Transcripts For CSPAN2 House Rules Committee Meeting On U.S. Postal Service 20240712

Idea, into your bill, out of your bill, appreciate that. I am curious if there have been any hearings about that. Now and as you stated, it is out of the bill. Lets go forward. Have there been any hearings on this legislation at all . Know, there were no hearings on the postmaster generals actions were he did not perform any of us and told us he wasnt stopping. Our constituents were saying they were being hurt. Can i respond . I would like to say i will give you more. Congressman tom and moran and Susan Collins, all republicans sent their own letters expressing concerns with the postmaster generals actions. I ask unanimous consent to place them into the record and for example congressman from montana stated the postmaster general on august 6th, 2020, delaying mail service is unacceptable as the country continues to combat covid19. It keeps our communities connected. Montanans defendant reliable access to receive prescription drugs, Online Purchases and financial documents. He also quoted opposing male stating and i quote, i know there needs to be reforms, they need to be cost stated, that is fine but they cannot compromise the delivery efficient delivery through rural missouri,. What have you mentioned the joy in the statement before the senate today said he is not going to give us the criteria or information that he used that moved him to make these decisions nor was it to give any type of plan where he is going forward, that is a quote that i heard right now so i would like to put this out to go further. In the secret with the democrats, this is not true at all, the democrats loved it and i had the language of my bill and it more than three months ago on the heroes act which included the 25 billion in the bill, those before us in the exact language of delivery for america and unfortunately the president and leader mcconnell have used this court and funding and returning to the standards that were in place before the postmaster general made these drastic changes and he never talk to anyone, he just did it, we have to act to get them to stop, we asked him to stop and he would not. These previous standards have to ensure Timely Delivery for decades, they have developed over years of public input, consultation, with congress and oversight of the appropriate bodies it is the postmaster general who is not following his order, he is making his moves in secret without adequate, full tatian from congress, the board of governors or the postal regulatory information. All my bill does is say stop because he would not stop and it was destructive actions to the middle of a pandemic that is claiming hundreds of thousands of american lives. I will say many postal workers have been ive been told there is 40000 postal workers who have been struck with covid and had to leave work and have not been able to work because they have been sick as an essential worker on the front lines delivering mail and asking peoples concern. All they do is say stop, leave works, republicans on this bill as well as multiple stakeholders, the bill was introduced two weeks ago, all of you have copies of it, its been available to everybody online and unfortunately the postmaster generals actions and delays have caused demand action now. I have never seen this body, our Congress Called in for an emergency meeting like this before, it is the cost of Postal Service of an essential service which too many people, life and death, getting the mail, getting their medicine, their bills, their checks, helping them deduct their lives, america is under quarantine, most of america is depending their whole lifeline out of their apartments of the Postal Service. I yield back. I have a lot to get off my chest. I have a question and i want to fit to both of you. Has there been a hearing on your bill. Thats what i asked, yes, sir no . We are having a hearing on monday. The information has been out for three months. [inaudible] is a postmaster general. I need to have you speak in your microphone a little better because its hard for you to hear. The quality pgh thank you, mr. Chair. Think very much i think you for bringing onto my attention. I know, we do a lot of that around here. Second question, over 75 days from the election, the post office has 16 billion on hand and has a 10 million line of credit sent to todd since may who hasnt needed access probably because theres been more a confusion of cash that nobody again, anticipated but thats a good thing. Not about thing. Do we have sufficient resources to handle to whats going to participate in the next 75 days . Are you asking me. Im asking you and mr. Coleman, do we have money on hand to deal with things that we do next year but im curious about what your opinion is and what mr. Cromers opinion is. The board of governors that is appointed by a republican process had unanimously voted for the 25 billion to make up for the lost to duke covid and other functioning, in fact they voted for 75 billion, they requested 75 billion along with 25 billion for really maintenance and improvements. I actually favor additional money from the post office, thats not the question im asking, do they have enough money because we had to have a hearing on this bill, and a plan on how to spell spend the 25 billion, do they have sufficient money in your opinion to operate now, as i understand it the Postal Office board of governors request is longterm, its not like we have an immediate crisis, we cant handle our responsibilities between now and the election without additional money, im asking you if that is the case. I would say the crisis, we need to get the funding there. That is fine, you answered my question. I would like to ask mr. Cromer if they think they have sufficient money to handle their obligations between now and the election of next year. That is a great question and the answer is yes, they have sufficient money, the postmaster is taking place right now, the post office has 15 billion cash on hand as we speak, they also have 10 billion that we all voted for and they cares act that they have not tapped into. They have 25 billion cash on hand and the president in the postmaster has said they can handle the volume, went went through and its not that big of a percentage of normal daily volume in the Postal Service. They had the capacity, a couple of other things if i may, the senator haley and their statement that the chairwoman referenced saying ten days after they started, i just wonder if the chairwoman has any idea of the post office in missouri were enough, i would say the answer to that is no because these are the sorts of things that you find out in a good thorough Committee Hearing. Thank you very much and i appreciate it, chairman i yield back. Think very much. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. When i came to congress 27 years ago, those of you that were not here may you be surprised to know that there was a post office committee, they basically saw the chair of the committee and of course being a junior kid on the block at that time, i was assigned to the post office committee. And i found an enjoyable experience but one thing. All 27 years that i am here, the post office has been attacked by members of the other side, reform have been put forward, there are few have lynchs experience with the post office, he has 17 members of his family that have worked for the post office, i worked one christmas at the post office and a reason for the reason that in all those 27 years, deficiencies have occurred at the post office and there was a protracted period of time and steve, you back me up on this were 50 billion was owed to the post office and i have no recollection that that money was ever put in and largely comes about because republicans want a buster union and that is their prerogative, the same time it is a place in addition to the service that they render for, it is a place where a lot of veterans work, today and for years. And we need to be mindful of that, like some of you i was coming from the doctors this morning in listening to the radio and i heard the hearing of the postmaster general and i stand to be corrected but i think i heard him say that some of the actions that have been taken were done by the previous postmaster. In addition in dealing with one of the senators who asked him to have his plan ready by sunday night, he said he could not and would not make it available. His plan on going forward. Listen, all of us know something went wrong in the last two months as it pertains to mail in absentee voting home balloting. And a lot of this is raised because the president s actions, you go around and you criticize people, he criticize goodyear in their stock went down 4 . You know, the gentleman in the white house needs to be very cautious that his actions have consequences. Whether the postmaster put this plan into place or not i went to a Distribution Center to a local post office and their backlog is for 5 days. I live in a community of 55 above, even though i most of their ages but in my community, we dont have doortodoor delivery, what happens is we have a congregate area where our postal boxes are, i got them up there two days ago, three people who are nice to me and in the last month, the mail has been slow coming in. And if that went forward, then we would have an election problem and quite frankly, let me put it out there, i think the president wants to say this was a rigged election. I think hes going to say that even knowing that the results would be unfavorable to him in some respect as least as part of the popular vote is concerned. Let me end by saying what really, really got to me, i dont know about you all. I saw at the Distribution Center of Mail Processing, i dont know technology, i had not been inside the Distribution Center in a decade, i did not know anything about the mail process until i saw on television, i learned that it cost a considerable amount of money into processes 32000 pieces of mail, i would ask President Trump, mr. Cromer, my good friend mr. Cole and anyone else that is on this call, if the processing machine as it was working in the places where it was removed could process 52000 pieces of mail, how on earth do you expect that theyre going to be able to process that amount of mail, but if we do have a large number of people that are using mailin ballots, or before holidays come the gentleman at the Distribution Center said to me there is no way that they wont have a backlog. The supervisors of the election in a variety of states have made adjustments, they may or may not be good enough, one final thing and i will say this particularly to mr. Cromer, the complaint of the regular order, mr. Water all who cannot respond, im told on the call today and i have spent a lot of time talking about regular order as ab mr. Cole and other democrats. But there comes times when it becomes necessary when actions are being taken that effect our constituents in effect something is important to me that we have to undertake to do things. The reason it was done this way for the saturday boat was to accommodate the democratic and republican convention, we all know that we have scheduling difficulties, were in the final days of appropriation process but one thing that i need to make clear is we have passed a lot of legislation that people may agree or disagree upon but in my considered judgment, it is wrong for senator mcconnell as the majority leader of the senate, not to put these matters on the floor, and the peoples will be the dictating term, i thank you all, i apologize. Thank you, i may not have been planning to speak today but i cant resist it. And do you often come together in august to put together things that are common concern and he pointed out the Postal Service is a common concern and we lost being called home and we lost mr. Meadows being held in the white house. If those two gentlemen can demonstrate partnership, clearly we know partnership is available but there does not have to be much listening to this particular hearing to understand we are not focused on the partnership issues today and were focused on a host of other things, Susan Collins letter has been referenced as an advocate and if you read the closing of her letter, the postmaster general, you have committed to making sure that your changes are improving, not diminishing Postal Service response times and im called to live up to that commitment. Thats a very reasonable and partnership plan. And madam chair, you mentioned in your Opening Statement that those 25 billion would likely be extended by the end of calendar year 2021. I believe it was calendar year, you mightve met federal fiscal year, would you clarify that you are stating those funds would be extended and then tell me a little bit about what was necessary between now and november, that is where our focus seems to be today versus what needs to be extended between december and the end of 2021 timeline. The demands from the board of governors, the republican board of governors and the other professionals, the Postal Service say