Over the last few weeks not only is it a think was tasked, but he has been subject to character assassination as democrats put them in the cause hears of a hyperbolic false narrative perpetrated to gain political advantage. I hope we can stick to the facts today. One factor that needs to be highlighted is that the postmaster general is not appointed by president trump. The postal board of governors engaged in identified was the joy as an outstanding candidate with the necessary background and skill set to tackle the challenges facing the postal system. They unanimously approved his appointment. He reports to the board, not the president. , failingalse narrative to provide funding to the Postal Service will undermine the election. The Postal Service has 50. 1 billion in cash on hand following a better than expected performance during the pandemic. Tax delivery, in rather than being down, the Postal Service revenue is 1. 5 billion higher than during the same period last year. The longterm Financial Reality of the postal system is bleak and has been bleak for years. The main reason is first class mail volume has declined with the advent of the internet. Because the system is constrained by legislative requirements, it does not have the flexibility the private sector would have to deal with the reduction in the demand for its products. A perfect world, the Postal Service would have funded its healthcare care liabilities as they were incurring. Because they didnt, those liabilities now total 120 billion. Notpostal reform bill did ensure longterm financial viability and in its attempts to address the problem, the postal system was deleted of cache cash. Attempt at reform have proposed a taxpayer bailout. The cost of these proposals is understated based on the scoring requirement which miss ealing misleadingly proposes it will cost 10. 7 billion over 10 years. These proposals blacken a range of Structural Reforms that will be required to ensure the viability of the system. For years, Inspector Generals report recommended reform, and they have only been partially implemented. Is of the most costly this is that use and payment of overtime. The postmasterm began implementing shortly after his appointment. Therding to a report issued day the postmaster was sworn in, his office spent 4 billion in 2019 in Mail Processing and overtime costs. Those overtime costs represent 45 of the portal systems 8. 8 billion loss for last year. The postmasters attempts to reduce costs are being used to create this false narrative. According to democrats, the postmaster is trying to sabotage the postal system to disenfranchise voters. Sent before he was , ballot deadlines are being used as evidence of this Conspiracy Theory and the media is playing along. On average, the puzzle system delivered 2. 6 billion pieces of mail in 2019. Because of covid, the firstclass weekly volume is down 17 year to date. Even if every voter used mailin ballot in, they would be 150 million pieces of mail or 6 weekly volume. The postal system has more than enough excess capacity to handle alien balloting. I want to thank the postmaster for his appearance today, for his service, and i look forward to your testimony. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Dejoy, i appreciate you joining us. We have a lot of questions for you. We are in the middle of unprecedented pandemic, we are experiencing one of the nations worst health and Economic Crises , now we are facing a male crisis and we are months away from an election where we expect record numbers of americans to vote by mail. For many communities across the country, the Postal Service has always been a lifeline. Especially for the communities where private carriers dont deliver. Whether folks are receiving medications, financial documents, home supplies, or trying to stay in touch with their loved ones, the Postal Service has always delivered. I dont think you have, you have not delivered in this tenure so far. For more than two centuries, americans have been able to count on the Postal Service but in less than two months as postmaster general, you have undermined one of our nations and trusted institutions wreak havoc on families, on veterans, seniors, rural communities, and people all across our country. The operational changes you implemented without consulting with your customers or the public have caused significant delays, delays that have hurt people across the nation, delays that come at a time when people depend on Reliable Service now more than ever. In july, i started hearing reports about how severely your changes were slowing down the mail. Answers but it wasnt until i launched an investigation that you admitted that you had directed these changes yourself. Despite multiple requests, it took more than one month to respond directly. I am still not satisfied with those explanations. You have brushed off these delays, calling them inevitable, the side effect of your vision for the Postal Service, but let me tell you about the people are forced to bear the brunt of your decisions. For aom michigan Works Company that produces educational materials, that Company Started seeing delivery problems and switched to overnight shipping, which is almost double their shipping cost, and between these delays and the pandemic, they have had to lay off multiple employees to absorb these costs. Mary from redford said her daughter has been getting her epilepsy medication through the mail, usually in three to four days, but because of changes, her latest refill shipped on july 20 and it took nine days to be delivered. When marys daughter realize the medication was not going to arrive on time, she tried to ration what few pills she had left and as a result, she suffered seizures and was transported to a hospital. These are just a few of my constituents who shared their stories as part of my investigation. I have received more than 7500 report of delays from people across michigan and across the country in just two weeks. They have written about skipping theirof medication and Small Business is losing customers or having to lay off employees. All because of changes that you have directed. Mr. Chairman, i moved to enter into the record an update on what might dictation is finding. Without objection. 