Transcripts For CSPAN2 Postmaster General Louis DeJoy Testifies On Postal Service Operations ... 20240712

The ability to deliver the nations election relayed mail during the coronavirus pandemic. He testified before the House Oversight committee. The committee will come to order. Without objection the chairbj is authorized to declare a recess of the committee at any time. Without objection the gentlewoman from North Carolina ms. Adams as well as the tgentleman from illinois mr. Quigley will be permitted to join the committee and be recognized for questioning the witnesses. In addition, the gentleman from North Carolina mr. Walker will be recognized at there proper te to introduce his constituent. I now recognize myself for an openingg statement. Good morning. I would like to welcome postmaster general louis dejoy, and the chairman of the postal board of governors, Robert Duncan, too this oversigt hearing. And i thank you allll for being here. In all of our districts we are hearing from constituents about significant delays in the delivery of mail, medicines, food, and other supplies. These delays are especially d concerning, and potentiallyly lifethreatening during the Coronavirus Crisis. These are not isolated complaints. They arets widespread. Our offices have been receiving thousands of calls and emails about the detrimental effects delays are having on our veterans, seniors, Small Businesses and families across the country. When we asked host leaders about these delays, they downplayed them. They dismissed them as temporary. They discounted them as minor, unintended consequences of reforms and put in place. But then we saw National Headlines describing these delays in much more detail. I have a document here that lists headlines from almost every state in the country, talking about these delays. For example, in my home state of new york, i quote, mail is delayed by this six days in new york city, Postal Workers Union says, end quote. In kentucky, Postal Services costcutting isrv frustrating kentuckians. And raising election concerns, end quote. In california, the home state of our vice chairman, mr. Gomez, quote, like armageddon, rottig food, dead animals in chaos at postal facilities and it cutbacks, end quote. This list goes on and on. Friday when mr. Dejoy was confided in the senate with these widespreadd reports, he said hee felt bad about what he called a dip in service. Then after mr. Dejoys testimony in the senate we update an internal Postal Service document entitled pmg briefing. This is the presentation prepared directly for the postmaster general. It is dated almost two weeks ago, august 12. According to this document, these delays are not just a dip. This document warns the postmaster general of significant and widespread drops across the board. And firstclass marketing, periodicals and other categories. Categories. This document shows that these delaysys are not a myth or Conspiracy Theory as some of my colleagues have argued. These steep declines did not or may when the corona crisis hit us, like in july when mr. Dejoy came on board and begin making his changes. A result of his actions, such as his decision to restrict the number of trips from processing plants to delivery units. Perhaps mr. Dejoy thought his sweeping changes would not cause any delays. In my opinion, in my opinion that would be competent or perhaps this wasas intentional. Maybe mr. The joy was warned that his changes would cause delay but he disregarded those warnings, that would be extremely reckless in the middle of a Global Pandemic with less than three months before an important election. Or perhaps there is a far simpler explanation, perhaps he is doing exactly what President Trump said i wanted on National Television using the blocking of funds to justify sweeping changes the hobble mailin voting. All of these options are bad. But when you install someone as postmaster general after he donates millions of dollars to g your campaign but he rushes to make changes without conducting adequate analysis and when he withholds Key Information from congress and doesnt level with us when people begin to ask what in the world is going on, given all of this, it is not surprising that the Postal Service Inspector General has already opened an investigation into mr. D enjoys controversial changes. We will be asking mr. Dejoy some hard questions and will also asked mr. Duncan as chairman of own role inout hisir choosing mr. To joy as postmaster general about his own role in bedding mr. Dejoy and compex of interest including mro joys ownership in stock competitors in mr. Duncans own role in allowing these delays to happen under his watch. Whatever the cause of these massive delays, the American People want to go back to the way things were, they do not wants these changes, they want them reversed. They do not want anyone messing with the post office and they certainly dont want it politicized. They want to have confidence that their male, medicine, balance will be delivered on time, i look forward to hearing from her witnesses and i now recognize the distinguished kth Ranking Member for an Opening Statement. Thank you chairman, i appreciate you calling this hearing today on the United States Postal Service even though it wouldve been nice to do so before we actually voted on the bill saturday. We all agreed that the Postal Service needs to be reformed to better serve the American People. We all want the Postal Service to be efficient and effective as possible to ensure americans receive their prescriptions on time, Small Businesses thrive and mailin ballots are delivered in a timely fashion. But meaningful reform to take bipartisanship. Something they have seen very little of democrats fabricated a basis Conspiracy Theory about the Postal Service and passable the bill had no Prior Committee action no hearing, no markup. Because of the russian process, the bill was significantly amended by the democrats before went to thehe rules committee, d then proceeded to the house floor under a process that prevented any amendments to the bill. There was no republican input, not at any step in thehe proces. Just this morning, we learned that the u. S. Postal service opposes the bill that you all past saturday. They read the bill and realized at times it will make it harder and more expensive to deliver themo mail, lisas legislation s consistent with the obama, biden years at the Postal Service, more delays, more financial losses. This chain of events show democrats are not serious about meaningful reform, the president does not support the bill, the Postal Service does not support the bill in the senate will likely not take up the bill. This is a political stunt. During saturdays debate, chairwoman maloney unveiled a 60 page powerpoint that she received overnight from an apparent whistleblower. Madam chair i do not need to remind you that you and adam schiffs record with whistleblowers is less than stellar. The deck is dated e august 12 proving it played no role in the creation which is unveiled the day before and delivery performance data with the u. S. Postal service and very interested to hear today about what he has learned about the acauses pandemic and having on the u. S. Postal Service Delivery performance preet how does that compare to any growing pains from efforts to make the Postal Service more efficient and selfsufficient. I say im interested to hear mr. Dejoys responses because they do not know the answer to those questions and i dont believe the chairwoman does either. This is why i repeatedly said that this committee is doingha thing backwards. When we make policy, it is our job to understand why somethingo is happening, how would you find out why, you would have a hearing on the topic with the postmaster general. When would you y have this hearing, certainly before you pass the bill. Returning to the day, let me say the postal issues or something along heard about, a great deal of my rural district. I just think we remember when the obama biden, a male facility was closed resulting in letters that once to get day to get from point a to point b to get the 3 4 days and i heard about the Postal Service for my grandmother who spent her entire career, 27 years as a rural mail carrier, my heart and sympathy card to the Postal Service families who have lost loved ones during the pandemic. As her grandson in the congressman representing the First District of kentucky in the Ranking Member of this committee, i want to see the Postal Service return to being a bible institution. But im disappointed at the hysterical frenzy whipped up around this issue by my colleagues on the left and their friends in t the media, lets lk at the repeateds claims again, does the Postal Service need a bailout to survive through november, no, mail volume has declined the Package Delivery has shot through the roof increasing usps 1. 5 billion, it has nearly 15 billion cash on hand and can operate until august the 2021. Next question the postmaster general sabotaging the election by removing blue postal boxes and mail sortingal machines, no, the Postal Service has more than adequate capacity to handle the vote by mail, everybody sends their ballot via mail, that is less than mondays average volume. The blue boxes and mail sorters were components of longstanding programs in response to significant reduction, 33 reduction over the past 15 years. For reference president obama, 12000 blue mailboxes were removed and we did not hear one word from the other side when he did f that. The orders were on track to be removed because they were sitting idle simply taking up for space for more productive activities. Is the Postal Service saying they will not be able to deliver ballots on time, no. But the Postal Service is doing and has for years is trying to warn states vote by mail laws do not take in account with the Postal Service can and cannot s do. Usps can treat ballots as first class mail or better than firstclass mail but theyet cant bring enter break the laws of time and space. The letters of democrats characterized as threat and propaganda good faith efforts tt vproduce week seven certainty d confusion such as what happened with chairman chairwoman maloney. In the charges about overtime, those came from an effort to reduce billions of dollars in overtime in extra trips the Postal Service spends every year. If overtime in extra truck tripe are normal everyday partier business operations, means everything is wrong and you better fix it. On friday before the senate homelandme security hearing, mr. Joy acknowledged the dip in service pretty took responsibility. The logical step is to understand why this happened and come up with a plan. Even though your bill would prevent that, i hopeou that tody helps in that process, i yield back. I think