highly trusted where the economy is going, that is probably our biggest strength to capitalize on. 1. 5 billion dollars would take a day away, but i am sitting on a transportation change that could improve service and get us millions of dollars. So there you,paul i do not doubt but i doubt the government. So i will believe that when i see that. What about the last mile, are you getting a market rate from competitors . Postmaster dejoy we are studying it. I have beeniew, here for 60 days and i have looked at that we make broadbased deals across the country that deal with average rates. There are areas we could push them up. We are studying that. Its i do not believe that that on the surface, its not its reasonable business gaps that may exist, thats how i describe it. Sen. Paul thank you for trying to fix an unfixable problem. Hang in there. The partisan barbs, hopefully they will be portrayed for what they are, for barbs that are not trying to fix anything, but just attacking you as a way of politics. I wish you the best. Chairman johnson senator romney . Can you hear me . Chairman johnson loud and clear. Expressney i want to appreciation for the thousands of letter carriers. The postal workers have made our e by mail system very successful for the entire nation. Assuming that im you have been truthful, so i can imagine how frustrating it is to be accused of political motives in your responsibility. At the same time, you can understand that there have been reasons for people to think that you and your colleagues are purposefully acting to suppress voting, or that you will try to prevent ballots from being counted. Any surprise at such concerns has to be tempered by the fact that the president has made claims that mailin voting will be fraudulent, that he does not want to give money to the post office because without money coming cannot have universal mail in voting. Putting that aside, let me note contributed toou president trumps campaign, i would note you also contributed to my campaign. Some people would say you contributed to both sides. [laughter] let meme turn that know that like others today, i state the obvious when i say the reliable, valid voting is essential to democracy here and across the world. Covid19, thewith male is essential to our Voting System and therefore our democracy. Do you have confidence at that virtually all of the ballots that will be mailed to seven days before the election, would actually be received and counted . If people vote within seven days of the election, are they highly confident or are you confident that those ballots would then be received . Postmaster dejoy extremely highly confident. Eachll scour every plan, night leading up to election day. We are very confident. Sen. Romney i appreciate that. That is a commitment. I hope that the American People, as they see reports of this hearing and others that will come into the house, will underscore the fact that if they get their ballots in at least seven days before the election, probably closer to the election than that, that the person running the post office is saying he is highly confident that those ballots will be received by the clerks in a timely way. That is key. And on a separate topic, you mentioned that there are delays in the system, that is to be expected. Are there greater delays in certain areas compared to others . Are delays greater in the rural areas than in the rest of the country . Senator, idejoy think that more urban areas thee the coronavirus intimidation of the coronavirus, theh scares our employees, employee vulnerability average has dropped. About 4 across the nation. I would say the hotspots, like philadelphia, detroit, there is as much as 25 . And we have routes, philadelphia has 750 routes, and we have days where we are short 200 carriers. This can go on for a while. So that is not the only contribution, but when the American People see two or three days where they have not seen their carrier, thats an issue. I would say this, i think that there is at least 20 of those a descending level of consequence around the country. So. Say, like a i will number of my colleagues the already expressed this point, i would look forward to seeing and i am not talking about by sunday but at some point i would like to see a plan from someone of your expertise for how we can get the post office to be more economically managed, but at the same time maintain a level of service, which is essential for a functioning economy. And that is a real challenge, but with someone who has done what you have done in your career, i expect you to be up to the task. Im anxious for there to be a recognition on the part of congress that for us to demand Certain Service levels, it may require us to make legislative changes. Please feel welcomed in our committee, or in the house, for letting us know what we need to do and to make sure that you can do the job. I appreciate your service. Postmaster dejoy thank you. Chairman johnson senator enzi. Enzi we appreciate you for holding this hearing, chairman johnson. And i especially appreciate the postmaster general coming to this hearing. Target heat kind of will be. Difficult to be only be in office in 60 days and be expected to solve all the problems of the Postal Service. It has been in crisis for many years. Senator collins used to head this committee when it was called government affairs, and she has worked on the post office all that time, and has a pretty good bill she has worked on with senator feinstein that i hope people will look at. I am not sure that anything can be done in a bipartisan way, particularly if one of the participants, susan collins, is out for election, because it might help her in her campaign. That she has been dedicated to this is not a new idea, it is something she has been working on and it has a lot of good ideas and it. I really appreciate postal workers. Wyoming, in particular, they are doing an outstanding job in spite of the difficulties of the pandemic. My