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 for the harm you have caused, and all of us some very clear answers today. The country 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 kinds of 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. It is the tradition of this committee to swear in witnesses. Mr. Dejoy, raise your right hand. Do you swear the testimony you give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god . Postmaster dejoy i do. Thank you. Mr. Dejoy has served as postmaster general, and you spent 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 peters, and members of the committee. Thank you chairman johnson for calling this hearing. I am proud to be with you on behalf of the women and men of the United StatesPostal Service. On june 15, i became the 75th postmaster general. I did so because i believe the Postal Service plays a positive role in the lives of the American Public and life 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. Congress established the Postal Service to fulfill a Public Service mission to provide prompt, reliable, and universal Postal Services to the American Public in an efficient and financially sustainable fashion. Our ability to fulfill that mandate in the coming years is that fundamental risk. Changes must be made to ensure our sustainability for the years and decades ahead. Our business 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, we 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 reform 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. I urge congress to enact these reforms. I also urge the congress to enact legislation that would require Financial Relief to account for the impacts of the covid19 pandemic on our financial condition. The Postal Regulatory Commission began a mandated review about the Pricing System four years ago. It has been three years since the commission concluded our Current System is not working. We urgently require the prc to do its job in establishing more rational regulatory systems for our mail products. When the congress and p. R. C. Fulfills its obligation to the American Public concerning the Postal Service, im sure that much of our 80 billion in punitive losses since 2007 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. I believe we can chart a path that accomplishes these goals. In my 67 days as postmaster general, i have had the chance to observe the many hidden strengths of the organization and appreciate 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 for the Postal Service to succeed. As we head to the election season, i want to assure this committee and the American Public that the Postal Service is committed to delivering election mail on time. The sacred duty is our number one priority between now and election day. Mr. Chairman, women and men of the Postal Service have demonstrated extraordinary commitment to our mission throughout 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 Financial Statements 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 peters, i look forward to working with you to restore the Financial Health of the Postal Service and improve the way we serve the American Public. I welcome any questions that you and the committee may have. 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 began before you assumed your duties. Talk about what that notice was about and how important it was that the Postal Service does inform Election Officials of what your capabilities are so they can factor that into their 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. As you have stated, this letter was sent out before my arrival, simply to help educate state election boards, and eventually the American People to eventually make this a broader statement, so the American People are aware of how to successfully vote. This letter, similar letter was sent out in the 2016 election by the former deputy postmaster general. We recognize that during this pandemic, when i arrived, there was great concern about the increase in volume and we 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. Since my arrival, we have 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 6 of weekly volume, in your written testimony, you said in you said what is 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 . Postmaster dejoy we delivered 433 million pieces of mail a day. 150 million ballots, 160 million ballots over the course of the week is a very small amount. Adequate capacity. Mail volume is down 14 this year. Plus, as i identified earlier in the week, we will have Additional Resources on standby. If everyone complies with the mail process that we have been identifying, there will be absolutely no issue. There is slack in the system and additional processes in and around the election that will carry a good part of any deviations. The Postal Service stands ready and the board of directors stands ready with the expansion of the task force that i have identified earlier in the week. Yesterday, we made the decision to establish a broad, bipartisan Board Committee to interact with us as we move forward. We are very comfortable that we will achieve this mission. Chairman johnson something that i think has been blown out of proportion is the retirement of some 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 that dramatically, you start to 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 collection boxes in the United States. Over the last 10 years, it 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 of both boxes, look at where they place new boxes, where communities grow. 35,000 over 10 years, since my arrival, we have removed 700 collection boxes, of which i had no idea that that was the process. When we found out when i found out about