the gentleman for his statement and asking him and his consent to place in the record the Service Performance measurements postmaster general briefing in an official report from the post office, data, research, facts and in this report, the facts speak for themselves and they show the under the first two months of the postmaster general work, the Service Sells anywhere from 6 6 10 and all the major categories. My bill nearly funds the post office and returns it back to the way it was so the services can get the mail out to the people during a pandemic and before every importantmi electi. After the pandemic we can revisit and have other statements and work go forward but lets not dismantle the services to the American People, the veterans, the seniors, people deserve to get their mail in a timely way in most districts are having people calling frantically, where is my mail, where is my medications. Factss spea speak for themselved placing this into the record. I recognize this distinguished chairman of the subcommittee on government operation who has done a great deal of work in this area for an Opening Statement. Figure for your leadership, i was proud to cosponsor your bill that passed the house are 26 republicans showing26 the courae and emergency with the most schemed institution of government in america. We have an obligation constitutionally to ensure that something that has been part of the american fabrics in 1775, the Postal Service is not only fighting for economic survival but planning to maintain 120 years of professional service, rid of systems that serve elected officials and not those who rely on mail every day. Because of the postmaster general and they selected them for that post. We havee a pmg who six weeks ino the complex and inspiring new jobs in the midst of a Global Pandemic and just weeks before a consequential National Election where the Postal Service will play an unprecedented role and decide to announce the sweeping reorganization that he admits could slow down the mail and undoubtedly infuse uncertainty and confusion throughout thete Postal Service and in turn neighborhoods all across america. He announces these and other unsupported changes without engaging staff, unions, trade organizations, mailers, mail recipients or congress. In fact congress was told us he did not feel prepared to respond to any questions we might have for him. Yet he felt confident enough to freeze over time, delayed the maimail delivery and sweeping organizations. Mr. Duncan, congratulations on being the rubberstamp. The Postal Service board of governors is required by law to represent, not the president , not a Political Party or not the postmaster general. Today the Postal Service employee 650,000 people, the foundation for more than 1. 7 trillion mailing industry that deploys another seven and a half billion people. At the turn of the last century, the u. S. Post office was nothing more than 77000 positions with gross and confident embezzleme embezzlement. It was rural america. It used its political voice to professionalize the post office. Instead of traveling miles to the closest general store to pick up mail fromli political hacks, rural residence Lobby Congress for rural free delivery and innovation about mail delivery to the most distant of homes and businesses. The massive grassroots lobby ever brought those with expertise into the post office and refocus political leaders on what they were to do, serve the people, not the politicaleo parties. And to inform the Postal Service in the post office into the Postal Service. This History Lesson resonates today, yet another reckoning r r this year again the people in the nation have stood up wildly and consistently to condemn a tent for the crown drover federal government and the trusted agency among the hundreds of serve this nation into a spoiled system honeypot. We cannot and must not let that happen. During this pandemic is a lifeline to delivery of lifesaving prescription medications, medical equipment, food and pantry staples, stimulus checks to pay rent and utility bills, censusls forms ad even coupons to help struggling families stay outy of poverty that even the possibility of slowing down mail in a time such as this is a good idea. And what leader would take steps to freeze overtime for workforce risking his life every day to deliver mail to the people of this nation, 40000 postal workers have contracted covid19 or been quarantined because of it. 40000. As a new pmg mr. Dejoy has cut hours and delayed delivery time in the pursuit of unsupported operational efficiency, he never asked congress to help despite of team members ready to provide hifinancial support. The chairwoman and i along with a collection of hundreds of members have been providing the Postal Service was 75 billion in t p support. To pay overtime and cost to the dedicated workforce to invest in a modernized and green postal fleet that does not explode to pay for Information Technology investments that can streamline investments that are running late with important cross county or International Mail deliveries. Mr. Dejoy and mr. Duncan have worked to fail with congress to get this enacted. This further Passenger Service Airline Industry has received 25 billion and Revenue Stabilization in the Postal Service not a dime. On august 18, the pmg announced he would put a hold on some of the sweeping operational changes. As the amount spent did not commit to reversing the cuts to service and capacity are readymade, it did not included in gender to support the mail that demonstrates a commitment to helping the Postal Service fulfill its historic role in the upcoming election. Lastly the pmg is not advocating for thehe additional funding for the Postal Service despite the fact that the republicancontrolled board of governors unanimously called for that package. Not a democratic idea, a republican dominated board unanimously. The reason operational andnd organizational changes has resulted in delivery delays across the country as a chairwoman juste showed. Those are note our data, that is yours mr. Postmaster general, these delays have real impact on real lives with real consequences. Most devastatingly the damage the Postal Serviceev credibility in a very brief time, congratulations mr. Dejoy in an institution that now is in doubt and the American Publics mind, i applaud my colleagues in the house forla passive billing the delivery for america act bill we need to act now and reverse this and reassure the American Public that they will get their mail on time and their ballots will get there on time and be counted. This is about the future of our Democratic Institutions in the future of the most important election inst my lifetime. Thats whats at stake today. I yield back. Madam chair. I would like to make a point that you did not notify our committee that mr. Conley as chairman of the subcommittee would be t opening remarks, thas another example of this process but i would like to ask that our Ranking Member, the subcommittee also be allowed to deliver opening remarks. Absolutely the staff told me they reached r out to you and is general that the subcommunities should speak on both sides. I have in my notes that he is the Ranking Member on the subcommittee of Government Operations and will also be given an Opening Statement and i was told that they did reach out and then the future i will call you myself to make sure gets to you, i was told by staff, they talk to your staff that they had reached out to you, that did not get to you thenn i apologize, i will personally call you every time but its usually the standard that we make an Opening Statement in the subcommittee with the jurisdiction makes an Opening Statement. I agree and i appreciate the chairwoman doing that, thats important why we need to be prepared and not rush thing while we have the postal reform go. If i come to your defense, it is your practice is chairwoman but youve always allowed the subcommittee chair in the Ranking Member to have Opening Statements, that is practice, not something you sprung onct us today and i can think of for examples. And the Ranking Member, it is the practice of the committee of the chairwoman maloney to do just that. Madam chair, i agree it is practice, we were not notified and it was not on the agenda item that we received but we appreciate that and is my understanding he is prepared to deliver Opening Statements. First of all i want to thank mr. Conley for pointing that out and pointing out the double standard that businesses such as airlines and others are receiving federalal aid in the heroes package in the covid relief package but the Vital Services from our post office that so many people depend on va lifeline from americas across america, they deserve to be funded too. I recognize the distinguish subcommittee chairman mr. Heights for Government Operations for an Opening Statement and you are recogniz recognized. Thank you, madam chair i appreciate that we were not notified of this but im happy to takeot a moment, here we are having a hearing after about, this is absolutely disgusting certainly we have had many votes without bothering to have a hearing, but i dont ever recall having a vote to fix something and then have the hearing after words. This iss unprecedented into me i believe in the example of malpractice on the side of the democrats, we are here to talk about the Postal Service and madam chair im glad you brought up the heroes act because in itself, in the heroes act i believe is the unveiling of what the democrats are really trying to do and that is themselves to fraudulently with the upcoming election in the heroes act is a requirement for universal mailing ballot, in the heroes act is a requirement that states cannot be involved in requiring voter id. We are going to have tens of millions of ballots sent out all across the country too many people who are deceased to people who have moved, to who knows who they are and states are not going to be able to have any voter id if the democrats have their way and they were going to have the ballot harvestingng take place, this is what isth at stake, i agree with chairman conley saying this is the most important, this is whats at stake, the democrats have their way in the selection it will be filled with broad and confusion, it will be filled with lawsuits because that is what is in the heroes act to produce. If the democrats have their way and thankfully that bill is not going anywhere any further than the bill that was passed saturday before the hearing. Then we talk about delays at the usps. We have not even hadav hearings, since it was april of 2019 and now all of a sudden were called in for an emergency over the whole thing, we had a briefing in april of this year, not a hearing, it was a briefing in