fatherinlaw was a postal worker. And he was before the mail sorting machines, and he was pleased he could memorize all the zip codes in a certain area and handle all the sorting. Of course now, the local mail is cannot postmarked locally. These are problems i did not realize that you personally deliver everything, that you personally fix the sorting machines. Theat was all news to me. And how much Detailed Analysis can you do in 60 days, particularly as i suspect that may be people are not wanting to share information with you . I hope that those postal workers out there that are dedicated it will actually do something to help out on it. And of course, you have been accused of picking on veterans, seniors, and i have to admit that i have felt picked on, not by you, but by the Postal Service, recently. And i was glad to hear your explanation that you are having some difficulty with people on delivering the mail in light of the pandemic. I did not understand that, but i know we had a package that was being traced, and we paid extra to have it traced, and it sat at the d. C. Post office for 11 days before it was delivered. So i am glad to know that the reason behind that and to find out, this is the big surprise, that it was not you. I thought you caused all of that. M, the mail sorting machines in wyoming, i do not think that we sort mail anymore, it got moved to other centers. I thought it was being done efficiently in wyoming. I also learned when you move a sorting center, under the union requirements, if people do not want to move them, they do not have to and they still get paid. That will not save money. I asked for the analysis on these changes that have affected wyoming, and which were not done under you, it was done under previous administrations. And i know that they want to save money, but they must do analysis that will actually save money. Are you going to be able to put an envelope and a collection box for local delivery. I got it the next day. Now they put it in my community for local delivery. It goes to denver, gets sorted and comes back to joe let jolette, sometimes postmarked in denver. That is not good management. As an accountant, i know that postmarks make a difference. I have a lot of concerns. I am only pointing these out because i know you have only had 60 days to work on them, and your plate was already full, but it a bitng to fill more. And i appreciate that you are willing to take on, i guess you would have to take this an adventure, not a job, because it would be too tough as a job. Ow youow you made i kn made sacrifices to get to this. I hope you will take a look at the urban areas. We have been picked on in the rural areas for a long time, but we have some efficient people here who are dealing with long distances, and doing it very well. But when i go to my post office it there is only one person working at the counter. And if that person needs a box to mail it in, the boxes are not out where people can actually get them, so the person at the counter has to go get a box, and when they come back it must still be sealed and addressed. They do not move them to the side to see if they can wait on the next customer, everybody waits at social distancing. I have been to the post office during my lunch hour before, and i found that the postal workers decided that was their lunch hour as well. No business lets employees sit down and eat in front of customers during their lunch hour. My, i guess,of trying to defend you here. Postmaster dejoy senator, thank for the support. See, as i take this with any other organization, the day you become a ceo you are responsible for everything that goes on around the and i have big enough shoulders to deal with that. More important about what you said about legislation, you know, not moving we, the organization, needs to move forward. We have to. Because without legislation, we will run out of money. Nine months, 12 months. We are talking about a 633,000 person organization, nine months of cash and everybody thinks we are ok. That is outrageous thinking. Is theneed to that difference now. As i said in my opening remarks, we will do what we need to do to meet our operating objectives and get the selfsustaining status or manner. Thank you. Here. Hink you for being i recognize and that you have to rely on postmasters across the u. S. Doing their job, to manage their own fields. So thank you. Chairman johnson senator hawley. Sen. Hawley thank you for being here. Let me try to some him questions sifting outarted, the misinformation that we have heard repeated over and over and over again in the media, some of it echoed today. Well the usps have enough cash on hand to support operating expenses through the november election . Postmaster dejoy yes. has there been an increase in the most recently reported quarter relative to the last year . Postmaster dejoy yes, small. Ey while they use the cash on hand, since the start of the pandemic, to a level of 15 billion . Is that right . Postmaster dejoy between 14 billion and 15 million, yes. Sen. Hawley what ive heard you say today, and what i have read from your testimony, is that the Postal Service has the wherewithal, has the resources, and has what it needs to deliver the mail on time through the november election, just to be clear . Postmaster dejoy yes. Things, delivering on the election and cash for the future. Those are two separate things, but we do have enough cash. Sen. Hawley what is the amount of the additional assistance that you require as we look past the elections and into the years to come . Postmaster dejoy a, the biggest thing we need is legislative reform. And we need to get the p. R. C. To decide. I estimated about 10 billion. We estimated 10 billion cost on the covid19 expense side. And what i would like to see is ehat note we hav negotiating with the treasury, to get longterm financing to purchase new vehicles. Sen. Hawley as you bring up the note to the treasury, the chair has authorized 10 billion