it, i looked at my Leadership Team and we looked at the excitement it was creating, so i decided to stop it and we will pick it up after this is a normal process that has been around 50 years. In the last 10 years we have 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 now and we evaluate 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 when this got a lot of interplay, we are really moving these machines out. We have hundreds of these machines everywhere and still not any kind of drain on capacity. I was made aware and everyone else was made aware, it was not a critical issue within the Postal Service this has gone on in every Election Year and every year. Chairman johnson so this is not a devious plot. One final question, it will go 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 effect that has on mail delivery. Postmaster dejoy thank you senator. When i arrived, i spent the first two weeks even before i joined here really studying the organization. Trying to get an understanding of how decisions were made, i spent hundreds of hours before i arrived, and when i got here, working with the Management Team. One of the first things, the first big change was how do i get the organization, the Management Team, the structure to align with my analysis. I felt that 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 individually to look at our functional lines and together we reorganized the organization followers process, and, revenue, and cost. That was the one big change i worked on when i got here. And the day i was sworn in i received from the oig, that discussed late deliveries, late dispatch, extra trips, and all of the time and costs associated with this that approximating at 4 billion. We had 13 billion in cash and 12. 5 billion of payments to make in the next nine months and no help in sight. We had no help in sight. I needed to look at a positive impact on cost saving that improve the business. The transportation schedule, we run about 40,000 trips a day. And 12 of those trips were late. We were running another 5000 extra trips. Everybody runs their trucks on time. That is what glues the network together. From an 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. That had to be on time to get deliveries on time. Network wastation the glue that keeps everything together, and i worked with the team. We had all of the Vice President s involved with this change, and i submitted in my report this chart here which shows how we went from 88 on time to 97 ontime delivery. All of that mail that was sitting on docks got advanced. And the late trips dropped from 3500 a day to 600 a day. Within a week, we made that change. Unfortunately, some Mail Processing was not fully aligned with this established schedule. We did have some delays in the mail. And our Recovery Process in this 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 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. Those are two changes that i have made since i have been here. 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 clearly essential workers each and 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. These are policy changes, its not the men and women on the front line doing this work every day. So postmaster general dejoy, 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. Earlier in my Opening Statement i shared 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 that were put in place have delayed the mail, and with the delay in mail, people can be hurt. Is that true . Postmaster dejoy senator, first of all, i do recognize that the quality capability is one of the reasons im here, to help. Yes, sir, i do recognize that there have been two changes, the organizational change i dont believe has any in fact on what we have done. Transportation change peters 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 and i have spent a month asking you to provide some documentation as my oversight function here, how you made these decisions and what sort of analysis was put in 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 by the Postal Service 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 chart, we start seeing a drop on july 18. Its a big drop in online mail delivery that we are seeing. I have asked for Service Change records, and what im hearing and what im seeing in the chart on your website is a significant drop of 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 those documents . Postmaster dejoy i will meet with our staff and get documents in regard to this change. But the change was to adhere to the transportation schedule. That was the change. You have that documented and i would love to see the documents as to how that was done. 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. They are also leading to delays. Peters let 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 vague and raises some additional questions. Just yes or no so that we know what was intended, are you suspending your policy on eliminating extra trips . Yes or no . Postmaster dejoy no, the policy was to mitigate extra trips. Sen. Peters 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 . 