the purpose of the briefing was to discuss the delays of the Postal Service covid19 and yes, there been delays and there are thousands of usps workers who are not showing up for work do covid19, are we surprised that there are any delays, of course not, we had a briefing to discuss the couple of months ago. The postmaster general has nothing to do with covid19 and has nothing to do with it coming in nor does he have anything to do with thousands of his workers not showing up, we also have cities thatt are rioting and there are delays in many of the cities in minneapolis or portland or chicago or l. A. Or wherevertl it may be, the fact f the matter, the bailout that passed on saturday in the house of representatives was pointless. It refuses the opportunity to have any reforms, we have a Postal Service that has 14 billion cash on hand and another 10 billion available to them with the treasury and they cant even get access to the 10 billion because they have too much money cash on hand and yet we pass appeal for another 25 billion and in that bill we did allow them for making any changes. It doesnt matter how much money we keep throwing at the Postal Service if we dont allow for reform to take place which is desperately needed. With that i look forward to this hearing going forward, i fully anticipate a lot of political fear for my friends on the opposite side of the aisle, i doing to be the continued attempt to portray a conspiracy that does not exist, when in fact it is their own party that i believe is fully committed based upon the heroes act to influence this upcoming election using fraudulent methods. And with that madam chair i will yield back and i appreciate you giving me the opportunity to speak. I now recognize mark walker to introduce our first witness who is a constituent of congressman walker. Thank you madamee term maloney. It is my privilege to introduce louis dejoy, the postmaster general of the United States. He has earned the respect ofjo charitable and business communities. Since its creation in 2005 the joy lost Family Foundation has impacted thousands of people, duke university, the center for children, Police Foundation is just to name a few, i was present when mr. Did joy was inducted into the hall of fame for the Junior Achievement business leaders, the Largest Organization educating kate 12 entrepreneurship. Past week i received ecin the mail the family contribution, the sponsorship, Family Services of the pima which serves 18000 children and adults, many battling Domestic Violence issues but the most impressive act by this family is the one established for students from title i schools, the Scholars Program at elon university. I had the opportunity to meet the student to come from some oo our most impoverished areas. It is not something lewis wants, it is something he does. Throughout his professional career, lewis did joy has garnered a reputation as a genius and innovation in supply chain billed as a ceo of logistics he took a broken company to new york, North Carolina and transformed it to a prominent u. S. Provider and contract logistics creating close to 9000 jobs. Maybe thats why he was unanimously importing to the position by the ups, usps bipartisan board of governors. Mr. Dejoy has been on the jobn about two months but is being blamed for implementing Reforms Congress has passed, for example back in 2006, it was not mr. Dejoy who passed the accountability enhancement act, it was actually congress, the leading sponsor on this bill and the one with the biggest picture in the room, former chair ofom this committee. Today mr. Dejoy will be viciously attacked with prepackaged questions and false accusations, one member suggesting impeachment, how sad is it when they cancel culture has to reach the halls of congress, before this committee today is not the democrats of illinois tend to be, he is here today because he supported President Trump and with this congress, that makes you a target. Over the past month the didu joyce have endured protest outside of his home with hundreds of people blocking streets and frightening their neighbors. Sadly in this day and age and interesting leader with a passion for service can be persecuted with the court of Public Opinion for his affiliation as a circus unfolds today, remember lewis did joy is a Community Minded philanthropist, an industryleading businessman and most important in good heart doing his best to serve his country. Mr. Dejoy, i want to commend you for being here today. Many of your accusers did not distend the courtesy, unlike the senator from delaware lets hope they know how to mute themselves. Thank you, madam chair, i yield back. Thank you, our second witness is Robert Duncan who is the chairman of the Postal Service board of governors, he was appointed to the board of governors by President Donald Trump in august of 2018 and his term expires in december of 2025. Please stand and raise your right hand. Did you swear or from the testimony is the truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god. I do. That the record show that witnesses affirmed this in the affirmative and without objection, your written theements will be part of record, with that mr. Dejoy, you are now recognize for your testimony. Good morning, im proud to be with you today on behalf of the 630,000 dedicated women and men of the United States Postal Service. On june 15 i became americas 75th postmaster general, since that time for variety of reasons, there has been a great deal of retention to the Postal Service by our elected officials, the media and the American People. I want to begin by sharing in this committee and the American Public that the Postal Service is fully capable and committed to delivering the nations balance securely and on time the sacred duty is my number one priority between now and election day. To be clear, we will do everything that we can to handle election mail within system of the processes and procedures that he replied upon for years. Nevertheless, i encourage all americans who choose to vote by mail to request their ballots early into vote early as a commonsense best practice. As part of this conversation, there are many inaccuracies about my actions that they wish to again correct. I did not direct the removal of collection boxes or the removal of Mail Processing equipment. Second, i did not direct the cutback on ours that any of our post offices and finally i did not direct the elimination or any cutback in overtime. I did however, suspend these practices to remove any misperceptions about our commitment to the nations election mail. Any further assertion or elected officials to the American People. Let me describe the two actions i have taken in 70 days since my appointment. I came to the Postal Service with decades of experience c in solving complex and logistical problems, plan to use his experience to lead the operating change required with the Postal Service to grove and involved in sustainability. On the database rain and, the Postal Service Inspector General issued an astonishing report about the schedule Postal Service transportation and the substantial cost associated with our weaknesses in the fundamental operatings principa. Upon review i directed the Postal Service Operations Team to develop and execute auto plan to improve our appearance to the transportation schedule of over 40000 trips a day. We have accomplished a school as her departure interpreting 98 and extra trips are down by over 70 . While we have had temporary service decline which should nom have happened, we are fixing this. In fact last week service improve because all major mail and package categories and im laser focused on improving service for the American Public. The second of two changes i made as postmaster general is installing the new organization reporting structure to better align talent and resources to instill greater accountability for performance into focus organization on service and growth. These two changes creating the Transportation Network in designing and engaging functional organelles lights structure will be the significant improvement with cost, performance and growth that a plan for this vital american institution. Madam chairwoman the women and men of the Postal Service have demonstrated extraordinary commitment to our mission ofmo Service Throughout the covid19t pandemic. In every community in america we continue to work to keep our employees and customers safe as we facilitate our essential rolls in delivering the medication, benefit checks and Financial Statements the public depends upon. Since a beginning of the pandemic, there has been a public outpouring of support for our postal employees as they perform their essential Service Throughout our nation. This is a welldeserved testament today of dedication. Chairwoman maloney, Ranking Member, i hope we can agree that the financial state of the Postal Service is unacceptable and needs to be fixed, i look forward to working with you in this committee and our stakeholders to restore the Financial Health of the United States Postal Service and to improve the way we serve the American Public, this concludes my remarks and i welcome any questions that you and the committee may have. Thank you. We will now recognize chairman duncan, you are recognized for your testimony and he will be appearing remote. Chairman duncan you are now recognize. Chairwoman maloney, Ranking Member cromer and members of the committee, thank you, my name is mike duncan, ive had the honor to serve you of chairman of the United States postal board of governors throughout my life ive looked for ways to support institutions that are important to American Communities and i spent five years on the college when numerous boards and commissions and other federal levels. I accepted this position in his Public Service mission. I spent time and i know how important the Postal Service is with communities like mine. I know Postal Service provides an important job to more than 630,000 americans who deliver mail by horseback i made it a point to get on the road to the workers and union leaders, these conversations are for and of the importance of the Postal Service. Serving on the board of governors of this Institute Just is a significant responsibility, the governors by statute represent the Public Interest and that means i will always remember the special role in our nation, it means i can never forget thehe challenges that are putting us at risk, these challenges should come as no surprise to members of the body, on two occasions i sent you the Postal Service annual reports of congress, each of those communications i wrote the Postal Service business is broken and will only produce losses for the coming years, dramatic change. Last fall postmaster general notified the board of