that they are in dire shape and need these monies. I am not running the post office but this was a bipartisan effort by many of us including 25 members of the Republican Party to get the money to the post office that the professionals from the post office said would need it. They requested 75 billion, not 25 billion. And the 10 billion line of credit became a problem also with certain demands being placed on it. Basically we should come together in a bipartisan way, fund the post office, stopping the effort that close down the mail until after the pandemic which i think will be much longer than the election that is approaching us and it says until after the pandemic are januar january 2021 and just go forward but make sure the mail is being handled and delivered in a proper way to the people. I was not the least bit argumentative but i was trying to help you build that. I feel that. If i get an answer to my question i think we would be a step in the right direction, we all care about voting and mr. Lynch who has a pleasure serving on transportation doesnt limit his passion to the rules committee from time to time as well. That passion was directed towards protecting democracy in a president ial election in the very nearterm. I think we all share the vision and that passion, 25 billion is a lot of money, 25 billion to folks who already have cash on hand is a question that needs to be answered. My question is, since we all agree that we want to ensure Public Confidence between now and the election, what portion of the 25 billion is necessary then because your Opening Statement you explain the money would not be extended until at the earliest the end of 2021. Well, i want to make sure the money is there for the post office to operate and i support them getting the money now, i would like to get a bipartisan agreement but we can continue this conversation as we go forward. Respectively, we cannot continue a conversation about whether we are going to give the 25 billion after we party given them 25 billion. We need to have a conversation before we give them 25 billion. But i see your point. Can i comment on that question. Please. With respect to something that chairwoman said about there being problems with line of credit that we all supported in the cares act is no demand on the 10 billion cares act loan other than transparency. Why was only demand in the cares act, the treasury loan terms were mutually agreed to with the Postal Service. But one other thing, was something mr. Hasting said has been leveraged by Many Democrats on the panel is how much the mail has been delayed over the last year or the last month and i have the data hear from the Postal Service in the average day is to deliver firstclass mail in fiscal year 19 was 2. 3 days. And for the same average to deliver mail, first class mail for fiscal year 20 in the Current Quarter is the same threepoint to days. But we dont have the data from july and august, we will not get that data in Teller Committee hearing on monday, two days after the vote on this bill but from the data that we have, there is no delay, it is the same amount of time, three days to deliver mail today was this time last year. There is no way. With all due respect, members of this committee are talking about things that they dont have any data to back it up, i heard the story talk to a person who did that and then we got into this and it created a situation with the president and im over here with the post office talking about delays in the mail because you heard this or heard that, the data right here says there is no difference, its the exact same, theyre talking about moving the post boxes to try to hurt Election Results or whatever, obama sent them to mail sorting offices in southern kentucky. This is something that has been ongoing for a long time, i just want to look at the data, there is no difference in the length of time for mail delivery today as opposed to the same quarter last year but again, we will get the data for july and august after this. I think that is the nature of the manufactured crisis that youve discussed with chairman said in his Opening Statement. Can you yield on the questions. Are you find that theres no delay right now . Im getting the calls right now i been getting calls of delays in the mail for 20 years the data shows for the quarter fiscal year quarter 319, 24242. 3 days. And for fiscal year 22. 3 days. There could be delays over july and august but we dont have the data. Were talking about a major piece of legislation. I dont need to wait for my constituents to tell me firsthand [inaudible] you may not think as a Foreign Government with our election in the series, i do and so we disagree on that. But on this here, we are here because the president is openly and blatantly bragging about how he wants to deny money to the Postal Service so we can vote by mail. He is doing that and the fact that there is no concern is astonishing to me. I just dont get it. And with respect im a bit of a regular and im glad the republicans but putting that aside, i dont have a prediction on the hearing on monday. This joy is awkward to be very forthcoming on anything. He is not forthcoming on anything over the senate and frank that i do not trust him. And hes basically sitting the there. You either have a hearing, a lot of luck getting anything accurately and i wanted to clarify that. Thank you gentlemen. Chairman, if i may i have heard this Committee Talk about evidence say solution a lot, our last Committee Hearing. Im not sure were talking about 25 billion, the Oversight Committee is supposed to be eliminating fraud and abuse. With the postmaster general criticizing this to prevent them from doing that. My grandfather [inaudible] my grandmother spent her career in springs tennessee retired from the Postal Service. I support the post office. But lets do it in a bipartisan way and transparently if you want to have accurate data before [inaudible] [inaudible] is a bipartisanship, i think what mr. Chairman did at the beginning of this hearing and with the help, is basically taking and it shows a commitment to bipartisan and republican votes because we do not want this to be a partisan issue. I think we ought to be recognize, its a big deal to do what they agreed to do. I think you and i yield back. Thank you. Youre welcome mr. Chairman. I appreciate that amendment, it speaks to the nature of legislative grasping when regular order is not balanced. I want to ask a couple of questions about what i see in the rules committee. Im looking at madam chair at the prohibitions where in section a they say were going to permiprohibit any change that wd have the effect of delaying or repealing mail, allowing for nondelivery of mail you are increasing the volume of undelivered mail. And then i go down to the election mail section where it says election mail is to be processed and cleared from any postal facility or post office on the same day that it is received, i absolutely support those desired to move election mail quickly, im wondering what my Postal Service believes are to do with the mandates, do nothing that will slow down but prioritize this merely particular which by definition will slow the other meal down. Am i misreading those sections or is there more truth within our committee member. May be recognize to clarify. The political mail has always been treated like firstclass mail. All political mail in election mail and certainly ballots. There was a decision by the postmaster general, not to treat election ballots as firstclass mail. It was going back to the standard that was there before. In answer to your question on the finances, were waiting for a report from the bipartisan, nonpartisan on the money, its my understanding that these funds would be spent in 2021, thats where these funds will be spent and in answer to the question that was raised several times that in prior administrations there have been removal of mailboxes and sorting machines in the course that happens but there are two critical differences right now, first were in the middle of a Global Pandemic and now is the absolute worst time to remove mailboxes and sorting machines across the country because its been pointed out by many of us for tickly very eloquently by mr. Hastings that your processing very quickly thousands and thousands of mail and now theyre doing it by hand. Secondly the postmaster general did not adequately consult with congress or the board of governors or the postal regulatory commission. They suggested during briefings that they might be moving from one facility to others to make things more efficiently. But they never told us they would be eliminating this many sorting machines. Weve seen photographs and reports across the country that they are throwing them into dumpsters, cannibalizing their parts and im being told in some facilities, they dismantle them, they dont remove them but they make them so they cannot function. That is why we need this legislation to make sure there is no slowing down of the mail which we are seeing now and do we have an absolute report across the country, only to look at the headlines across the country that were trying to compile of the slowdown of the mail and the problems that they are confronting across this country and republican and democratic district. In removing public mailboxes in the midst of a once in a century pandemic just months before an important election in which tens of millions of americans will vote by mail makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. No sense. Thats why we need this legislation. Madam chair im very interested in the information but are more interested in the answer to the question that i asked about the dual mandate, i understand, what the shared desire that we treat election mail like firstclass mail with the subsidy with the same election boards in a very real way but i recognize that desire, what i do not understand is when im restricting the Postal Service policies in the way that this bill does, it does not allow changes in delivery standards, does not allow anything to be slow down so im confused about how i have a mandate to speed things up on the one hand without requirement and Something Else be a low priority at the same time, maybe theres a massive high read were rounding there on the total delivery that the Postal Service makes, its really not going to be any problem at all because the Postal Service is doing everything fine already, im not sure but as i read the language, i have a concern and i was hoping you could address it for me. I think there is one thing that we can be absolutely sure about. One thing that we are sure about, is they have taken the machinery out, they have told us not to deliver the mail but only to the one run a day. I need to reclaim my time. I use the words of the postmaster general. I wish you would not, the earlier you said that you were not wanting the post office, you cannot be held responsible for those decisions, i agree with that, im asking about the legislative language that you wrote and you are responsible for and i wanted to get an answer to that. My bill set the floor, not a ceiling, if it requires the postmaster general to return to the standards in place before you started making all of the sweeping changes. As im sure the gentleman know knows the provision prevails. If there are changes that were not policies delayed and if the postmaster general consult all of the relevant stakeholders, then improvements that increase efficiency, i support everybody support and mealtimes would be allowed. Anything that improves efficiency reform, and if you would like to add clarifying language that says that even more, we believe it says that but if you want to make it clear and say anything that increases sufficiency and mealtimes will be allowed, i would accept the bipartisan amendment in the bill clearly states in section two a that the Postal Service may not implement any change that would reduce Service Performance or impede prom reliable and efficient services. Now one of the reasons for thi this one of the reasons for the need for this and why many republicans and democrats feel so strongly about it, as we have serious questions of whether we can rely on the representation for the postmaster general, on tuesday he said he was suspending his changes. I was ecstatic and elated. But then the 24 hours later, he started backpedaling, he said he would not put 40 machines in mailboxes back as mr. Hastings pointed out, it greatly increases sufficiency and he still hasnt committed to treating election mail as firstclass mail which is been the standard for years, this provision nearly gives people ability and one of the reasons that we wanted the right to action was to give people the ability across the country since we cannot manage it, has to be managed by the people and their communities in the post office in the community but to have this injunctive relief with the right to action but weve taken that out at your request another republicans request, we want a bipartisan bill. But we are concerned not only about the actions that he is taken