in borrowing. I understand that the department came to an agreement late last month in principle, what that would look like. Can you give us a sense of when the tumbling dollars that 10 billion that was authorized, when it is likely to be made available to you . Give us an update on where that stands. Postmaster dejoy we have terms of agreement. When i get ast it, final document on it, but the terms have been agreed, and the issue with borrowing money is you need to know how to pay it back. And at this particular point, you know, we are evaluating that, but it is available to us pretty quickly. Sen. Hawley what do you anticipate using it for in the near term . Postmaster dejoy theres pretty specific limitations. Capital, butit for i can cover operating costs closely associated with covid19. We can identify that pretty easily. Said that youyou would like the Additional Authority to perhaps use the loan toward vehicles or collateral for vehicles, can you talk about that . Postmaster dejoy as you probably know, we have many 30yearold vehicles. We desperately needed new vehicles. The loan is not for capital, i would like to see the term extended and used for an equipment loan to get vehicles and other types of efforts that we have. The longere term in five years. Wley as part of the legislations that you seek . Postmaster dejoy yes. Inhas already been passed the committee a couple years ago, what we are looking for. Sen. Awhawley lets come back o the reforms you recently implemented. To what degree were they changes you implemented over the summer in response to the recent findings . Postmaster dejoy i considered findings, as we were doing our own or our own analytics, i thought it was for somebody new coming in, and i thought they were a remarkable in terms of just laying out things. Transportation system, once you get below 90 , you cannot depend on anything, right . So, that was something. Then there was the cost. So when i started looking at where the organization was going financially, i thought about getting the transportation in line, which we will do. Billion,g about 2 which we can reach for, was a christmas present. Ask, i see let me that my time is almost expired, but let me ask as you probably know, my home state of missouri has a significant portion of our population in rural areas. Where i grew up, it is vital to me that any Postal Service reform Going Forward continue to preserve the network of rural service, that it preserves the existing delivery and Po Box Services available throughout missouri. Are you committed to protecting rural delivery and post offices for people like the folks i represent in missouri and around the country . Postmaster dejoy we have an unbelievable asset in our letter carriers reaching every american, each day. And i commit to trying to strengthen that relationship across the country. Sen. Hawley thank you very much. Based on oneson of the questions and the response from senator hawley, you talked about the Transportation System being out of sync. I want to make sure we are talking about the same thing. You said that your ontime trips to 39,00035,000 a day a day, which means a scheduled time of 89 improved to 97 . Is that what you are talking about, the trucks leaving on time to get on their routes . And is that part of the disruption as well, if the letters are not getting there on time they are left for the next days delivery . Can you verify or explain that better . Postmaster dejoy there is a production schedule for a male that is set up to meet a dispatch schedule for trucks, that is tied it to a destination center, lets just say where the carriers go out in the morning and then come back to at night. This is an aligned schedule on paper, in theory. There are lots of imbalances that we are finding as we go, or as we went through this process, but the big thing to try to get everything aligned around is the transportation schedule. We have taken that up now. All that mail going on that truck was latema. Some of the male is coming off the processing lines, we did a we found the imbalances and we did, not as great of a job recovering it, but we will. We are seeing improvements now. Once that comes together, the mail will be moving around 97 ontime. And i am committed to trying to do that. That enables us to balance the front and and the delivery end of the system, and it saves us all the money that you saw in the audit report. And it i realize if you do not have a good process, you do not have a good product. You identified some breakdowns and he made dramatic improvement in terms of dispatch level in terms of the transportation ,ystem, and that we have covid and ed affects the postal system, so basically the delivery delays are primarily caused by the issues related to covid, but the changes you made in terms of the process certainly in theory, you are certainly setting it up for improvement and cost reductions in the future. A substantialoy portion of the delays are related to covid. I will not go as far as to not had maybe a 4 hit on a Service Level for delay of all sorts of male because we got stuck on the dock paid we are bringing that down. When that is aligned. We should have a smooth running system at a much more High Performance rate. So these areson changes for improvement in the future. Postmaster dejoy they are very doable. Chairmanma thank you for holding this important hearing. The u. S. Postal service has always been a critical lifeline for communities across arizona. Office hasst week my heard from over 18,000 people about the importance of the Postal Service. People in arizona want to make sure they can get their medications and support the right to vote. Service must act especially since we will see citizens voting i mailed due to the pandemic. The hearing should not be just about election mail. There are also prescriptions taking so long to preside arrive, and others are concerned their Small Business will go under without Reliable Service or the bill payments now take longer to reach their destination. , i am pleased you are here to answer questions. It is critical that you end your team demonstrate commitment to protect the service and to successfully communicate. Arizona weestion, in spent about 85 of the electorate to vote by mail this election, approximately 2. 