pending retirement in response the board immediately recognized that we will have the most important decision that we will make is governors, the selection of the postmaster general. The world agrees the Postal Service will benefit from a transformational leader and one who can help us build of the longstanding challenges. Postal services with an amazing institution and its been brought to make it better. And to fix their broken business model, the control room without the help of congress and the postal regulatory commission. What we can do is increase and cut down on unnecessary expenses. We can also focus on marketability while reducing some expenses. Business as usual is notse an option, its many reasons that doctors organized with the processse the board to serve asa postmaster general of the United States. He is the fifth postmaster general to join the institution for the private sector for the experience for ways to include the Postal Service. In addition mr. Dejoy has experience of improving and managing logistic change in the fortune 100 company was a major contractor to the u. S. Postal service for more than 25 years with the knowledge about the institution. Like the post master general the board has confidence of the Postal Service to perform for the American People in this election p season. Five years from now, the United Statesat was to liberate the 250th anniversary of the american Postal Service. Throughout our nations history this institution has delivered for the American People, now we have a sacred responsibility to preserve, defend and strengthen this organization for generations to come. Thank you for your time, a perceived opportunity and look forward to your questions. Thankloth you. Thank you to your testimony i now recognize myself or questioning. Mr. Did joy, we have been flooded with concerns and complaints from our constituents about the delay in the mail andn the vote on my bill delivering for america on saturday, 26 republicans voted with us and they expressed the same theirns, people depend on mail for their medications, for their business and many, many states, headlines, major news, from our state about the delay in the mail, its been said, its a major i institution in or country, people depend on it. Over the weekend, we obtained this internal document, it is dated less than two weeks ago on august 12. It a is entitled Service Performance measurement for the png postmaster general briefing. Now your office already confirm to my office that this document is authentic. Lets go through a little bit of it now, this document clearly shows major degradation across the board beginning in july when you started your changes. Here iss a document for firstclass mail and overall it is down in astonishing 8. 1 from the baseline before your changes for the past two months, beginning in july. Now the second one, the next slide is a marketing mail, that is done down 842 its on the wall where you can see a better, the next periodical in that is down 10 , down 9. 7 . Mr. Dejoy, you and your aides have repeatedly downplayed these delays, you just downplayed in yourla testimony. You just downplayed for the people who need the mail. Would you agree, turn on your mike we cannot hear you. We are very concerned with the deterioration and service and are working and we see a big recovery this week and that report and oddly enough we did not have a measurement briefing at executive level like this and we are focused on fixing it in a nice recovery and we will have it back in my goal and without metrics before, without this fundamental change move around good shot of getting through the metrics that we are governed by. You just testified that you been on the job 70 days, this is essentially your report card for that period c of time any guy wo had a plummeting record the first two links on the job, i cannot imagine why he would be kept on. That is unfair, may i continue. When you testified on friday, senators asked you over and over about the status of these delays. They also asked a you to produce analysis and it wouldve been easy to mention this document existed, you couldve said a matter of fact, i just received a detailed briefing andct unfortunately the data shows major delays in nearly all categories. But you did not do that. You dismissed the nationwide delays ofla a gift and you refud to turn over any analysis and my question is why did you disclose this document and any analysis to the senate when you had it. They asked me for it on friday, they asked me for the analysis onn my decision. Us of the land, they announced why there is a reason for delays them besides just my reaction to run your truck sometime. Theres other reasons on the delay of the nation. Running truck sometime would probably increase delivery but for some reason i backed it up, 5 6 days into the district that i represent. Mr. Dejoy on august 14, this committee sent you a ten page letter, along with the chairs and Ranking Members of three other committees and we asked you to produce all communication and im quoting from the letter, all communication, evaluation, assesses and regarding mail left behind and as a result of the new policies that you instituted and we ask for these documents on friday, and on friday night we did produce some documents to us but you did not produce this one. And with the coastal professional. It was delivered to you and brief to you two days before the senate hearing. Why didwh you leave it out . I am not familiar with the request, the staff answer the questions and let me just for the record clear up, that is not a policy change. That is a request, that we had 40000 trucks a day on schedule and the intuition is right, you would think the mail moves faster and a portion moved fast, weve also looked at a report somewhere between 1,000,000,003,000,000,000 worth of costs wasted on our trucks being out of schedule, its an easy request with the new organization. My time is limited and im concerned why we did not receive any of this information when i have to say mr. Dejoy, we sent our letter two days after you received this briefing. In this document. It mustve been fresh on your mind, there is absolutely no excuse for concealing and withholding this information from the committee or from your testimony before the senate when you were asked questions about the information in the document and unfortunately this Committee Received it from someone else so mr. Dejoy, you are withholding information from us, concealing documents and downplaying the damage that youre causing. So let me close with this. This committee expects a full and completehi production of all the documents we requested no later than this coming wednesday. And if you continue to withhold information were otherwise failed to comply, we can expect the subpoena. Now i know many of our members plan to ask about how you intend to fix the problem, the problems you created. In reverse these horrible timeline. So we will get to those questions next. With that i now recognize the distinguished Ranking Member for fiveme questions. Insane he will be the first to respond for the great state of North Carolina i do know that you are going over time a great deal and postmaster general thank you very much for being with us today for the pilot and you delivered her efforts to slow down mail in her Postal Service employee. Is that true . No maam. Are you banning employees from charging overtime or are you trying to limit unplanned overtime to ensure the Postal Serviceab liability. At this time no maam and at this time not since i been here. Thanknc you. Postmaster general did joy, as a logistics expert and i believe representative walker outlined your expertisese very well. What is the consistent use of unplanned overtime in the need for extra trips mean in terms of the efficiency of operation. Besides crossing substantial rmountsbs of money for the postl service in terms of billions of dollars, it is also not too consistent of the Delivery System imbalance. In delays and mail in equilibrium and production processes, of course the whole network can more efficient ontime operations result in better delivery performance. R absolutely. [screams] and does unplanned overtime hinder the Postal Service ability to stay financially viable my husband and i have experienced inefficient services on the part of the post office in the last few weeks, im not going to go into those details but i want to applaud your approach to accountability and what we know from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle is they run away from accountability and in every case in the federal government or an allied Services Like the post office, let me applaud you for pushing unaccountability. Mr. Dejoy, as were all aware the Postal Service is not a Government Agency that receives appropriation, in fact, it is law, the postal reorganization of 1970 created the u. S. Postal services as an independent and selfsustaining entity. Postmaster general to joy, you believe its your duty to uphold this law and ensure that the usps is selfsufficient. What will it take to make the usps selfsufficient . Legislation with regard to the healthcare medicaid integration in our pension reform, flexibility from the prc and a decision from them in the 14 year tenure analysis and the Postal Service itself is a library of oig reports, identifying four practices in billions and billions of dollars of waste that this committee, nobody seems to Pay Attention to. In the Postal Service, our Management Team herself delivering and helping fix ourselves both in terms of service and cost and we have a plan and were running our trucks on time. In these oig reports have come from democrats, president s and republicans administrationsra both. Is that correct . If you have no operational flexibility, can you possibly make the Postal Service selfsufficient . I think we have a very good shot, we have some new revenue ideas for the Postal Service also and were beginning to finalize a plan and a need to reach the board but im very excited about the Management Team, the new organizational structure, im excited about the dedication of the 650,000 men and women and i think we can embark upon a little help from thisle congress, we are about to embark upon significant exciting future for the Postal Service and i believe in the 60 delivery, i think the carrier or the carriers of our postal carriers and relationship with the American People is what brings the most important ingredient in giving us the Approval Rating that we have and we have plans to really enhance that relationship and to help her growth. Again i want to thank you for bringing expertise to be the postmaster general of the United States. We of the background of the commitment that we need to make the post office work for the