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. Its gone down. Its limited. We spent 700 Million Dollars on overtime. It runs at a 13 rate now like it did when i got here. Sen. Peters 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 what i put in, there was another process before i came in after the reaction i did suspend that until after the election. Sen. Peters 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. Sen. Peters i have questions about independence and transparency area, did you discuss changes or their potential impacts with 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. Peters did you discuss this with secretary mnuchin . Postmaster dejoy during the negotiation and discussions i told him that i was working on land, but i never did ask the changes to improve service. No great detail. That was it. Sen. Peters prior to implementing the changes, did you discuss them with any Trump Campaign officials . Postmaster dejoy no, these changes and our total analysis going forward, remember, i am one person in the organization with a structure around me with others involved in the decisions. We are moving forward, that this would have a negative impact on the election is an outrageous claim. Sen. Peters and did you ever discuss this with mark meadows. Postmaster dejoy i have not spoken to mark meadows up until maybe last week. Sen. Peters 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 election mail meeting i instructed my team to have effort doubled down. I was greatly concerned about the political noise we were hearing, and i have had weekly reviews on this since before the excitement came out. We are very committed, very committed to having a successful election. And the insinuation is , quite frankly, outrageous. Sen. Peters and as we get into the election there has been concern from state and local governments about firstclass mail. Do i have your 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 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. Sen. Peters and the process continues as it has been done in the past . Postmaster dejoy we are not going to change that. Sen. Peters thank you mr. Chairman for the extra time. I appreciate it. Chairman johnson both of us went a little over. We will give seven minutes to other members. Senator portman . Sen. Portman thank you, it is obviously timely. Let me just give a shout out to david janet, our letter carrier, and all postal workers, during this pandemic they are more appreciated than ever. So the men and women who you lead, mr. Dejoy, pass along our thanks. 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 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 came up through the ranks and its helpful to know that that is what is going on. And you were appointed by a 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. I also know that the longterm financial picture for the Postal Service is not pretty. By the way, thats been true for a long time. Thats not really something that a postmaster general can do much about. It requires legislation. Senator feinstein has a bill that requires some additional funding and Everybody Knows its in trouble. Everybody knows 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. But the immediate need is to make sure that the elections work well and i appreciate that you said that this will be 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 i have voted by mail for number of years. The Postal Service will deliever and process 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 Service will 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 ohio and you do not have to give 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 and dc 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 . Postmaster dejoy this was not a 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, and also the pandemic. What the team set out to do is 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 potentially not getting there. Sen. Portman thats important to note, this has been a problem for years. I 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 office and back to you, and then date stamp before monday, that is very hard to do, logistically. You have to make sure that there is adequate time. The ballot wasy sent out the day before the election and its almost impossible for the voter to vote and 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 are heartbreaking stories. 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. Could not afford to pay for another one personally. 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 . Postmaster dejoy we are working here feverishly to get the system running and to handle the process. We all feel bad about the level of service. We serve 161 million people. We still deliver at 99. 5 of the time. We have significant efforts to 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. I thank you for your service, and for 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. Senator carper . Is senator carper there . We will move on to senator lankford. I think senator carper is there, i think they are queuing it now. I am on mute. Thank you for scheduling this hearing. I urged you to do this three weeks ago, and thank you for finally returning my call. I called for three weeks to try to get the call. You might be wondering, mr. Dejoy, about the skepticism. We get constituent services reported every week, we have 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 a message from joe mansion from West Virginia at the charleston Distribution Center, they serve five states from out of that place. This is localities all over the country. Coincidence, im not so sure. Skeptical. 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. We have been working to make sure that we have a meaningful Postal Service there has been Voter Suppression in this country almost from the get go. Even Benjamin Franklin said, no, we are 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 in congress . We have seen poll taxes and literacy tests, all of this stuff. When i see whats 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. Degrade 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. I want to after the public uproar we have seen about the delays as well as additional operation changes until after the election. Good. 