unilaterally but also the statement for which there is no question that it is slow down the mail during a pandemic and during election year. Before the election. Going back to his point that he doesnt trust the postmaster general and it makes it difficult to rely on the information that if the postmaster general if postal boxes were never removed for political reasons, they were removed from normal business reasons upon thousands upon thousands have been each and every year, then here course would not put those back because they were not taken down in the normal course of business. Mr. Woodall, they do not know if the changes that the postmaster general made will be efficient or not, they can make the post office much more appreciative and they could possibly make mail delivery quicker. We dont know them. The data shows nothing has changed, nothing has changed. This is a manufactured crisis that the people in congress that do not like President Trump are using this week described to her the president. These majors that he put in place could very easily make the post office more efficient and make more delivery critica quic. We dont know because we dont have the data, we will get more data monday after the Committee Hearing but its a terrible way to operate especially the Oversight Committee which is supposed to be the committee that the taxpayer watchdog. I dont believe theres a single committee that does not seek the Postal Service. I will close on that note of agreement but i will yield back. I saw yes, sir lynch wanted to respond. Im sorry mr. Lynch. Im good now. So mr. Cromer is waiving these sheets from june. Last thursday, august 13, did the postmaster general send a letter to the American Postal Workers Union and that has been published already but i would asked to have us submitted as evidence in the record, he basically says this, he says the delivery delays are unintended consequences and temporary. So enjoy who is writing the post office is telling them, the union that the common delays we are experiencing are unintended consequences. So even though you may not see delays, the postmaster general last thursday acknowledged the delays in delivery, i visited my post office, you got a letter in kentucky and mr. Cole got a letter from the post office in oklahoma saying that they could not guarantee the Timely Delivery of the ballots for the elections being held in kentucky and oklahoma and just so you know, you are in complete denial of the world around you. And look the withdrawal of the machines, 671 highspeed sorting machines have been removed across the country, remember since the early 1990s, early to mid 1990s, we reduced the employees at the post office 100,000 people, we are 100,000 less employees today than we had in the 90s at the post office. We did that and the union collaborated by using automation. As people were retiring, they did not replace them. What they did was broaden automation, the highspeed machines. That is an efficiency move, now the ripping out the machines that allowed us to deliver the mail with less employees. In the postmaster general, just to reiterate acknowledged that were having delays in the delivery of mail, just so you know, you might want to talk to your constituents and visit post office is but that is going on right now, whether you choose to acknowledge it or not. I yield back. If i may respond. I dont think you should have to, it is on my time and i feel like i correct the misunderstanding and his facts may all be correct but his characterization of the testimony was not. What mr. Cromer said was i have the very best data that has been put out and on monday we made this letter data to confirm what mr. Lynch is saying right now but we dont have the data yet and we could legislate my antidote. We got a letter from the postmaster general, we got a letter dated thursday from the postmaster general this is a delight is in the mail. But you want to wait for a report. Id like to hear from the postmaster general but i think were going to be a day late and a dollar short maybe two days late and 25 billion short, monday but you reference a z or secretary. Again, i know that youre trying to characterize but they did not say we are not going to be able to deliver mail, what they did say is we have the same standards today that were going to have a place in november and we want you to be aware of the standards, and if you do crazy things because your mail is counting, these voters may be disadvantaged and we dont want that to happen, let us talk now before we come to crisis so we all understand webpage were on in my second team state does that have to take the letter, we are going to make sure that every vote in the great state of georgia is counted and mr. Cromer i will close with you. Thank you, i wanted to reference the letter that was sent out about the violence the letter was sent out with the ballot in reference to the state in a house at least five states that has a rule, you can request an absentee ballot the day before the election, there are at least five states that do that. You will not get that ballot mailed to the voters and mailed back by election day, that is obvious with one date. In kentucky prior to covid19, it was recommended on the secretary of state website that you recommend the ballot ten days before the election so you can have time for the secretary of state to mail the boat and mail it back. That is what that letter pertains to prethe states have one day at the requested deadline. That is obvious, it would not matter who the postmaster general is. One day you will not get your ballot and mail it back in time, that is impossible. Mr. Chairman i wish the length of this hearing aided that they will not need to have that hearing on monday but i think it just enforces why that hearing on monday shouldve already been held prior to the hearing but with that i yield back. My conclusion. It does not matter what the constituency or the postmaster general, i dont think my friends are going to ever agree to doing whats necessary to make sure elections are protected an and to have the resources they need. Pgh thank you, mr. Chairman, we are again gathering for reference to deal with another emergency, this time to say the Postal Service in the virus has infected all aspects of this administration. Basic Government Services that function to serve all of americans are being undermined, lets look at mr. Joy, he is a political he is one of three fundraising chairs, at least prior to him being elected for this position. To date, 671 and counting machines, sorting machines have been removed. Lets look at where some of those machines come from, i said 59 in florida, 58 in texas, 34 in ohio, 30 in pennsylvania 16 michigan, 15 in North Carolina, while in virginia, 12 in wisconsin and 11 in georgia. That is just a partial, what do those dates have in common. It is obvious, a political operative, argued it to the states because they are key for the trump administration. Now lets look at august 7, this political operative, we assign and including to prop daytoday oversight executives, thats what we know so far. I cannot confirm or deny that statement that five states have put out in one day turnaround, i cannot confirm or deny that that happens but we know it was only in five states that received that letter instead of 24 states that received that letter. Evidence has always been and plagued for all to see. Lets look at back in december. This committee met to consider articles of impeachment. It seems like a lifetime ago, it was around this time last year when reports emerged that President Trump had abused our National Security and Foreign Service apparatus or his own partisan political gain. Look at the u. S. Census. The constitution requires that every person living in the u. S. Every ten years, the information for election and it determines how much federal funding each of our states received, but the administration hatched a plan to add a Citizenship Question which could suppress the towns and communities like mine and they have been suppressed. The Supreme Court saw through the secretary justification for adding the Citizenship Question but the damage has already been done in the administration undermined another part of the federal government. Look at the department of Homeland Security, originally created in the aftermath of 9 9 11, to protect americans against people who wish to do us harm and instead americans exercising their First Amendment right, need protection from the department of Homeland Security and secret police in unmarked cars, to arrest protesters in the middle the night to create a political show, political theory of law and order for this administration. While the federal police has been withdrawn from portland, the damage has been done in the administration has undermined another part of the federal government. Fema is an organization that at its core should exemplify the most basic function of government protecting citizens to give national investments. The natural disasters. Bipartisan, but even this Mission Comes at a price according to the former chief of staff of fema there administration told them to cut off aid to california who had their homes burned down due to wildfires. Why . Because californians according to this president did not support him. That brings us to todays crisis. The u. S. Postal service has been tried in a constitution is as old as the country itself in 1775, the Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin, the first cushion for general and by the way, there has not been a postmaster without experience from the usps appointed in two decades, the Postal Service provide a special Critical Service that delivers restrictions, Social Security benefits, pay checks, past returns and absentee ballots to millions of americans including in our most remote communities. You know what they also do day today, the mail deliveries personnel, they check on senior citizens, they do well checks also. The Postal Service is not a private company that can refuse delivery or charge outrageous fees. By law, the Postal Service exist to serve all of us, all of us, unfortunately covid has impacted the bottom line of the Postal Service, just like every other organization has been impacted by covid. If we can help private enterprise such as airlines because they are an essential service, then we absolutely must help the Postal Service. The delivery for america provides 25 billion in critical funding to support the Postal Service, this is the same level of funding recommended by the usps board of governors which is 100 composed of trump appointees. This is not to cover anything other than the covid expenses, because at least in some areas, but 50 of their personnel have had some kind of impact because of the coronavirus. The bill prohibits the Postal Service from implementing any changes to operation or level of service it had in place on january 1, 2020. These changes were well documented, removing mailboxes, sorting machines without a plan to facilitate mail delivery, cutting overtime in retail hours, eliminate extra delivery trips and closing processing facilities. This is not a manufacture conspiracy as my republican colleagues would have you believe. Ive constituents that are concerned about this, and the facility who runs a assistedliving facility, she told my staff that the delays and mail delivery are hurting her bottom line as invoices are not getting paid due to the long delays and mail delivery. And she is worried that her patients may be hurt if the mail delays affect the prescription drugs, i visited the yorba linda hospitals that serve our veterans, they too are extremely concerned, you see when veterans are released from the hospital, they go home with two days of medication. In their prescription is followed to the mail, that has to be changed because of what is been happening. The postmaster general announced that he will reverse these changes if nothing less more political theater from this administration as of today, he has had he is not going to put back the sorting machines, there is no real plan on how they will replace the sorting machines and post office boxes that were already removed and that is outside allowing harsh weather conditions to further damage those machines. Why was the postmaster general rushing to enact the changes in the first base . , this political operative, knowing that we were in the middle of the pandemic and Staffing Levels have fallen to 50 in some areas of postal employees being affected by covid19. It was to save money then i would point out only a fool would believe that rick replacing automatic sorting machines and cutting overtime to depleted staff would improve delivery. We can look the president s own words on why he blocked the funding prehe admitted on national tv he did on national tv. He said, they meaning democrats want 25 billion for the post office, now they need that money in order to have a post office work so we can take all of the millions and millions of ballots, now in the meantime they are not getting there. By the way, those are just two