way americans wanted to work. Thank you, madam chairman i yieldd back. I now recognize congresswoman norton. Thank you very much madam chair. This hearing is very necessary to clarify and left open when we the vote on the bill. Mr. Dejoy, before testimony, you suggested that the coronavirus with a significant issue in employee ability availability and if that is the case, i want to know why you reduce the overtime, is a overtime even more necessary to your employees during the National Emergency during this pandemic with so many people at home and given youve already testified about the significant issue of employees availability across the country. Thank you why is overtime necessary to make up for all of that . Thank you maam. Since i been here, we spent 700 million in overtime. The overtime rate for my arrival was set 13 with organization and still at 13 . As a sediment Opening Statement this is o a continued misinformation regarding what i did since i got there, i never put a limitation on overtime. Thats a very important testimony in some states we see ten times the normal volume of mail and i would like to ask about Additional Resources two daysct before it is expanded, of overtime, one of the items under consideration when you already announced there two weeks before reelection who expanded overtime and this would not have happened. Yes, maam ita does. The 650,000 Postal Service are very committed to having a successful election and are role in the election, overtime, extra trips, postal inspection, rounds in each postal process. That is very important for the record and it will be allowed in the election. My next question is on the Postal Service document that we received, this is what it said and why my questions were asked as well in the document pmg expectation plans, overtime will be eliminated the four we see it, today we are paying too much for overtime and it is now costeffective and soon itll be taken off the table, more to come on this. And we asked the general counsel and he claimed that came from a level manager and as an official statement of corporate office. I asked you, with the postal manager send this document without some kind of the top of the agency . I have purposely not tried to find two that was, there are many ways that people that was not a directive from me, there is 50000 managers within the organization, this is one of the reasons i change the organization quickly afteror the rollout and the schedule. It was very, very confusing. Are you looking for whoever it was whoho jumped ahead and issuing that. Absolutely. I want you to give that to me when you find that to the chair as well. And in a statement, you stated all the time and will continue to be improved as needed, i want to understand as needed, whatth that means and postal managers have continued to approving and using overtime as they did before began and are there any changes since you took office . Same as prior to me being here. Have you entered anything into that and what would you provide us. I am sorry i did not hear the question. Too that effect that before we continue to improve the overtime . That effect. Are you intending to issue any guidance to the effect. I saw the executive team, the Operations Team. They know there is no different process than prior to my arrival. The gentlewomans time is completed. Can i just ask that you provide you any written guidance on overtime . Okay. I make that request on behalf of the committee. I now recognize congressman gosar. Can you hear and see me . Yes, we can. Okay, thank you. We can hear you, but we dont see you. There you are. Okay. Mr. Dejoy, thank you very much for coming today, and i want to clear up some obvious political disinformation that the majority is actually putting out. And then i also want to say thank you very much for acknowledgment of the [inaudible] but we will get to that in a few minutes. You have over 10 billion dollars cash on hand and access to 10 billion dollars line of credit which makes you fiscally viable through august 2021. Is that true, mr. Dejoy . Yes, but i would say that only in washington, d. C. Would that be a good position to be in, when i have 135 billion dollars in liabilities and 2 1 2 billion dollars a month a week, biweekly payroll and a whole bunch of others, but yes, we can get through, through the election, and with the loan, should we take it, i dont know how we would pay it back, but should we take it, we should be fine, until mid 21. So now isnt it true that youre actually generating more revenue at this time of the year than you also did last year, and you are processing more up tick in mass mail government items such as the stimulus check and the census questionnaire, is that true . Were seeing more revenue, mostly due to package increase, mail products are down 15 or so on average. But package volume is up substantially, but package volume is very costly for us to handle in overcapacity method do you believe that the money on hand, successful [inaudible] the mail volume is down by 15 , the hard work of over 600,000 postal workers that you can handle the election increases that you will possibly see . I will be very very clear that the 650,000 men and women we are working with our union leadership, our Management Team, our employees, we will be able to handle all election mail for the 2020 election. I wanted to go back to the slowdown related the pandemic. I want to highlight that this week the president of the phoenix Postal Workers Union stated that it was suffering from pandemic workforce strains, that no processing machines have been removed during your tenure and the United States Postal Service processed over 700,000 ballots in the recent primary election. Let me ask you a question, mr. Dejoy, have you had slowdowns or impediments like in seattle and portland and new york city and chicago because of the rioting and the anarchy thats going on . Well, sir, i mean, any kind of rioting does produce delays with any type of Public Service, so i dont have a specific measurement on that, but i will say this, that as the coronavirus cases throughout the country have expanded, it has had an impact on our employee availability, and in the urban areas that are hot spots, you know, the averages dont play out what the real picture is like in areas like philadelphia, where employee availability is significantly below normal run rates, and what it has been in the pandemic, we actually peaked started to peak in terms of employee availability issues in the july time frame. Now i want to go back to [inaudible] any policy changes such as elimination of overtime and [inaudible], is that true . The extra trips, they werent prohibited. Thats true on Everything Else but the extra trips. My direction was we need to work on getting our trucks on schedule and mitigating our extra trips. We still run 7, 800 extra trips a day. It wasnt a flat directive. It was work to our plan. That was my directive. And come up with a plan to work through our plan. A Management Team put the plan together and executed on the plan, but Everything Else i had nothing to do with. It was a longstanding plan on collection boxes and sorting machines and postal hours. That was was ongoing, really in the areas that were taking care of that. Another quick question, is [inaudible] express is Still Available today . Ive been here 70 days, sir. Ive been searching for the good. I havent seen that yet, no, so i think its gone. Any transfer of new ideas, it always goes smoothly, doesnt it, mr. Dejoy . Im sorry . A transition where youre trying to make changes always goes smoothly, doesnt it . The gentlemans time is expired, but you may answer his question. Transitions dont always go smoothly. We should have a Recovery Process. Our Recovery Process is taking too long. This should have been resolved in a few days, and its not. So, you know, the impact theres a lot of reasons there are a lot of things that are impacting our service. This is one of them, on the front, and we should have cleared it up quicker and i think we have to focus on it now and it will recover, you know, quite rapidly going forward. Thank you. The chair recognizes mr. Clay . Congressman clay . Thank you for conducting this hearing. Thank you, madame chair, for conducting this hearing. Okay. Mr. Dejoy, one of the most damaging results of your actions is the reports we have heard over and over again from people and families across the country who are not getting their mail medications on time, and it is heart breaking. The Postal Service delivers hundreds of millions of prescriptions from shipments each year. That is millions of shipments per day, six days a week of vital medicines delivered [inaudible]. Were having a technical problem right now with mr. Clay. We cant hear you. Its breaking up. Should we go to someone else and go back . Mr. Clay, were going to try to correct theres a problem. We cant hear you. Were going to hold your testimony vulnerable populations. Should we go for it or not . This problem has gotten aggravated during the Coronavirus Crisis because mail order [inaudible]. Madame chair, for the sake of time, lets okay. Mr. Clay, were going to hold up on you and go to mr. Lench and then go to a republican. We have technical difficulties. You are now recognized mr mr. Lench. Thank you, madame chair. Thank you, mr. Dejoy for joining. You have been the postmaster of the United States for a couple of months right now . 