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. As well as Service Reductions to alaska, hawaii, more to u. S. Citizens nearly doubling the cost of voting by mail as well as dramatic impacts on communities that rely on the Postal Service. We need to be worried about this, and i am. I have asked a lot of yes or no questions. If you could give me simple yes 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 what we have learned about in the last 48 hours . Just yes or no . Postmaster dejoy there is a dramatic we are considering dramatic changes to improve service to the American People. Sen carper [indiscernible] dejoy as i said, i did not direct that. I stopped it. It is insignificant. Its not material to anything and we are sticking with where we are at now. Sen carper 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 more than a passing acquaintance with this president. You are a huge financial supporter, and you 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 will you remain independent of this administration . Postmaster dejoy yes, we 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. It has 15 billion and a 10 billion line of credit along with some very troubling conditions there have been declines in first class mail. It is 15 below last year. But the package volume is higher. My guess is those will come down after the pandemic. All of this is to say the Postal Services 15 billion in cash quickly disappeared. The board of governors must try to cover the loss from covid19. Last yes or no question. Do you support the federal appropriation to the Postal Service to cover the covid related losses . Yes or no . Postmaster dejoy yes. The covid19 related losses i do support. Thank you. Mr. Postmaster general, my family has had military involvement throughout our lives. My mothers youngest brother died in an attack in the western pacific in 1944. He gave his life for this country. My father is a veteran. I am a veteran. We have generation after generation of americans who have been willing to risk their lives, lay down their lives, so we will have the right to vote. We have people who are sick and afraid of voting this year because they are afraid to stand in lines and get a virus that would take their lives. I urge you to work with us. Work with us as we build up a Postal Service we can all be proud of. Thank you. Thank you, chairman. Apparently,son all chaos is broken out in the post office in the last two months. Before that, there seemed to be no complaint about the post office, ever. I do want to think them you for your service. Thank you foro your service. I appreciate your service. I appreciate the fact you have stepped up to lead an organization that desperately needs help, that for congress for decades has hounded on why they are not doing reforms and why we have not had more efficiencies. You have stepped into this role and spoke the work from the Regulatory Commission and said, lets start implement them these things and now Congress Seems to to know beating up on you for actually doing the work. For want to say thank you taking the risk and taking this on. I do want to go through several questions. There was a series of stories that came out, trending on social media, that you are locking up the post boxes in burbank to prevent people from voting. When you locking up the boxes toe you locking up the boxes keep people from voting . Postmaster dejoy the stories that i heard are remarkable. I had nothing to do with collection boxes. Mentioned the boxes that have been retired over the past 10 years. Apparently, any blue boxes that have been retired over the past 10 years are your responsibility over the last 65 days. You had mentioned before about the blue boxes being retired. Are they still going to be retired . Postmaster dejoy the day i put the statement out, we directed everyone to stop reducing postal the collection boxes. To stop shutting down the machines. That is basically what we did. 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 just stop forever . I am trying to figure out, will we try to build up efficiencies in the post office. This has been an issue for a long time. Postmaster dejoy right now, the legislation is that we deliver to millions of addresses during the week. I am committed to that. Thats the strength of the Postal Service. And that we be self sustaining. 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. So, we need to the Management Team and our board there is a path we are planning, ok, with the help of some legislation, with some cost impacts, with new Revenue Strategies that will help and pricing freedom from the prc, we believe we can do that. One thing thats not in the plan is not doing anything until the election. This is an ambitious plan because we have 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 that is what our mission is. To be selfsustaining and deliver at a high level of precision. I am committed to both. They both can be done with a little help coming from the congress and from the postal regulatory. 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 that 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. Ive heard from folks saying the post office is so severely cut now, they cannot meet the capacity to get the ballots 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 to be able to do that. But my question is, folks who challenge this say they will not be enough capacity for elections, but do you have capacity now for christmas and mothers day, the two biggest days for mail . Postmaster dejoy yes, we have capacity for christmas and mothers day. 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. So you right now that you have enough capacity to handle the elections without slowing you down . Postmaster dejoy yes. It is more than that. Besides the extra activities that the organization is going through, the postal union leaders, the board, the executive Management Team here, we are focused 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 still see some impacts from. I think the American People can feel comfortable that the Postal Service will deliver on this election. Thank you. Chairman johnson 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 Postal Service for so many of 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 that the American Public relies on the post office for. For example, one manchester couple wrote, there has been a noticeable slowdown in mail delivery. Mail delays have caused me to ration my medication. I started cutting back my dosage or skipping days to make my medication last. Will you ensure that any changes do not delay access to medications and other . Cessities postmaster dejoy yes and i look forward to working with you on legislation to help this type of service not reach into the future. Thank you. I am glad for some of the statements and actions you have taken. We all know how important voting by mail is usually, and this year even more so. Some states are starting to mail out ballots on september 4, only two weeks from today. You and the 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 ensure that all election mail goes through our system. Through these letters that you sent to congress so far, do you 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 that the general counsel speaks about, you know, the mail classifications. 