items but if they do not get those two items, that means you cannot have universal mailin voting because they are not equipped. The president said the quiet part out loud, its all about the election because remember he knows that the post office is not equipped to handle the volume of mail. Not about the senior of this facility or at the va hospital who need their prescription drug, not about the Small Business that neither packages and invoices to be delivered on time to stay afloat in this pandemic. Not about heroic men and women in a Postal Service who risked their lives providing essential services day in and day out. Mr. Chairman, we need a government that works for the american people, we are not called the United States of donald trump. We do not pledge of allegiance to donald trump, we pledge allegiance to the United States of america and it is time that we honor that pledge and protect the Postal Service from the corruption that has affected so many parts of the federal government. I wish that this bill was a bit more directive toward the political operative. Return to standard isnt enough for me. I know that this political operative is not going to follow that instruction. I wish this bill would say that we direct you to reinstall those machines but it doesnt, its better than sitting on her hands and doing nothing. People are suffering right now and we need to do everything in our power to help fix this mess that has been created by the political operative in this administration. Mr. Chairman i yield back. Thank you. Policy director burgess. Pgh thank you, mr. Chairman. First i would like to briefly read an article written by the Editorial Board of the wall street journal and i ask a unanimous consent that we have submitted for the record. Without objection. Thank you. It is entitled nancy pelosi goes politically postal, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling the house back into session this week to address leaders at the u. S. Postal service is being infiltrated by alien lizard people posing as letter carriers. Okay that is not quite that bad. The actual Conspiracy Theory holds that President Trump is strangling the u. S. Ps to hack the november election. To talk about unsubstantiated as the press likes to call donald Trump Twitter and missions, democrats should be deeply embarrassed that their leadership has embraced as claimed. Two congressmen including democratic chairman hot hiking jeffries went to the fbi to urge if you can believe it a criminal investigation of postmaster general louis dejoy. This Conspiracy Theory is the most farflung thing i have ever heard said Stephen Kearney who worked at the u. S. Post office for 33 years including as senior Vice President. The joy was not appointed from President Trump but the u. S. Post office bipartisan governor who as it happened selected him unanimously. You can find operational reasons for the actions taken by the Postal Service so far. Another longtime usps executive who now needs the association for postal commerce. In the way joy detect any criminality behind him and the loss of what would reach that conclusion. The democratic letter to the fbi sites news reports that the usps is decommissioning hundreds of mail serving machines. But the context is the overall mail volume has fallen 33 since 2006. They have been taking machines out of services for years and have been encouraging them to do it more aggressively says hamilton davidson the president of the american catalog mailers association. I think thats a good thing for america because we dont want to pay for stuff that we do not need. He now runs the alliance of nonprofit mailers concurs its obvious to be efficient and you need to take out some of the capacity he says, it has similarly been urging productivity improvements because they dont do that are postage rates will go way out. Usps document loading and the online ether is titled equipment reduction. It is dated may 15, mr. Joy took over june 15, another claimed that the usps is pulling correction bins off the streets in mass, the going around literally tractortrailers picking up mailboxes joe biden said last week. It is bizarre, the usps says it has nearly 132,000 boxes across the country which are adjusted as volume and august 2016 the u. S. Post Office Inspector general said the number of collection boxes declined by more than 12000 in the past five years. Is this Voter Suppression by the Obama Administration . Alarm twitter users posted a photo of mailboxes on the flop and truck in new jersey. The tea mayor said the mailboxes were being replaced to the new antiphishing boxes for local newspapers. On monday the usps said it would postpone the security upgrade for 90 days while we evaluate our customers concerns and other words to keep jittery partisans on the internet from losing their minds before november 3. Mr. Joy is not trying to cut overtime cost but is it any wonder the day he was sworn in, the Inspector General reported in 2019 the post office at 1. 1 billion in Mail Processing overtime and penalty overtime. 280 million in extra transportation and 2. 9 billion and delivery overtime and penalty overtime cost. The context, the u. S. Post Office Overall loss was 8. 8 billion. I am almost done, mrs. Pelosi is trying to put on a political show, bearing democrats as the savior of the post office. She says she wants to pass a bill that prohibits a post office from implementing any changes to operations or level of services has in place on january 1. Also in the mix, maybe 25 billion cash infusion, its not a may, it is in is, Chuck Schumer will demand that the come back to temper the same vote and by the way, this is important, the Letter Carrier Union indoors joe biden on the weekend. This is a madefortv phony political crisis. The usps has longterm challenges but enough money to last them through 2021. Mr. Joy says theres ample capacity to deliver all election mail, some states have valid deadlines but nobody can pretend that its a post offices fault. Democrats have also scheduled a hearing for next monday so they can yell at mr. Joy in person. How long before representative adam schiff says its another russia, donald trump conspiracy to steal the election. I could not have said it better. I do have some questions. Mr. Cromer, i dont know if you know the answer to this or not. I was told it is the union that wanted the removal of the private section deleted from the bill. Have you heard that as well . Im sorry i have no idea whether thats right or not. Thats why we should have a Committee Hearing, a real Committee Hearing, there have been Great Questions asked frame everybody, democrats and republicans, we dont have answers because were not going to regular order. Thank you, mr. Did you realize there was Social Security payments being delayed, did you realize that almost 100 of Social Security payments are filed electronically . Yes, the democrats have been using that and they arent going to get their Social Security checks on time when your data is accurate. Thank you. Mr. Obamas 2013 budget with the mail service and in 2014 the Obama Administration called in saturday service, i dont know if you were in office, did you hear a bunch of outcry in emergency on that . I was not in the congress at that time and ive been researching where any of the democrats were yelling for Conspiracy Theory where they were calling for a special day in congress to come up on a saturday or any other day of the week without the regular orders. Ive never heard that. There was not a peep committee wise when we made those changes. Mr. Cromer, i totally agree with you, i watched the videos of President Trump press conference, i watch the video, nowhere the President Trump say what the democrats are saying he did. What theyre talking about is an overall stimulus package that if the democrats dont negotiate on a passage about republicans and what he wants and what democrats want to negotiate a deal than the small portion of the Postal Service because the deal will not go into effect. Is that your understanding as well. That is 100 my understanding, he was talking about the entire package and also with reference to the ballot, the issue he had with the ballot, it was not with absentee ballot but universal mailing ballot, one other thing if i may, i wanted to say, you stated this openly, it started june the 15th, he has not been on the job two months in the Pilot Program that he started was july 25, not even a month, as many have theorized, we need to know, there are many represents, all i ask is that we get timely information, accurate data and i think were going to get the data monday, unfortunately that is two days after congress has already passed the deal and given or attempted to give a blank check, 25 billion, not one person on the Oversight Committee has been able to say. Great question. Thank you before i go, i have one less statement to make, do you have anything else that you would like to say. When we get the data and looking at the evidence to determine, it took three days, hes only been on the job two months, we do not know just the picture that you mentioned with the activist on social media and theres opinions it creates conspiracy theories, the picture of the mailboxes when in fact. There is a lot of accusations, we look forward to the accusations and thats why we have a conference and its very disappointing is not for the committee and the voters in the committee with the hold government accountable. We should be working with a willing government and head of agencies to try to make government more efficient, we cannot continue and send it, its unfortunate to see the way that our committee has treated the joy and he was voted unanimously and he has a background that qualifies the history with his logistic background and this is a sad day to hear everyone talk about russia, their hatred towards trump and they dont trust the chairman but again thats why they need to have them testify to the committee into congress before we go to this bill. Thank you in my piano, i agree with the wall street journal editorial, this is nothing more than a madefortv phony crisis for the weekend tv show in the republican convention. With that i yield back. Thank you very much the security checks in response and let me have the case of over half a million americans, this is not a bill. [inaudible] and so its essential that we not only have a Postal Service but a Postal Service that can deliver in a timely fashion without delay. I am now happy mr. Chairman can i speak a unanimous. Is not better . That is wonderful. Thank you iv unanimous consent to submit for the record the statement of a Administration Policy which says the advisors would recommend. Without objection. Thank you very much. Thank you, mr. Chairman and its been a very interesting conversation and i would just say to my friend steve lynch, thank you for voicing what so many people feel about this time in American History and i disagree with my friend in the wall street journal Editorial Group that this is a manufactured crisis, its a manufactured crisis and its elimination of 671 sorting machines this year by the Postal Service which has just come to light within the last couple weeks and i will refer and offer evidence article of the Washington Post yesterday, heres why the Postal Service wanted to remove hundreds of mail sorting machines compared to the prior year of about 180 in the prior year and that of 125. I would say to my friend mr. Of beating me in a Golf Tournament a year or so ago. That i think all of us certainly me, ive been in congress for 14 years. I served in the state senate before that for eight years. And quite frankly, i have not had any complaints or virtually none over that course of time about the Postal Service but in the last six months, particularly lost two months there has been an outcry about delay in service and i know my letter carriers in my postal workers are stretched to the max. Given the pandemic and a number of other demands, they truly are heroes, they are frontline heroes and we have in colorado and other places in the country a shortage of letter carriers and meal service providers. So we can get into the 25 billion and i do have a question for mr. Cole about th that. I will just alert him in advance, my question is to you, im following up with mr. Lynch. There are a number of sections that legislative pieces to this bill as well as the appropriation piece. You cannot object i would assume to the section of the bill that prohibits limiting overtime pay to letter carriers and postal workers. Do you . I think we all support paying people for work that is to be done, that is part of it if there is an influx, that is fine, i support that but one thing you mentioned you been getting reports that its been delayed for six months and youve sat on the job for two months in the Postal Service makes it very easy. They certainly dont prerate this president , lets just go back to the basics. We are stretched, my question is more about overtime where we know that the Postal Service employees at least in my area are stretched and