70 days. 70 days okay, i have been a member of this committee for about 20 years and since my mom, two of my sisters, bunch of my aunts, cousins, inlaws, all work at the post office, some have retired, some are still there, as a member of congress you might say i have felt compelled to take a keen interest on matters involving the Postal Service. My perspective is a bluecollar, you know, common sense get your work done sort of perspective. So mr. Dejoy, is the postmaster of the United States of america for the last 70 days, did you know that the Postal Service has never allowed itself to be in a situation that its in today . Throughout the Postal Service history, theres been a tradition of Reliable Delivery from the very beginning, article i, section 8, clause 7 of the United States constitution. Going back to ben franklin, the first postmaster general, the pony press has been mentioned before. I was watching a ken burns special last week, and he had these heartwrenching letters that were back and forth from soldiers during the civil war, so even at a moment when the country was at war with itself, the mail was delivered. During the First World War and the spanish flu influenza, of 1918, through the great depression, millions of people out of work, a thousand bank failures, the mail was delivered, on time. Even during the second world war, with the threat of nazi u boats, International Mail was delivered on time. Just so happens i was elected on 9 11, the day of the terrorist attacks, on our nation, a god awful day. Some people forget in the days after 9 11, we had direct anthrax attacks on the United States Postal Service. We lost two brave postal workers, joseph kerrseen and tom mars at the brentwood facility here in d. C. From anthrax inhalation, but for the good of the country, the postal unions continued to send their members into the post office do their job to keep the country running. So two weeks ago, after youd been postmaster for just a few weeks, that all changed. In the middle of a pandemic thats killed 170,000 americans and on the eve of a National Election when the time the cdc is advising people not to gather limit contact, you stopped the upwu from sorting the mail and stopped the mail handlers from working overtime to deliver the mail. First time in 240 years in our history of the United States Postal Service you sent out a letter embarrassingly in july to 46 states that said the post office cant guarantee that we can deliver the mail in time for the elections in november. And we have reports from across the country as you acknowledge service has been delayed and the mail is piling up. You have ended a once proud tradition. Now as a member of the oversight committee, we have a chief Investigative Committee in the congress. We conduct oversight on every matter that impacts the American People, foreign and domestic. There are members on this committee been to iraq, afghanistan, couple dozen times, go to yemen, somalia, they go to the ends of the earth that affect matters that involve the americans. The Postal Office are on the front lines of this pandemic. Throughout this pandemic, they have risked their own health and safety to deliver or try to deliver mail, medicines, and mailin ballots to every American Home and business six days a week. A as member of this committee, im supposed to ask you a question, in my heart im the efforted to ask after 240 years of Patriotic Service delivering im attempted to ask in 240 years of Patriotic Service, how can one person screw this up in two weeks . I understand you bring private sector experience. I guess we couldnt find a government worker to screw it up this fast. It would take them a while. The president is running the post office into a business, running it into the ground as he has declared bankruptcy a few times in his own businesses. In an effort to provide the facts, the real facts, not the alternative facts based on what you have actually done, one can only reach as a fact finder we can only reach two conclusions, one either through gross incompetence you have ended the 240 year history of delivering the mail reliably on time or the second conclusion that we could gather is that youre doing this on purpose. And that youre deliberately dismantling this once proud tradition the gentlemans time is expired. The gentleman may answer his question my last question is this what the heck are you doing . What the heck are you doing . The gentlemans time has expired. The gentleman may answer. Thank you, sir. First of all, i would like to agree with you on the heroic efforts of our 650,000 employees across the nation and the history of the Postal Service for their 250 year history of serving the American Public, and im will you put the machines back . Im very proud to lead the organization. The rest of your accusations are actually outrageous. Will you put the machines back . No, i will not. You will not . I will not there you go. There you go what . Madame chair, let the witness answer the question. Hes gone over his time. Order. The gentleman may answer the question without being interrupted. Will you put the machines back . The answer is no. The other accusations other than adhering to the truck schedule is inaccurate and more misinformation for the American Public you wont put the machines back, though . Madame chair . Mr. Jordan is now recognized. Congressman jordan, is he here . I believe thats not the order. What . No, it is congressman palmer. Im getting different signs up here. Why dont we go back to the old way that you write it down because it keeps changing. Okay. Congressman palmer is now recognized. I thank the chairman and i just want to point out Washington Post article from august 26th, 2015, almost five years to the day that there was a decline in first class letter delivery of 18 to 44 percent and a 38 percent decline in the performance over the same time in 2014. This was during the obama Biden Administration. The United States Postal Service in 2012 started closing dozens of mail sorting facilities from january to june of 2015, there were 494 million pieces of mail that did not arrive on time, 48 increase in delayed mail delivery, and im sure that that was intended to impact the 2012 election. Yet, this committee didnt see fit to look into that. Mr. Dejoy, these will be yes and no for the most part. Is there any way the post office can know whether or not ballots that they are delivering to households or to eligible voters . Is there any way for the post office to know that . No, sir. I bring that up because theres an analysis of data released in 2019 and a survey, theres 378 counties nationwide that have more Voter Registrations than citizens living there who are old enough to vote. These are counties where the registrations exceeds 100 . At least 18,658 extra voters. Under the National Voter registration act of 1993, Judicial Watch sent notice of violation letters to 19 large counties in five states, california, pennsylvania, North Carolina, virginia, and colorado, real clear politics reported that Los Angeles County had an estimated 1. 6 million ineligible voters and 38 states have counties where the Voter Registration is over 100 . Including montgomery county, maryland, represented my distinguished friend mr. Raskin. The same article cited a 2012 pew study that found there are 24 million Voter Registrations that are no longer valid or significantly accurate. 1. 8 million dead people and another 2. 75 million who were registered in at least two states. New york, for instance, in this most recent primary, that impacted your race, madame chair, had 84,000 ballots, almost a fifth of all the over a fifth of all the ballots i think cast, 12,000 in your race that were disqualified. So my question, mr. Dejoy, is there any way to be sure that more ballots than a household should be eligible to be received or not are being delivered . Say that again . Is there any way for the Postal Service to determine whether or not a household is getting more ballots than they should be . Were focused on delivering the mail so the answer is no, theres no way to know that . And so if there was some way to know that, im sure the postal inspectors would get involved. Lets try that again. Once it called you, it tells you madame chair i think the chinese have hacked in or something . Whats going on . Okay. What is that noise . Maam, the clock is still running. Madame chair, can his time be restored . We will give you adequate time to complete. Have we resolved this, do you think . What is it . They are just trying to deal with technical. We will give you extra time. Keep going. You have extra time. We have some technical problems. Thank you, madame chairman. I appreciate your indulgence, thank you. The Census Bureau reports that 11 of americans move each year. Section 8 of the National Voter registration act which was passed by the democrats in 93, signed by president clinton and voted for by mr. Cooper and mr. Clay and madame chairman maloney, requires states to perform Voter Registration maintenance. It is the responsibility of federal government to ensure states and local governments to make sure their voter rolls are accurate and they have removed deceased people, people who have moved or inactive voters. It should be noted that the obama, Biden Administration did not bring a single section 8 enforcement action during their entire term. That makes the post office task of only delivering ballots to eligible voters more difficult. My point is is that youve been accused of trying to impact an election, when the fact of the matter is, for those people that have never had a real job out of business, what youve been trying to do is improve the performance of the post office so that what happened in 2015 does not continue to happen. And the accusations are that youre trying to throw the election. When the fact of the matter is, the fact that the federal government has not done its part, particularly during the obama Biden Administration to ensure that the voter rolls are accurate has made your job more difficult. Its really not your job, is it . One way or the other . No, sir. Can we count on the post office and the delivery personnel around the nation to not deliver mass ballots, stacks of ballots to an address where the delivery person knows that theres nobody there, an abandoned house, an abandoned apartment complex, a business . That would be reported, wouldnt it . We deliver mail to the address specified. And if dozens or hundred of mailin ballots are dumped into blue mailboxes instead of left in a regular mailbox for pickup or dropped off at the post office, would it make sense to report to the postal inspectors to make sure those ballots are legitima legitimate . There are processes that the postal inspectors im not fully aware of what they are right now, but there are processes that the postal inspectors deploy to identify any fraudulent type of activity within the mail system. We need to make sure that this election is not tainted by fraudulent mailin ballots. And im madame chairman, im going to do something that i rarely do. When mr. Gosar mentioned the burned out the riots in portland and seattle and other places around the country, there was a chuckle from one of the democrats on this committee, and i take offense at that. This is a picture of the burned out post office in minneapolis. Okay . There was mail in that post office that was lost. There may have been Prescription Drugs that were lost. There may have been Social Security checks in that office that were lost. It is a fact that not only is the mail delivery delayed when you have anarchists laying siege to cities all over the country, it endangers postal workers, delivery people. It may have endangered peoples lives who werent able to get their medicine because it burned up in the minneapolis post office. Thats not funny. And i hope that the democrats in this committee and in this congress will take seriously whats happening in american cities. I yield back. The gentleman yields back. Were still having difficulty connecting with congressman clay. I now recognize mr. Cooper. Congressman cooper. Mr. Dejoy, heres