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 the expanded, the expanded committee the Election Committee within the operation. But there are detailed plans that we go through in every election. 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 have to check and i will get back to you. 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 across the country about handling elections. He found facilities typically process political mail as firstclass mail, delivering more than 95 of election mail in 13 days. Yes or no, 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. Thank you. Now, i want to move on to the issues of the decommissioning of sorting machines. At the manchester adjuster bishop facility in my state, four sorting 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. If that machine fails, like it did yesterday when i was talking to postal workers, sorting stops and 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 email directing local maintenance managers not to reconnect the machines. Yes or no, 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 last wekk. I can find out about that. Sen hansen 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 commit to making sure that postal workers can deliver every piece of mail that comes into the Distribution Center on the same day it gets in 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. Sen hansen it would be helpful to get a response by the end of the week. I see that i am running out of time, so i will ask a question for the record, because there are growing concerns 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 seeing, thee undermining of the Timely Delivery 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. Scott . N johnson senator scott thank you, chairman johnson, for holding this hearing. Thank you mr. Dejoy for being here. We have had 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. They 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 were picked by by the Postal Service . Postmaster dejoy thank you, senator. I mean, there are two things you could look at. 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. Back in the 1990s, i did a 3 billiondollar transformation of the Postal Network regarding mail transfer equipment. I have done big projects with boeing, big projects with disney, big projects with transformation for verizon. That type of experience, i think, and my commitment to Public Service, i think. I think that impressed them. My engagement in community and in the nation. And when you look at the steps i did not bring any consultants, i work with the existing Management Team to create an organization that will look to move forward and get selfhelp, and drive improvements, drive service. And grow revenues. That is something i have been doing 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. And 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. I believe that 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 back up. If you look at the chart, and you look at where or what our reach is on a daily basis, it is impressive. We need to drive our costs out of 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. Thats the success. Along with legislative help, that will be the future success for the Postal Service as we face a new economy. In your business life, did you have to 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 the energy is here at the Postal Service, and the design is here to do that. We have not had the alignment and the expectation of that. Thats something i bring to the table. Are 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. 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 the people from around america are my initiatives. Its really a for me that we can sit here and do nothing. Farce for me that we can sit here and do nothing. Do you need a 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 we do need freedom from the change in the p. R. C. Regulation. And we do need to be reimbursed for our costs. When you look at during the pandemic, we still delivered to 99 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. Some stopped going to these rural areas. But we kept doing what we were supposed to do. And i am one to try and get to a sustainable model, but in this case we i believe that we deserve some compensation for it. I 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 in the future, 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 over time at the post office. Thank you. Chairman johnson senator rosen. 