4 million pallets moving through that network in the weeks before the election. , adjustmentslume will need to be made. Ive been working closely with the secretary of state office to get their questions answered and i will continue to share the questions that my office receives. The top concern is the Timely Delivery of ballots. Will local managers be authorized to make decisions and have employees make extra trips or work overtime to deliver ballots ensuring that plants do not fall behind in processing the election mail . Postmaster dejoy effective october 1 we will have redundant resources and aggressive efforts to make sure everything is flowing timely. Sen. Sinema could you tell me what steps your office is taking to communicate this prophecy policy even to the public in arizona so everyone feels confident that citizens have this access . Istmaster dejoy in general think we started back in february. Contactsad over 50,000 with the Election Officials around the country. We have sent a number of letters. We are making videos that will go online with the Union Leadership and myself to communicate out our commitment and we will continue to work with the state boards and we decided to put together a Bipartisan Committee to oversee everything that we will be doing. , and i thinkizing in september we will send a letter to every american with what the processes going out to every american citizen. I feel good and i appreciate the question. The wholed about what organization, from the board of directors down to the letter , weiers and plant personnel are very proud of what we are doing and we will deliver for the American People. Sen. Sinema thank you. We went to make sure [inaudible] earlier you said used would not close any processing plants, but i do not think you specifically rolled out consolidations of processing plants. Is the Service Planning to modify capacity at any facilities before the election . What steps are you taking to ensure that the service be continuing to meet Service Standards in the communities served by those facilities . Sen. Sinema i promise you we are not making any changes until after the election. Sen. Sinema i appreciate that. That was very concise. I recently wrote to you regarding the cherryville processing plant. It is very important to that community. If the Postal Service conciliators considers consolidations in that center, which he required new pressing centers for any impacted facility before moving forward with a consolidation or closure . Postmaster dejoy thank you. I am not totally familiar with this, but there is a whole process that we need to go through before we close a facility. Gets onfacility ever that, i will make sure we reach out to you and let you know. A whole Public Awareness process in detail analysis as to how the mail will be process. It is not easy to do. Down and wearked will keep you posted if that ever gets on the list. Sen. Sinema i appreciate that. Emp for cherryville was done in 2011. We have had very significant event since then. We went to make sure decisions are made with uptodate data. This is very important for arizona and it is very important for Southern Arizona in particular. Go ahead. Postmaster dejoy i look forward to speaking with you about it. Sen. Sinema the last thing i want to say, when he next consider operational changes, i would ask you to take into account the negative Customer Experiences that folks have shared with us like spoiled edison or missing rent checks. He had been getting more complaints about Service Getting worse. We ask that you take into expenses,ese negative and my team is happy to share some of those direct experiences with you. Formaster dejoy thank you your guidance. I appreciate it. Chairman johnson thank you. For appearing here on pretty short notice. Just to summarize a few things we her today, obviously the postal system is affected by covid as the rest of this nation , so i think for anybody to assume that service would maintain its high level of standards is quite unrealistic. As you stated, i think the operational changes that you implemented are designed for longterm improvement. Again, coming from a manufacturing background, you have to have a good process. You recognize that as well. I am supportive of those efforts. I think you should be commended, not condemned. As i stated, no doubt they have been some unusual delays, but as i checked with our folks, what they are finding is the high volume of calls concerning postal complaints, the vast majority seem highly scripted like this could be a well organized effort which does not surprise me. There are fundraising emails datingnate candidates back as far as april complaining about this postal issue. I have no doubt the democrats are getting this up into something it is not, a false narrative designed to extract a political advantage. Im just very sorry that you are on the targeting end of this hit piece. I think it is tragic. As someone pointed out, this is part of the problem, while we have not had postal reform, how people take advantage of it. The expectations, i appreciate the commonsense statements of a number of different facts you have only been on the job 60 days. I truly appreciate your willingness to serve in this role. We truly appreciate the hard work of the Postal Service doing a good job delivering the mail. Forward,eforms moving so we might have an opportunity here. May be another covid relief package. What i am asking you for is the information and the suggestions for true reforms. I think that is what always been lacking in terms of postal reform. It is always the taxpayer bailey bail out, so i look for your guidance and your data. Just