what your so called reforms have done to my district in 70 days. A lady named elena roser paid 5 on july 22nd to send a certified letter to the National Tennessee Social Security office. The distance is 20 miles. The letter took 12 days to arrive. Just this morning, excellent reporting from nashvilles channel 5 tv, proves that nashvilles mail truck being forced to leave on schedule even when completely empty. Imagine it. 53 foot trucks forced to travel hundreds of miles completely empty due to your so called reforms. Here are the truck records. Thats not efficiency. Thats insanity. For anyone thinking of voting absentee, the effect of your policies is to unilaterally move up election day from november 3rd to Something Like october 27th. And if you force more empty trucks on the highway, you will be able to singlehandedly move up election day even earlier. According to npr, already 550,000 primary ballots, absentee ballots were rejected in just 30 states, and one of the main reasons was late delivery. How dare you disenfranchise so many voters when you told the Senate Committee just last week that you had a sacred duty to protect election mail. You know that its a felony for Postal Service officer or employee to delay delivery of mail . Postal employee can be fined or imprisoned for up to five years for delaying the mail, but somehow you can delay all the mail and get away with it . They can be prosecuted but you cant . Even if your actions are a million times worse . Mr. Dejoy, do you have a duty to obey u. S. Law like every other american . I do, sir. Well, previous postmasters general have been punished for much smaller conflicts of interest than yours. In 1997, the 70th postmaster general from tennessee had to pay 27,000 because of a 350,000 conflict of interest. If your 30 Million Dollars conflict of interest, 100 times larger than his, were treated like your predecessors, you would have to pay a 2. 7 Million Dollars fine and probably be ousted from being postmaster general. Mr. Dejoy, are you above the law that applies to other postmasters general . I dont agree with the premise. Im in full compliance with all ethical requirements that i need to have. And theres no ig investigation, and i welcome the result of that report. Mr. Dejoy, as a meggido nor for the Trump Campaign mega donor for the Trump Campaign, you were picked with two men, did you pay back several of your top executives for contributing to Trumps Campaign by bonusing or rewarding them . Thats an outrageous claim, sir, and i resent it. Im just asking the question the answer is no. So you did not bonus or reward any of your executives or anyone that you solicited for a contribution to the Trump Campaign . No, sir. Not in whole or in part . Actually during the Trump Campaign, i wasnt even working at my company anymore. We want to make sure that Campaign Contributions are legal. All your Campaign Contributions are im fully aware of legal Campaign Contributions. I resent the assertion, sir. What are you accusing me of . Im asking a question. Do your mail delays fit Trumps Campaign goal of hurting the post office as stated in his tweets . Are your mail delays implicit Campaign Contributions . Im not [inaudible] these types of questions. Im here to represent the Postal Service. All my actions have to do with improvement of the Postal Service. Am i the only one in this room that understands that we have 10 billion dollars a year loss . Am i the only one in this room that will you give this committee mr. Dejoy, is your back up plan to be pardoned like roger stone . Pitiful. You have two seconds to answer the question. I have no comment on that. It is not worth my time. My time has expired. The gentleman in florida is recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madame chair. First of all, served in iraq in support of iraqi freedom to compare postal workers to american servicemembers in iraq and afghanistan quite frankly to me is offensive. Last time i checked Postal Service werent getting their trucks blown up when they are driving mail. Try to compare our military members to who sacrifice on the battlefields across this world to Postal Service is frankly offensive as a person who has served. It is unfortunate there are democrats on this committee that have 100 politicized the Postal Service to try to stoke fear with the American People. We shouldnt be surprised. Its a familiar theme for democrats over the last two years. Subcommittee chairman of this committee when asked on National Television and i quote, are you saying, say it directly, is this an attempt by the president , you believe to interfere in the election . The answer was absolutely. There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that President Trump is using the Postal Service to interfere with the election. None, in fact. Quite the opposite. But democrats dont care about the facts. Here we go again. Seems like just yesterday we were hearing how the Trump Campaign colluded and conspired with russia to interfere with the last election. When the facts actually came out, there was no evidence that that ever occurred. This is absolutely a concocted narrative by the democrats to stoke fear in the American People just like the russia collusion hoax. Financial issues have plagued the Postal Service for decades. Its vastly in need of reform. Mr. Dejoy just stated that 10 billion dollars loss a year. Businesses couldnt operate that way. But the democrats dont want real reform. If they did, they would have worked with our witness today. They would have worked with republicans in crafting a bill. They would have worked with our counterparts in the senate. They would have worked with the administration to actually come up with reform that would actually pass. This is a political stunt, further the democrats newest interference hoax. I represent nine counties in florida. Just last week, we held our primary elections. Florida saw the largest turnout in a president ial Election Year primary since 1992. That was 18 years. About 2. 3 million mailin ballots were cast, which made up about 59 of all ballots cast. Initial reports indicate that there were minimal issues with the additional ballots handled by the post service. There were no issues in my nine counties with absentee ballots in this district that im aware of. Mr. Dejoy, would it be fair to say that the Postal Service successfully delivered during the floridas primary last week . Yes, sir. The 2. 3 million mailin ballots that were cast in florida are a significant amount for one state. What are the factors that led to the Postal Service being able to deliver the substantial increase in mailin ballots on time . When it comes to ballots, the Postal Service prior to my arrival and the heightened awareness of this particular election, throws everything it has at moving ballots through the system. Their ballots are usually identified with special markings, and every employee and manager is very much focused on making sure that ballots move quickly through the process. Sometimes in advance of firstclass mail. So those particular processes were deployed and will be deployed as we come into the 2020 election. And florida has am i correct in stating that florida has a reasonable time frame for Postal Service to return the ballots as opposed to some states that just allow ballots to be requested the last minute therefore delaying their ability to the Postal Service to get those ballots to the precincts in time . Thank you, sir, and that is a big part of the effort of the Postal Service. Prior to my arrival, and since my arrival, and the purpose of sending out the letters to all the states with regard to what we just want to make everybody aware of what is it that will really work. We can put all these additional processes on, but it would be more helpful if we had reasonable reasonable standards from the election boards that comply with our processes to enable us to do it more efficiently and effectively. So to clarify, do you need any additional funding to be able to successfully deliver ballots in florida this november . No, we do not, sir. Are there any lessons that other states can learn from the way that florida handles our ballots in absentee voting . Well, im not particularly familiar with florida, but our general counsel has put out letters with regard to each States Election guidelines. We have a website thats just been posted on normal process, and in general, i will say from the on behalf of 650,000 postal workers, get your ballot early and please vote early, and thats just common sense, but if florida had a good process, so im sure their electoral board procedures were good. We cant do this all by ourselves. We would appreciate every states help in reviewing their standards and taking the advice of the Postal Service general counsel and whats on our website. Thank you. The gentlemans time is expired. We now recognize mr. Clay. If were still having connection problems, we will go to mr. Connelly. Mr. Clay . Madame chair, i hope you can hear me now yes, we can. All right. Let me and thank you for conducting this hearing. Mr. Dejoy, let me start with a question. Before you implemented your changes, did you conduct any analysis of the effect your changes would have on delaying Prescription Drug shipments . The delivery of those shipments to your customers . Did you analyze that before you implemented the changes . Sir, we have a whole operating organization that i asked to put together a plan, and it wasnt a change. It was comply with your schedules. And when we could comply with your schedules, i reviewed this with every regional area vp, on a discussion that they were ready, and they rolled it out. Im not the coo. Im the ceo of the organization, but i received commitment that we would be able to go forward with the plan on to committing to our existing schedule okay, mr. Dejoy, let me say this. Prioritizing on time truck departures means letter carriers leave without all of their packages, including medicine on board. Critical medicines like refrigerated insulin is reportedly sitting in sorting facilities days longer than expected. Did you examine the effect of your changes on medicines, like insulin that requires special storage . Sir, at no time did i say dont put the mail on the trucks when they left on time. This was not a hard direct everything must leave on time. We still have thousands of trucks a day that leave late, within, you know, a certain time frame, and there was still hundreds of extra trips. So the intention was to put the mail on the trucks and have the trucks leave on time. That should not have impacted what about the impact, mr. Dejoy, what about the impact of missing that insulin and having it sit on a floor somewhere and it may spoil or whatever . At least we know it will