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 transparency in the changes you 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. Sen. Rosen you will not commit . Postmaster dejoy i do not have the authority to do some of those things. That is something that i would need to discuss with counsel so i could not commit 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, to this nation, and they are concerned. Earlier this year, you acknowledged you made operational changes to the Postal Service. You 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 our 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 Older Americans to stay at home for their own safety. That means for the seniors in nevada and across the country, the Postal Service was the only way they would receive critical items like prescriptions, household supplies, Social Security checks. Cial security checks. For veterans, my colleagues already mentioned this, a lifeline, 80 of a veterans prescriptions 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 rural communities, that is all they get, the Postal Service. So please, would you answer yes or no. Before developing and implementing policy changes, did you conduct any specific analysis on how your changes would impact seniors . Yes or no . Postmaster dejoy the policy changes that i sen. Rosen yes or no . 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. Lets move on. Did you do an analysis to see how veterans might be impacted, knowing that so many of our postal workers are veterans, we employ so many veterans that , they are getting their medication, and they rely on 80 did you do analysis to see how the veterans would be impacted . Postmaster dejoy the only change i made was that the trucks leave on time. Theoretically, everyone should have gotten their mail faster. Sen. Rosen can you look me in the eye, all the seniors and veterans in the eye, and tell us you will not continue with policies in the future 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 can commit to that. Sen. Rosen thank you. Did you do any analysis about the fees if mail is late . On utilities and rent the impact that the charges and fees would have all working families . Is there an analysis about the impact of late delivery by you on that, 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 our deployed Service Members routinely 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 this week is that we would improve service for every constituent. 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 it, although we are finding out through thousands of contacts to our office, to our connections, that this is not the case. This is frankly 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 it at all . Postmaster dejoy i will get back to you on that. Sen. Rosen you cannot commit to providing 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 the American People 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 you would provide analysis. If you are transparent, ergo you would provide the data that you used to base these important decisions on that impact peoples lives. I want you to 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 . Sen. Paul do you have me . Chairperson johnson yes. Sen. Paul thank you for your testimony. And thank you for taking a thankless job. Thank you for bringing your business acumen 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 balance annual operating losses. 8 9 billion a year is in a n enormous loss. 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. 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 grew up in the town of 13,000 people and i still 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 money out it is candy it should be , attached to reforms. You are a businessman. If you came in as a venture capitalist here at the post office and named you ceo, what would you do that you are unable to do because it is a Government Entity . What are the legal restraints that prevent you from fixing the 8 9 billion annual loss the post office has . Postmaster dejoy thank you for the opportunity to address that. Im more optimistic than you in terms of our ability to get to a point of breaking even. Number one, the legislative reform i would ask, as i said in my written testimony, the 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 we are seeing everything 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 revenuegenerating 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. Sen. Paul i will not talk to you about going from six days to five days, because that is the job of congress. That is estimated to save 1. 5 of the in dollars. Dollars 1. 5 billion. I think instead of assessing people more when they live down 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 that would make up a large 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 an adequate amount. They are using the post office. Was that a problem . Do we charge competitors enough if they use the post office for the last mile . Is it competitive . Is that a problem and 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, and studied the organization and sixday delivery in the connection the postal carrier has with the American People, that gives us this highly trusted brand and where the economy is going, that is probably our biggest strength to capitalize on. You talk about 1. 5 billion to take a day away, but i am sitting on a transportation change that could give us 3 billion and improve service. I will believe that when i see it. I do not doubt you, but i doubt the government. What about the last mile, are you getting a market rate from competitors . Postmaster dejoy we are studying it. My general view, i have been 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, partisan 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 . Sen. Romney i am. Can you hear me . Chairman johnson loud and clear. Sen. Romney i want to express appreciation for the thousands of letter carriers. I also want to note the postal workers have made our vote by mail system very successful for the entire nation. Mr. Dejoy, im assuming that 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 repeated claims that mailin voting will be fraudulent, that he does not want to give money to the post office because without money, you cannot have universal mail in voting. Putting that aside, let me note that a great deal has been made of the fact that you contributed to president trumps campaign, i would note you also contributed to my campaign. Some people would say you contributed to both sides. [laughter] let me note that like others today, i state the obvious when i say the reliable, valid voting is essential to democracy here and across the world. In particular with covid19, the mail is essential to our Voting System and therefore our democracy. Do you have a high degree of confidence that virtually all of the ballots that will be mailed , lets say 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. We will scour every plan, each night leading up to election day. We are very confident. Sen. Romney i appreciate that. 