are working overtime like crazy in one of the potential issues that we face is a direction by the postmaster to limit and stop overtime pay. That is crazy. I guess you dont object to that. Let me go to another one. Do you know, this goes to mr. Cole because after the Appropriation Committee get different briefings than the rest of us get, was there ever to you, did you get everything as to the postmasters desire to now remove 671 sorting machines all. That number soared to about 21 million pieces of mail per our like 500 million pieces per day. Did you have any breathing from the Postal Service about that and i would ask my friend as a question of interest to me whether procreation committee had a briefing about a major change like that. I certainly have never received such a briefing and to be fair im now on the committee the actual handles the Postal Service. We would not have expected everything like that it wouldve been for the appropriate Committee Prior monthend, im just not on that. Can i go back and answer the question about overtime. Sure. There is planned overtime and ramp overtime driven by operational issues and workforce availability issues, it is targeting unauthorized overtime, that is what he is arguing. In other words youre okay making sure that people get overtime unless their management did not approve it unless its unauthorized. Okay, i dont know how overtime gets paid if its unauthorized anyway, thats a whole another question. Mr. Lynch, have you ever had any briefings by the Postal Service about the removal of 671 of these massive sorting machines by the post office questioning. I have had none, we had no notice. Let me ask you this question. Mr. Cuomo and ms. Maloney brought this up in her testimony. That the election mail, the ballots be treated as first class mail, that is a section of the bill, do you have any objection to that . You are asking me personally . I dont personally have any objection but what were saying what we heard from the postmaster general and many former governors that the post office has the capacity to deliver the mail, the post office delivered all the census forms in the post office delivered stimulus checks for those who are signed up for direct deposit and there were no reports of problems with the post office delivering the census forms for the stimulus checks. I can tell you, we have had complaints to my office of the stimulus checks, and complaints to my office and i never have complaints about the delivery and prescription medicines both from the veterans committee, the Senior Community and the Disability Community and they cannot get to these places to get the medicine, they have to get it through the mail and any delay is lifethreatening. I feel like the president admitted to a felony when he said our desire is to limit the mail ballots and tries to have a distinction between absentee ballots and other ballots and that is totally baloney so the dangers at this point when were in a pandemic, were coming up to a very consequential election and the Christmas Season upon us to be fiddling in remove making massive changes to the post office that has something has alarmed a lot of people in the evidence that we get as members of congress, from our constituents is that this is really starting to hurt. I appreciate what youre saying because i believe the whole issue at hand has to do with violence, not the Postal Service. And there is a difference between absentee ballot then every universal ballot, and absentee ballot is requested by a voter, the president and first lady had a universal ballot and its an unsolicited to everyone on the voter rolls and we all know there are lots of mistakes with the voter rolls and just every state. Thats a problem the president has, not with absentee ballots. Universal ballot. I will respond to that and then i want to ask a comment about that. In colorado we now have mail in voting, our percentage of people that vote is far in front of any place else than the country except for maybe minnesota and i dont know how they got ahead of us but they did. And its not just some unsolicited thing, it is the law in colorado. And we have places, we have voting places as well, an individual could take advantage if we see a ballot or they could go through a voting place. I will say to the record into you miss maloney, my secretary of state Jenna Griswold wants you, shes available to testify and she wants to talk to about the services that she provides. Everything else that we now find getting delayed so miss maloney , you wanted to Say Something i think all of my colleagues for the questioning i wanted tooits not just about election and balance. We had a hearing with mister lynch april 9, the postmaster general read it where she sounded the alarm that the personal Services Without immediate action from congress to provide funding for the Postal Service, she said it, others said. The Postal Service installed it as soon as april 2021 and i asked permission to put into the record the transcript of that hearing where she details the sacrifices of the work. [inaudible] that if Congress Acts now, 25 billion to support the Postal Service. [inaudible] in 2022 and for those who say its a democrat drive i have letters from republican members of congress and the attorney general and others talking about the changes and harkening back to jet attorney general dejoy and at the local state and national level. I asked permission, i could read them but i asked permission to place them in the record. Without objection. I yield back. Ill finish up. I could go through all of the different sections Mister Coleman of the bill. Other than the appropriations section to see which of those you agree with, which of those you dont like i assume you would not be opposed to something that forbids a reduction in the Service Standards that the post Office Currently has or you know, that it would bar any closure or consolidation of post offices or reduction of facility hours until we are through thisdarn pandemic. My opinion, my preference i generally support less regulation, less compliance. I support the post office and i want to see emaildelivered on time. I have family members that depend on getting medicine in the mail. I know what we are all concerned about but when it comes to the 25 billion appropriation i would like to know where the money is going to go before i vote to appropriate it and also, i would like to know how that 25 billion is going to make postal delivery quicker. Im not saying it wont but we dont know. Theres so much we dont know about these bills and these new rules and regulations and sending all this money which by the way we are borrowing from china. I think there are a lot of questions and we just need to have a little more vetting of this bill. I would agree with you except that the postmaster has undertaken this massively , massive reorganization removing all sorts of equipment, saying no more overtime, shrinking hours without having consulted with your committee. Without, i dont think having consulted with the Appropriations Committee and they tell me theres always separate briefings and i dont think theres been any consultation there so im going to end this and direct this to you mister lynch. One of the things we get to do as members of Congress Seems kind of inconsequential but its not because we get to help post offices and we all kind of smiled about it but its to honor somebody who has really had a remarkable influence in some way on the community, on the country and i got the name of post office after a guy named felix sparks and felix sparks was a young man from oklahoma originally, then colorado who landed in sicily, was part of that effort in sicily. On his way across italy in world war ii. Was the only member of his regiment left after the battle of anzio in italy and fought his way across france and was the colonel who by that time had become a general who liberated dachau and i got to name the place, again the youngest Supreme Court justice of the colorado Supreme Court ahead of the Colorado National guard. A district attorney, just an unbelievable man. And i got to name this post office after him i went to visit sometime last tuesday, it was a busy post office and i thought about him and the potential and maybe what the president said was an admission that hes trying to limit voting or the ability of people to get back their ballots and be counted, how their voice, their most sacred right heard but i thought of him rolling over in his grave if in fact thats what washappening here. And there have been so many other instances where theres been an attack on voting and through misinformation and otherwise and i went to one of the clerks at the counter and we talked and they were very concerned because they could see things darting to pile up. And this is a busy post office so mister lynch, im going to give you the last word of my section here but i understand your passion and anger about what appears to be a concerted effort and miss torres went through all thefacts. That really are to deprive people of their voice in this government. I yield to the gentleman from massachusetts. Thank you and i appreciate your kindness and courtesy youve extended to me. I wont be long and i dont want to repeat myself but i do want to say a couple things. One, we did here ive got one eye on the hearing in the senate and mister the joy upon questioning from Senate Appointments said senator portman was trying to decry the complaints hes been getting from his veterans and his district who want the, there are not getting their medicines in the mail so the complaints are piling up in his office. Senator portmans office so he put it on the postmaster general and asked what are you doing about this . And dejoy said this is a quote, we all feel bad about the current debt in service. So the people who were saying there were no delays, youve got to go to your post office. Go down there and talk toyour postal employees. Ask them about the delays that are going on there area the point i want to raise is about the 25 billion. Weve debated this. You might have missed it but we debated this. I defended it. This is the exact same section, 25 billion for the post office that was in the heroes act. That bill was cast three months ago, youprobably forgot. I dont blame you. Its been sitting on Mitch Mcconnells desk for three months. We debated that in congress. Members on your side of the aisle questioned it and we answered to the best of our ability about why the post office needed the 25billion. You may wantanother hearing to talk about it some more but we already have that hearing. We had the hearing on the 25 billion that goes to the post office and nobody likes hearings more than i do especially on matters like this that affect our democracy but i would ask mister cole look, theres a rule in the houseright now that you cannot have a field hearing. I wanted to have a field hearing in my district. I wanted to get all the people complaining about the delays, get them together at the plaza in the middle of my district and have them socially distance and we will have a congressional hearing on the delay and delivery of mail and the impact it may have on this election. You know what i was told . Theres a house rule thatsays i cant have a field hearing within 30 days of an election in my district. So i would just ask the circle and Mister Palmer and my republican colleagues would you agree to waive that rule every member of congress would be able to have a field hearing in their districts to talk to all those irate and frustrated people, the veterans who are getting their medicines. The people who arent getting their checks. The people who arent getting their mail. The Small Businesses that arent getting their mail and the postal workers who are being prevented from delivering themail so my question to you is would you support waving that rule to allow members ofcongress , all of us , democrat and republican to have field hearings authorized in our own districts to address this delay in the delivery of mail. Would you agree to that . I dont know if thats a question of speech. But i would direct you to the speaker. You voted for the rules of the current congress, i actually voted against so youre the majority , you set the rules. You want to change the rules, talk to the speaker. Im going to reclaim my time. Were worried about changing the rules and we can visit about that but quite frankly and seriously to my friends, Mister Palmer and mister cole and so many others, i really am worried as mister lynch voiced at the beginning. I dont know how we can start bridging some of this political stuff. You all should be making sure that everybody and anybody who wants to vote can vote, lets not make it harder to read owner suppression as benefactors forever but i think its being taken to new heights now and i think all of this is indefensible although you all have given a good shot at defending it. And with that i yield back to the chair. If i may, again this has nothing to do with Voter Suppression and with respect to what mister lynch said about