do not get the data that i think we really need for effective adulation. I would like to actually enact legislation that will require cooperation within the postal workers. Service andr your stepping into this role. I apologize for the fact that you have become a target in a political hit job. That, if you could deal to me for a minute. Chairman johnson absolutely. Recall, i worked for years on major changes in the Postal Service, and we have developed a consensus around that. Among the things that we have learned today is an interest in medicare integration. There is acknowledgment that there needs to be investments in the postal fleet. The postal age of vehicle is 27 years old. There are investments that need to be made for modern equipment and the Distribution Centers across the country, and i think there is the ability to come up with a bipartisan consensus on how to help the Postal Service not just through the pandemic but to be vibrant in the years to come. We need to communicate and compromise. With all due respect to the postmaster general, i reached out to you when you were initially selected by the postal board, and then later i tried to reach you again and again for weeks and could not get a call back. I was not the only one. You have to be willing to communicate. There are people in the administration that do a great job of it. I would urge that. It is on us as well to share this responsibility. We are counting on the democracy. We can go back to and franklin two 10 franklin udible] democrat, republican or whatever, people have to vote and that is critical. We have a president that wants to undermine inaudible] hopefully we can do better than that. In order to form a more perfect union, this can be done. Senator johnson peters. For peters thank you joining us. I want to be very clear about what i have been hearing and just to counter a little bit of what the chairman said. These are real concerns i am hearing, not manufactured. These are people who are talking about delays and medicine that is not available and talking individual who because of the lack of medicine skipped doses and was actually hospitalized. Those are very real. When i hear those kinds of stories, we stand up here that is my job and the job of every senator here to stand up for the people back home to make sure the people back home are being heard. It is about making sure the voices are heard. That is what this hearing is about, white we are taking sure the Postal Service does what they have done with professionalism. We want to make sure the standard continues Going Forward. I fully appreciate that the covid has created problems for the Postal Service, but if you look at the chart, the service was there through a lot of the pandemic. It has just been in the middle of july where you see it dropping off dramatically. Covid has been with us since march, but a drop since mid july which is the time when i got all of those communications and my colleagues have been getting them. These are real people. I just want to be clear about that. Postmaster, you answered some of our questions, but they are still many left that are unanswered. I think we look forward to seeing the documents we have requested so we can do our oversight function. I appreciate her willingness to do that. I will continue with my investigation of the recent delays and Postal Service practices put in place and i urge you to be fully forthcoming with any requests. That kind of transparency is critically important. I know you have a very hard job. I think youve made it harder on yourself because of the lack of transparency we have seen in the last few weeks. So in the coming weeks Congress Must provide Postal Service the oversight that you need to reliably delivery for the American People paid we have to make sure we get through the election and the pandemic and we want to make sure we put the Postal Service on sound footing to last for another 200 years and beyond. Thank you. No wayn johnson i am in shape or form denying that many of these complaints are not genuine and when we take these seriously and help the constituents, but there no doubt that a lot of this is being scripted and being done for political purpose. There is no doubt about that. Postmaster a new general that is been in the office less than 70 days. I think the first thing he needs and rollstart the job up his Shirt Sleeves and get to work to figure out what he needs to do to reform the process. Transparentrd to a process and looking to separate fact from fiction. A lotis a lot of fiction of false narrative by democrats. I want the data as well. Im sureaster general, you will work with us in the future. Lets work in good faith and thank you for your good service. The hearing record will remain open for 15 days for simitian of statements and questions for the record. This hearing is adjourned. If you miss any of the hearing, we will show it again tonight starting at 8 00 eastern. Postmaster louis dejoy will be at a hearing on monday live at 10 00 eastern. The u. S. House is back tomorrow to work on Postal Service operations legislation. They will gavel in at 10 00 eastern. Watch live house coverage here on cspan. You are watching cspan, and unfiltered view of government created by American Cable Television and brought to you by your television provider. Last night joe biden accepted the democratic president ial nomination on the final night of the Democratic National convention. His remarks follow comments from a number of his supporters. Beau biden lived a life of service. When you put your life on the line, you do it not because it is the country you live in but because it is a country you believe in. I believe in this country because america uniquely holds the promise of a place where everyone can belong. We know that for too many and too long that promise has been denied. We also know america is at its best when we make the circle of belonging wider
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