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 . Postmaster dejoy senator, i think that more urban areas where the coronavirus the intimidation of the coronavirus, which scares our employees, the employee availability average has dropped. About 4 across the nation. When you go into those places i would say are 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, i think that there are at least 20 of those around with a descending level of consequence around the country. So. Sen. Romney thank you. I will say, like a number of my colleagues who have already expressed this point, i would very much 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 in logistics 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. Sen. Enzi we appreciate you for holding this hearing, chairman johnson. And i especially appreciate the postmaster general coming to this hearing. Knowing what kind of target he will be. It has got to be difficult to 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 not called homeland security, it was 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 up for election, because it might help her in her campaign. But she has been dedicated to this, it is not a new idea, it is something she has been working on and it has a lot of ideas of good ideas in it. I really appreciate postal workers. Particularly, 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 not postmarked locally. These are problems i did not realize that you personally deliver everything, that you personally fix the sorting machines. That was all news to me. Detailed analysis how much Detailed Analysis can you do in 60 days, particularly as i suspect that maybe 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 dont think a lot of people understand that and 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. Inhave been dales days our mail was not act up. Up. Ot picked 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. Um, 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 theyve got to do analysis that will actually save money. You used to be able to put in 11 an envelope a collection box for local delivery. They 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 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 i am trying to fill it a bit more. And i appreciate that you are willing to take on, i guess you would have to call it an adventure, not a job, because it would be too tough as a job. I know you 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 in d. C. , i find 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. Well, enough of my, i guess, trying to defend you here. Postmaster dejoy senator, thank you for the support. Date i take the seat, as with any other organization, the day you become a ceo, you are responsible for everything that goes on around 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. So, we need to that is the difference now. As i said in my opening remarks, we will do what we need to do to meet our operating objectives and get to a selfsustaining manner. Thank you. Sen. Enzi i think you for being here. I recognize and that you have to rely on postmasters across the u. S. Doing their job, to manage their own business. So thank you. Chairman johnson senator hawley. Sen. Hawley thank you for being here. Let me see if i can ask some questions to get started, maybe clearing out some of the misinformation that we have heard repeated over and over and over again in the media, some of it echoed today. Just to be clear, will the usps have enough cash on hand to support operating expenses through the november election . Postmaster dejoy yes. Awley has there been an increase in the most recently reported quarter relative to the last year . Postmaster dejoy yes, small. Has the Postal Service seen their cash on hand in creech increase since the start of the pandemic, to a level of 15 billion . Is that right . Postmaster dejoy between 14 billion and 15 billion, yes. 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 safely and on time through the november election, just to be clear . Is that right . Postmaster dejoy yes. Two separate things, to deliver on the election and cash for the future. Those are two separate things, but we have plenty of cash to operate for the election. 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 the note we have negotiating with the treasury, to get longterm financing to purchase new vehicles. As you bring up the note to the treasury, the cares act 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 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 we request it, when i get a 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. I cannot use it for capital, but i can cover operating costs closely associated with covid19. We can identify that pretty easily. Sen. Hawley you said that you would like the Additional Authority to perhaps use the loan toward vehicles or collateral for vehicles, can you say more about that . Postmaster dejoy as you probably know, we have many 30yearold vehicles. We desperately need new vehicles. The loan is not for capital, i would like to see the term extended and used for an equipment loan to buy vehicles and other types of efforts that we have. A longer term than five years. There arey additional legislative reforms that you seek . Postmaster dejoy yes. It has already been passed in the committee a couple years ago, what we are looking for. Understood. Lets come back to the reforms you recently implemented. To what degree were the changes you implemented over the summer in res