debating the 25 billion , debate doesnt mean that we understand where any of this will be used. Thats why we have to have a real Committee Hearing to understand where its going to be spent and with respect to the admissions, if it makes sense for the Postal Service to doit they should be able to do it. Have a postal regulatory commission. Mister kohler im going to reclaim my time and yield back to the chair and im sure doctor burgess will give you a chance to add to whatever you want to add though i yield back to the chair. Thank you very much. I want to clarify for myself, earlier i had said that over half 1 Million People get their Social Security checks through the mail. With that be satisfactory . Its closer to 1 Million People, i want to thank my colleague for notifying me of that. So there are a lot of people, i a lot of people who get their benefit checks through the mail so the idea that somehow they all get them electronically, its just wrong. It is wrong. And those people are really out of their minds with the delay in delivery and others would get their medication through the mail. Everybody, more people get their medications through the mail so this is the delay right now is happening and i simply cannot agree to this happening. The postmaster general said its happening in our constituents is happening and yet we have people here saying that a waste of the data. Our constituents should be enough data. But the postmaster general is basically agreed with us on this and were just saying its unacceptable. And with that i would now like to yield, we missed doctor burgess before we yield to him now. Thank you mister chairman. Iappreciate the recognition. Just asked the gentleman from kentucky if he had concluded with the remarks that he was making in response to the previous statements that were made. Any additional comments you would like to make . I appreciate it and it just with what mister chairman said aboutcomplaints from constituents , thats all we need the data, thats why we need to have a Committee Hearing to find out for sure as we move forward and our constituents arent happy with congress. This is why congress has term limits orlando speaker policy have a special hearing on term limits at 85 percent so youre making arguments, mrs. Lesko didnt say everyone there checks electronically. She said the majority of americans did and i wanted to clarify that and i yield back. I think the gentleman for the clarification and mister chairman i appreciate the recognition but in light of the fact that the hearing has probably gone on longer than you anticipated, ill relinquish the opportunity to pontificate further and ill yield back to the chair. Im now happy to yield to the gentleman frommaryland. Mister chairman thank you very much. We meet again at a tough time in america, the pandemic is still out of control. Weve lost 170,000 of our people to this dread disease. We are the worlds leader in case counts, the world leader in death counts. We are losing more than 1000 people a day. And have more than 50,000 cases a day and one would hope that the post office at least would be something that could unify america as having a free and Fair Election uncontaminated by a political interference would be something that could unify americans but here we are. The post office helps to build america before the construction of the post office and postal roads we were a loose amalgamation of 13 colonies. Very isolated in the kind of lives that people lead and it was the determination in the constitution to build a post office and postal roads and then the work of our great first postmaster general Benjamin Franklin that built the transportation infrastructure and the Communications Infrastructure of the United States of america. How many of our towns have a postal road . How many newspapers have names like the Washington Post or the buffalo career express. Because it was the post offices that delivered the first newspapers that were createdin america. Check out Winifred Gallagher and her book called how the post office built america and people might again be cautious about some of these political attacks on the dread postal union and the unions of the postal workers that represent hundreds of thousands of hardworking people across america but you will learn about one of americas favorite republican institutions and i also actually about the involvement of a lot of our rate residents , with Abraham Lincoln was a local postmaster in des moines. Harry truman was a local postmaster and up until donald trump every president supported the post office. Donald trump called on the post office a joke and hes got a bizarre Conspiracy Theory about amazon and jeff basis and so on but up until trump, this was a unified Public Institution that all of us thought. Now, americans everywhere understand the post office is under assault not by russia as our colleagues keep imputing and not by china, not typing can. The post office is under assault by our government itself. Not a Foreign Government. And the president infinitely acrobatic enablers and defenders on this committee and some elsewhere although i will take care to note that there are a bunch of republicans coming way out on this bill and understand the overwhelming public sentiment in defense of the post office but some of them continue to walk the plank with the president. You dont have to believe us about whats going on, you dont have to believe, read their own statements President Trump on the Foxbusiness Network said he opposes the 25 billion at his own board of governors and he appointed all those people. He opposes the 25 billion that would go towards the post office and all of the money to go torun the elections because and i quote , they need that money in order to make the post office work. So you can take all these millions and millions of dollars and if we dont make a deal that means they dont get the money. That means they cant have universal mail in voting. They just cant have it. The president who is mailing away for his ballots in new york or florida or wherever he happens to be living at the time, he wants it for him but he doesnt want other people to have mailin ballots. Despite the fact that youve got republican state and have been doing it for a long time like you talk and they worked great out there in utah for democratic states like oregon that have increased Voter Participation and its completely safe and weve seen no data Mister Palmer to suggest theres anything wrong with this mail in balloting. Not at all and i know there were scandals with republicans in North Carolina tried to steal an election by hacking balance that does not go to the question of whether about the integrity of mail inballoting. Read the unprecedented and almost unbelievable letter to the post office sent the 46 states. Warning them that for the first time in American History their state might not be able to deliver or receive their balance in time because they might be in congress, it might be incongruous with the post office is new delivery standards which now admitted in testimony before congress it has caused all these problems and they feel bad about it, theyre very sorry about all these problems that have been caused by the removal of letter sorting machinery across the country, the removal of mailbox and the slowdown and the attack on overtime and the failure to fill positions, they feel badabout. His shocking unprecedented assault on the post office and our ability to deliver a free and Fair Election in 2020 is Crystal Clear to any reasonable person even if the republicans in congress are voting for this legislation which makes it Bipartisan Legislation and its Crystal Clear to the hundreds of millions of americans support the post office in a free and Fair Election in the United States but our colleagues and the president who said he opposes the 25 billion because they need that money in order to make the post office work, the president will call the post office a joke and thinks its unfairly helping business be polite but this president is absolutely motivated by trying to promote efficiency in the post office. Well, efficiency really stripping off this machinery, causing all of this chaos just a couple months before a president ial election there causing chaos. There causing shutdowns and prices. Listen to your constituents if nothing else. My constituents have been hit very hard by this. I met a couple of days ago with a naval captain who spent 30 years serving our country as a naval captain area and she devoted her entire career to the nation. She has high Blood Pressure and have not been able to get her hypertension medication which is more than two weeks late. Ive got to check with her today to see whether or not hit it has arrived. I met with Vietnam Veterans served our country honorably and one of them is diabetic and theyve not been able to get his insulin and is driving all of our age trying to get insulin and then the determination to cause chaos in our election is wrecking peoples ability to get their medications. For Small Businesses through conducting their affairs and to packages out to people. For consumers to receive packages that they have ordered. Its having a real effect on our economy and our people so if you want to try to convince my constituents that all of this is a plot or a Conspiracy Theory or a product of a fanciful imagination of the Workers Union or nancy pelosi i invite you to come out to beautiful Montgomery County maryland and i invite you to come out to Carroll County maryland and i ask for more rural areas and suburban areas and from constituents in every single one of my counties saying that the post office is not working right under this situation. How do you promote efficiency by dismantling the letter sorting machines, removing boxes and disabling the abilities of the workforce to respond with all these chaotic new rules undermining overtime which is essential because youre out delivering mail and you still have two more blocks to go, now all of a sudden youre told dont do that. You get to bring the mail back but i just want to track the unions, its making more money, comeon, get real. These serious. So i want to Say Something about this private right of action is a telling sequence of events and i want to commend chairwoman maloney for her surplus of bipartisanship and determination to arrive at a consent of product because im not sure i would have done it but theres what happens read this is master general who has only been on the job for five or six weeks has created all this chaos across the country and is caught in a pr debacle of his own making. And he said okay, i will suspend all these moves so hes backpedaling now but he said i think it was on tuesday im going to suspend everything that im doing then he turned around again and says hes not going to undo all of the actions hes already taken. He will just stop taking those actions now which reminds me of a bank robber who gets caught robbing banks and says i promise not to rob anymore banks. Im not going to give you back the money i took before but i wont do it any longer and if theres nothing wrong with what hes doing why did he continue to do it . Hes not going to undo any of the damage though i said you know what, i said not chairwoman mulroney but we said we need a private right of action so anybody who was hurt by virtue of the postmasters violation of the provisions of this rule should be able to settle in court to demand enforcement of the provision of his legislation and no money damages. Everythings conjuring images of trial lawyers, bogeyman trial lawyers making money this isnt about that. Its about enforcing the rules of the legislation and so we put it in but of course theres this huge counterattack on it. Mister comber began his statement by saying there would be a neverending stream of these very political lawsuits. He said okay, so chairwoman mulroney in her judgment said we want this to be Bipartisan Legislation to get behind the post office that we always been on the post office and he said ill put in an amendment to take that out. She said will take it out, great she puts everybody to the test, will they support itnow . It wont take it yes for an answer. They still dont like it, theyvegot some process complaints. The truth of the matter is donald trump told them he hates this legislation and he doesnt want the 25 billion that these republican appointees on the postal board of governors asked for. He doesnt want that so theyre going to walk the plank with them no matter what. So lets cut out all of the pious indications of bipartisanship if youre not willing to meet in the center as their woman alone he is clearly willing to do and i like to ask a couple of questions. And i want to start with you and chairwoman maloney area there was testimony about the need for the 25 billion as late as april. Youvebeen fighting for it for months. Can you talk about the testimony that weve heard in the Oversight Committee and multiple hearings that weve had, can you talk about the testimony about the way that covid19 is affecting postal operations . Youre absolutely correct congressman raskin. We had a hearing with the postmaster general in the april 8 or ninth and she testified about the need for the money, that it was about to run out money, it was debated very deeply as representative comber pointed out but we passed a heroes act which he continues to debate every day on the floor practically and in the papers across this country the language in the heroes act is very similar to my bill, but it looks like the heroes act is not going topass. I then offered my bill and then all of this happened where the postmaster general close down the mail and i would say its in an outrage on the republican side and concern, just as much as its been on the democratic side. Our colleague often vote as i understand it they have actually removed a number of personal sorting machines from michigan and people, hundreds of thousands of letters that theyre unable to sort and there were plans to remove a number of others in west michigan. We want to make sure that the Postal Service does have the resources that it needs. We have also heard from attorney general, from the Republican Attorney general and others expressing their concerns is just as passionate as congressman wenches. And so this is something that we should really join hands on and be committed and Work Together on. If we cant even agree on running the post office and stopping actions that are slowing down the mail, you can just temporarily just to get through an important election and a devastating pandemic, this is something we should have strong republican and democratic support as we did have when we worked together to heal the country after9 11. This is just as deep concern and its lifethreatening to me and again, it is a pillar of our democracy. Its enshrined in our constitution and its something i hope wecan move forward. I will work very hard to try to convince leader pelosi to allow us to have hearings in our district s. I will work with them on getting the documents. I have asked in a ten page letter that was part of the record to postmaster to answer specific questions of how did he come up with this, what is his plan, what are we doing going forward, he was supposed to deliver this to the committee this friday and as of yet we have not received, many of the questions that my republican colleagues are asking, we have tried to get from the new postmaster general, we want to Work Together, the questions you want answered i want to work with you but we need the cooperation of the postmaster general, i am asked to put on the record postmaster general statement on the impact of the coronavirus and the high number of deaths and the essential workers in the post office and the delay to the problems of the financial crisis that it had in the post office. What i dont understand, people say that they want everything to be efficient with no abuse. There are many reports of waste, fraud and abuse of money going to major corporations, very wealthy corporations, chairman is trying to call back some of those 4. 1 billion handed out to people and working to change that in a bipartisan way so it does not happen in the future, there have been some problems, they have returned it to the government but we have tried to help the private sector, the public sector, the tougher profits. Why in the world is there hesitation in supporting one of the major institutions and we should all be working for, your ideas for the future, we can see pelosi will change the world so we can go back and have the hearings that mr. Lynch and others have talked about in our district, that could possibly done but right now there is a feeling from republicans and democrats that we need to know that the post office is going to be supported with the money and aid to do the job and disruptive changes in their procedures and policies that literally slow down the mail, what we want this reversed until after the election and after the pandemic in january 2021. I think that is fair and productive and i think it should be part brought us in. Are you back to my good friend and colleague. Thank you for putting up with my change to the billing, i know you felt strongly about the point of personal personal action to bring accountability but in the sense of unity and bipartisan support, i appreciate you backing down and not making it an issue and for many people agree with you, i think its more important that we move forward in a bipartisan bill to save the post office. I hope will have a unanimous vote on saturday. Thank you, madam chair, one final question for mr. Lynch if you still with us. Mr. Lynch, first of all i want to associate myself with your perspective on this they quoted against the wall street journal, but the wall street journal speak for wall street, we will have him speak for main street, speaks for america. In that case i will yield back. I was mr. Lynch was still here, the issue of the field hearings has nothing to do the house rules again because as you know the house rules package that we presented and voted on was what it could possibly be. We did not put that in this. But this is a Committee Rule and i think its tied to the blackout policy that we have and he might suggest lynch and others who would like to pursue this as your committee, there is also house a administration and has nothing to do the house rules and i dont know we consider it the bad vote in any event, i put that in for the record. I would like clarification and i dont have to wait on that committee. It was suggested by my comments and theres nothing i can do about it. I clarify for the record so nobody thinks its my fault. I would never think its your fault. Im now happy to yield. Thank you chairman, i appreciate the opportunity to address this bill because its been urging urgent concern for my constituents, it is the number one issue that weve been receiving through mail and also email, phone calls have been stopped on the streets, this is a number one concern for people in my area and its been that way for 4 6 weeks about the same time when the new postmaster general, the Trump Political Campaign donor begin making the changes to the Postal Service. Now i have postal workers calling me saying i dont know what to do, theyre stopping us from doing our job, they are telling us we cannot go out on a second run if theres too much mail to carry on the first one, we cannot stay late as sister suggested, left in their run by 630 and if anything is not the liberty stays undelivered. The major postal sorting station in the philadelphia region is in my district, they have taken at least five sorting machines out of the facility in the last couple of weeks, each one of them is capable of sorting 100,000 cas100,000 pieces of ma, that is a half million cases of mail a day and they taken those machines out, there are no machines to replace them if one of the remaining machines goes down, im hearing from postal workers that they have seen bins full of unsorted medications that need to be delivered, some of our post offices are three weeks behind in delivery of their male, the feedback we are getting from constituents is overwhelming, i have seniors, veterans, all of whom get their medication by mail because it is cheaper and more efficient in agencies like va recommended and now theyre not getting the medication in time i have one woman who wrote me and said she did not get the medication on time for one month so the next month she started fastening her medication. This is how people get sick and sicker. We talked a little bit about that so many people rely on the mail to get paychecks, support payments, unemployment compensation, all these things and as chairman mcgovern mentioned, there has been Fact Checking done and i would ask unanimous consent to enter into the record that august 18, article from cnn entitled fact check, fox news host other conservative that Social Security does not mail other checks in the spokesperson for the special Security Administration had stated in response to this that 850,000 checks are mailed out every month to people who depend on that assistance for their rent, for their food, for their medication. That is every month, almost 1 Million People, thats in addition to during the covid crisis, congress authorized stimulus payments to folks making below a certain income level, 4 million democrats were mailed out to people, our government and our economy depends upon a functioning Postal Service, people get their bills, they make their payment, they dont get the bills on time or make their payments on time, that affects the credit rating, im hearing from Small Businesses that depend on the Postal Service in order to do business and now theyre losing customers because they cannot rely on it and they cannot afford to go to the private services, maybe people who live in marble and gold powers can afford to pay 26 bucks for a private service but the average american depends on the 65 cents postal stamp. We are hearing from big businesses, i heard from a major Philadelphia Company two days ago that they ended up with a vendor because they mail the payment for a contracted service and the vendor had not received it, it had been weeks and this vendor was threatening to sue them, it was disrupting their business relationship, the slowdown which is not longstanding, it is a new direct response to the new regulations that the unqualified postmaster has put into place. We have to address this, this is a crisis that we are coming back into session to address it and is every reason that we should. Pardon me if i am not completely blown away by the postmaster general assertion that he will be able to deliver everything on time because he speaking out of both sides of his mouth, on the one hand we have a letter i so yes saying were not going to be able to return your absentee or mailin ballot on time and by the way pennsylvania like most states only sends out ballots to people who request them and has multiple layers of security and in fact the Trump Campaign defaulted on its obligation under court order to produce any evidence of mailin ballot fraud, it failed to meet that deadline just today. We cannot trust the Postal Service assertion when it says we cannot deliver your mail on time, at the same time is ripping out the machines that have allowed it to get the mail on time in the past. So this is a crisis for my constituents, its affecting their health, the business, their credit rating, it is affecting their ability to vote. We have to act, and very proud to support this bill and i would urge people to listen to the constituents, i am solely in favor of trying to get my stuff together for the field hearing so we could really dig into this. But that is not going to work, im happy to copy all the phone messages in the mail that weve gotten, the emails, happy to deliver them to my republican colleagues and they can deal with what we have, think you and i yield back. Thank you and i go back. Thank you mr. Chairman for holding again another critically important conversation about issues that face the country. I also want to think my dear friend chairwoman maloney who is not only a Great American but for those of us in new york, a great new yorker who has done a great and amazing job and amount of work, i was reminded that we were going to make this comment and then mr. Pearl mentioned a post office name for an individual in his community and the bill i sponsored last law and it renames a post office in fear for new york for bob slaughter and when we are physically present in the hearing room i look at the center of the room and looked down at the former chair of this committee portrait and know that she would be aghast if we were having this conversation had she lived to see what happened to the republic which he loved so dearly. I do agree with my republican colleagues that we need to get to regular order, unfortunately the reason we dont have regular order these days doesnt have anything to do with those in the house, it has everything to do with what i consider the most irregular order president in American History, asking for regular order during this National Crisis in which is a regular presidency is asking people in a burning building engulfed in flames to quietly slowly walk in single file to the exit, people are running out of the building at that point and we are forced to react to and must do in this type of way response to the president of the United States. I think if there is any where to look for decisions to build like this in this way and in this manner, you only have to look down the other end of pennsylvania avenue and you have your answer. My dear friend who always makes points that i hope to make but makes them before me because he is not smart. But as we often say, everybodys been said but not by everybody. Let me point out something, the president said a different quote, he said they want three and half billion dollars for something that will turn out to be fraudulent, that is election money basically. Ive seen no data, since are talking about data and how important data is for decisionmaking, ive seen no data that supports any evidence that there is widespread fraudulent voting by mail and in fact we should note that the president himself has applied in my dear friend and colleague home state afford has applied for an absentee ballot, obvious who the president believes in absentee, just not everyone elses and by the way i would also note that the last time i checked, elections are the purview and whether you have universal as youve had in the state of colorado or absentee application mail and the way you have in the state of new york, it really is not the purview of the United States of government, is not the purview of an occupant of the white house to determine how states conduct their business. Theres been no evidence that either system, any system has widespread fraudulent behavior because of mailin voting in the arguments made by this president that suggest he would undermine the post office simply because it is his personal belief and we know how much his personal belief enters in to the dictate of his administration, it is his personal belief back by no evidence with no data that there is something wrong with mailin voting, that is not his job, it is our job it is clearly the 50 states job to carry out the election in a way that they see fit. Also there has been comments about the level of issues and like a lot of my colleagues, we start literally from hearing from constituents and i heard from constituents several weeks ago and i think like many of us, you get a call or two and you think somebody misplaced the letter and then the volume starts increasing and theres a theme that emerges in this theme began well over a month ago and i get calls from local press saying were hearing awful lot about the post office lately. I wrote a letter the first week of office that the postmaster before the president made his comments before became entirely clear that something was badly amiss. Those data points have continued to build in those concerns that we all represent people in our community, they are not happy but when they notice something we build a pattern of behavior, that is why congress is empowered to act. Sometimes data aside, the narrative of stories that sometimes grab you the most and the issue of people who are getting chemo is near and dear to me, i lost my daughter three years ago this week to cancer and i got a call from someone who is been inflicted with brain cancer and receives lifesustaining medication through the mail and he ordered perishable medicine on august 10. It received in law chester the Main Post Office warehouse in Maine Post Office Distribution Center, the next day august 11, he received and travel the last couple of miles, it took a week, despite the fact it was marked perishable medicine, it took a whole week to go to new york to this person which is about 2 miles of being shipped from a Long Distance to get to the warehouse, these are lifesustaining medications, prescriptions, this is the lifesustaining checks that people received for benefits in the mail and so when you hear these and you hear them repeatedly, it is time for us to act and i would say the thing that appeals to me most and then im going to be quiet and let others speak, this really holds in place what we have, no dramatic changes, its others that have said, since its clear that the president has targeted a post office, not because he has any concerns about the delivery of mail or prescriptions or medication or benefit, is because he has no confidence in or too much confidence in the post office ability to get ballots to people and afraid of the outcome that will happen should people vote in mass numbers. But that at least in my mind, notwithstanding the wall street journal has a not written a good editorial since 2007, that notwithstanding because he wants to undermine american democracy. Our answer is to hold it in place, hold everything in place, lets continue and frankly on november 15 or 30th or december 1 the post office, postmaster wants a common front of ms. Maloneys committee or other committees of the house and argue for efficiency that need to be implemented or need other changes, i think in conjunction with the congress we can look at what changes are appropriate and make decisions at that point but dont undermine american democracy now in the name of some efficiency which frankly do not exist. I will strongly support this legislation and i think at the end of the day the changes should be made with us in congress but the changes that are being sought, if you want to look for evidence of what the rationale, the motive, look to the president of the United States and i would argue the most irregular presidency in American History, with that i yield back. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman, let me acknowledge my leadership of my longtime friend carol maloney, ive known since beginning of her career and i acknowledge the wonderful points made by my colleagues, George Washington actually had the post office of engaged citizenry, thats why i represent the Postal Service early years delivering newspapers. But the post office handled almost 50 of the world mail, this is an Important Institution, i dont think the president of the United States has any idea of what he unleashed because its not only there, it is clearly description medication, at least a quarter of americans over 65 get the medication through the mail and in fact we have been encouraging that because the data indicated that there is more accuracy through mailin medications so medicaid and medicare have been encouraging people to get their meds through the mail. I saw and ran into a veteran today who was in tears because his meds were consistently late over the last two months. I had no answer other than i was getting on a plane today and going back to washington to at least try to fix a piece of this. The number of people that are getting their meds in the mail is clearly going up. We talked about the number of people who delivering get Social Security checks, particular the ssi population and the number of people that are going to vote from home has increased. Frankly in florida, democrats and republicans do not debate the issue of voting from home. Republicans have supported over the years, democrats have supported it and competed with each other to get more people registered but all of us are concerned, very concerned about the slowness of the mail, that letter alarmed people. If you want to talk about people being jittery it does not have anything to do with partisanship. They are not jittery partisan, these are our constituents, these are real people in our district that have real Life Experiences with the post office. In this past week i got over 2000 letters just in the past week from constituents, this is the organized meal, i know organized meal, you know organized meal, these are individual letters, one man said he has not got mail and 40s, before this he never went a single day without mail and linda from miami said mailboxes have been removed in her neighborhood and she said the mailman will not take mail to mailboxes and she now has to drive to the post office for mail items and she also says this is an issue where neighbors are elderly and do not drive and john who lives in miami and in my district, he has disabilities and he relies on the Postal Service, she is a Small Business owner, she sends hundreds of cars every year, she is not sure whether her business can survive without a functioning post office. James from copper bay worked at the post office for four decades, hes never seen these sorts of delays, he mailed several letters himself from a Miami Post Office and found that they took five days to arrive, previously they wouldve arrived in one day, lucy has a son who attends a program for adults with disabilities, her tuition was due july 1 and she arrange for a check to be sent on june 26 from a brokerage account, throughout july she got overdue notices from the program, they received her sons seat on july 28, a month late. Mary was charged late fees from a lot of people that they have been charged late fees, by the way including myself for something that i mailed, she was charged late fees into milker payment late hundredweight ahead of the duty but they did not arrive on time. In the stories go on and on. This is not a minor issue. These are elderly people who cannot get to a post office, the people that are dependent, veterans, their clearly part of our community in the level of calls and letters that we get is an indication that something is going on and something wrong is going on. Do we know that the mail has been slow in the postmaster general himself, let me make a point about the postmaster general. I have read lots of complex institutions, i cannot remember ever shaking up an institution, and an Important Institution after five weeks on the job. He does not nobodys doing and he certainly has not looked at the unintended consequences or maybe their intended consequences of the decisions i have been made. And we have got to just say no, we have got to stop this, its not just about the election, its about life and death and people getting hurt during a terrible pandemic that is clearly been mismanaged. Thank you very much. Do we have any questions for the panel. Hearing none, chairwoman maloney, mr. Lynch. You are dismissed. Do any members wish to testify . Hearing none. This closes the hearing on hr 8015. At this time the chair will entertain a motion from the decembesenator from florida. Mr. Hasting. Thank you very much mr. Chairman. Hr 8015 and delivering for america act, the proposed rule, the rule provides two hours of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on oversight and reform, the role gains consideration of the bill, it provides an amendment in the nature of the substitute consisting of the text of rules committee 116 61, modified by the amendment and the rules Committee Reform shall be considered as adopted in the bill as amended shall be considered as read. The rule waives all points of order within provision as amended and the role provides one motion to recommit with or without instructions. Thank you very much, you heard the motion the gentleman from florida, is there any more discussion. I think its safe to say did judging by the hearing a lot of people talked about this bill. At considerable length. So i think we should give people an opportunity to do that, and particularly this bill has not come to the committee it is often subject to any amendment whatsoever, involves 25 billion in members will have lots of opinions. Its clearly important, weve been called to do this bill even though the senate is important, we would not have gotten all these numbers back here. If they want to bring them back, this gives an opportunity to submit the amendment and the opportunity to debate and if you have an open hearing. Is there any discussion. I would just add i think people in constituents of people talking, it is time to do something and is not just what we read over and over again that just from the constituents but the gentleman who spoke to today all over the country saying peoples medications are being delayed and people are not getting the benefit checks. All those in favor say i. Oppose no. The nos have it. I dont think they were enthusiastic, i think a drug him across the finish line. I think we need the opportunity to vote on that. The clerk will call the roll. [roll call vote] [roll call vote] [roll call vote] [roll call vote] the clerk will report the total. 48 nays. Are there further amendments. Hearing none, the vote is an emotion from the gentleman from florida, all those in favor say i. I think we will not vote. The gentleman from oklahoma has requested a vote. [roll call vote] [roll call vote] [roll call vote] i think shes trying to get in line. [inaudible] the clerk will report the total. Seven yeas, for nays. The motion is agreed to. I will manage this for the majority. I will send this to mr. Woodall. I think everybody for your participation in your patience and without objection the committee stands adjourned. Binge watch book tv saturday evening at eight eastern, settling and watch over hours of your favorite authors, saturday featuring programs with awardwinning robert caro whose books include working, the powerbroker in the multivolume biography of lyndon johnson. Watch saturday august 29 as we future programs with christopher hitchens, binge watch book tv on cspan2. Next week is the republicans turn, starting monday and for four days, the Republican National convention, hear their vision for the future and the priorities for the next four years, watch President Trump and Vice President pence except their partys nomination for reelection, live cpublagan natin begins monday at 9 00 p. M. Eastern as delegates need to officially nominate President Trump and Vice President pence. At 8 30 p. M. Eastern, the evening session kicks off, watch live on cspan, Live Streaming and demand as cspan. Org or listen with the free cspan radio app. Before the Convention Session watch cspan as 6 00 p. M. 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