be delayed. Did you all give that any consideration . Were concerned about the impact that each individual across the country, and were working extremely hard to bring the Service Levels back to where they were and to exceed that, and we will be there shortly. Mr. Dejoy, we would like a copy of any and all analysis you conducted before you implemented your changes. Will you provide them to this committee . I will go back to the office and see what the operating team has on that, and well seek to do so. Okay. While youre at it, mr. Dejoy, do you have any information on the number of Prescription Drug shipments that the Postal Service has delivered late since you began implementing these changes, and will you provide that information to the committee by the end of the week . Can you get us i dont know im not aware of what we have on specific types of shipments. Im sure we have something. I will take a look at it. But again, i want to remind you that the changes is misleading and what i ask is that the team find a way to run the trucks on a schedule, which the intention was that we put the mail on the trucks when we ran them on schedule. Thank you, mr. Clay. And we now recognize madame chairwoman . Yes. Could i ask unanimous consent, mr. Lynch asked me to enter into the record a set of data from the american Postal Workers Union with respect to mail volume and the reduction in advanced [inaudible] systems, delivery bar [inaudible] and flat seque e sequencing systems in its Mail Processing facilities . Without objection. I thank the chair. Thank you. Mr. Norman from South Carolina is now recognized. Mr. Norman . Thank you, chairwoman maloney. I want to apologize to you. Youre getting a berating up here. Congressman lynch going into a five minute dialogue would not give you time to answer your questions was yelling over you, thats typical of how this hearing has gone, and whats amazing to me is this bill had to be rushed out this past saturday. You remember, do you know that 67 members did not even take the time to show up . If your workers at the post office dont show up, what happens . They dont get a paycheck, and the mail doesnt get delivery. It is an insult to what the democrats are trying to do, a false narrative that has not worked for them, since this president was elected. The mueller report, the impeachment, none of its working. Now theyre going fishing for this. I apologize to you. Let me get some yes or no answers. Are you and the Postal Service actively removing mailboxes at the behest of President Trump to undermine the election or as president obama said kneecap the Postal Service . No, sir. Was the u. S. Postal Service Going to be insolvent before the election if you do not receive the 25 billion that democrats insisted including in their bill . No, sir. Is the United States Postal Service equipped to handle voting by mail for the november election . Yes, sir. Are you unlocking blue boxes to stop the mail . Anything with blue boxes is stopped. Congressman palmer showed pictures of the burned out mailboxes and the cities on fire, portland, chicago, minneapolis, sacramento, new york, would that kind of slow the post Office Delivery down . There are certain actions and procedures that we have for situations for public unrest that we deploy, a variety of different things, up to and including getting out collection boxes out of there when it happens, but i dont know all of everything that goes with that, but yes, it would slow down the mail. It would slow it down and the safety of the delivering the person delivering the mail is pretty much an issue now, wouldnt it . Im sorry . The welfare of the person delivering mail in the burned out cities would kind of be a problem, wouldnt is it . Wouldnt it . Absolutely. Our letter carriers have hazardous jobs in many cases were you consulted on this all important bill that we had to take up this past saturday to add your expertise . I dont know if i think our legislative Affairs People had some interaction to comment on it you made a good statement. Youre not the chief operating officer. Youre the ceo. Youve been on the job 70 days. Yep. To be accused of everything youve been accused of is simply not right. Its unfair. Im glad the American People are getting a front row seat to what youre having to endure. I yield back. Gentleman yields back. Mr. Connelly is now recognized. Well, my my my, youre right, youve been on the job 70 days and youve caused this much ruckus. And believe it or not, thats called accountability. Thats why hes here today. Thats why we passed the bill. If he wasnt consulted, its because he was the inspiration of the bill. A dubious distinction, nonetheless. Mr. Dejoy, when did you take office . You were in office in may. But when did you actually take over the job as postmaster general . What day . June 15th. June 15th. And youve seen this data on or around that time is when we see a roughly 8 decline in service, in Postal Service, which most people would say correlates to the reorganization and operational efficiencies you undertook. Do you think thats a fair characterization . I think theres a lot of different issues going on, within the country, that impact mail delay, including the actions that we took with regard to transportation. I dont think i think the organizational change was made because of the poor was accelerated because of the poor rollout. I think that will strengthen the recovery. Of course we all live in a context, dont we, mr. Dejoy that is true. You are in the context of the worst pandemic in 100 years. 176,000 americans dead. 40,000 postal employees who have gotten the virus or quarantined because of it, and sadly a few dozen dead. And were on the eve of a massive shift to voting by mail. 76 of all americans who live in the states that can vote by mail, 70 of americans want to vote by mail. 50 to 60 percent tend to vote by mail. And along comes this. Now, lets stipulate that your motives were pure, that you came at this like a normal private sector ceo. You see some problems. You want to create some efficiencies and save some money and make us work better. Wouldnt you think, though, that you might take into consideration the context, and if you didnt, as a good ceo, when you saw unintended consequences, which your testimony would have us believe these were unintended, youd take measures quickly to ameliorate the unintended consequences mainly scaring the public half to death about the reliability of the Postal Service, lots of anecdotal if not Empirical Data that materially affected the delivery of mail. As the new postmaster general you dont want to be seen as the guy who actually damaged the 240 year reputation of the Postal Service and scared voters to believing that their ballots wont get on time because of your service, do you . I understand the context. And i think when we look in terms of the context, it was summertime. Mail volume was down. You know, significantly. Were getting ready for the peak season and election is three months away. It was a good time to start to try and roll this out. Again, the request was just run your trucks on time. Put a plan to run your trucks on time. Okay. I mean, the impact let me just say the impact is probably about for that, because if the mail gets processed and the truck leaves, that mail will move on the next truck or the next day, so long stories of nine days and so forth would not impact that. Those Service Levels if we add one day, we would be back forgive me for interrupting you. I have limited time so i have to interrupt you. You made a statement before the senate the other day to senator gary peters you have had no contact with the Trump Campaign during your tenure; is that correct . I have had no contact with the Trump Campaign. I mean, i have spoken to the president. Ive spoken to Steve Mnuchin. I have spoken to other people, but i have not ive had no contact i havent spoken to anybody about the Postal Service. Did you not tell the board of governors this month in august that in fact you had had contact with the Trump Campaign to ask them to stop their attacks on the Postal Service and voting by mail . I have put word around to different people that this is not helpful to you did have contact with the Trump Campaign. For a good purpose. Im trying to think of when you say the Trump Campaign, ive not spoken to Trump Campaign leadership in that regard. Ive spoken to people that are friends of mine that are associated with the campaign, yes. One of whom was Steve Mnuchin . Steve mnuchins secretary treasury. I know. I never spoke to steve about telling the president to not do something. Thank you, mr. Dejoy. The gentlemans time is expired, but you may answer his question. Okay. What was the question . Im sorry. The question was, what conversations did you have with the secretary of treasury, mr. Mnuchin, about the Postal Service, your hiring and the consequences that seemed to have unfolded with these operational efficiencies . The conversation i have with the secretary when i came here, we had this note that was kind of stuck in the mud, and i worked with him to get the note done. It was really, you know, were going to it was im going to try and control costs and grow revenue. It was very high level thing, and lets try and get the deal done, so we have the loan. That was really it. Thank you, mr. Jordan is now recognized. Thank you, madame chair. Mr. Dejoy, was it the Postal Services fault that it took six weeks after the june 23rd chairwoman maloneys primary election for her to be declared the winner . Was that your guys fault . Im not filled with the details but i know it took a long time. That wasnt your fault, was it no. It was the board of elections. Was it Postal Service fault that new jersey was still counting ballots four weeks after the primary election last month . No, sir how about the Democrats Iowa caucuses is that the post offices fault that we didnt know who won the caucus . Was that the post offices fault . No, sir. A couple facts i want to be clear. You got 14 billion dollars cash on hand. You got a 10 billion dollars line of credit. Is that right . Yes, sir. And changing out the sorting machines and removing and changing out mail collection boxes is nothing different than thats happened before. Right . Every postmaster general, every year we do those sort of things, is that right . Yes, sir. Yeah, theres no different. In fact, what was the number . I think between 2011 and 2016, it was like 12,000 mail collection boxes that were removed, changed out, by the obama Biden Administration. Is that right . It was a lot. Yeah, it was a lot. You didnt order reduction in overtime or reduction in hours. I think you testified to that earlier. I did not why are these guys out to get ya . What is it . I dont they have their own concerns. I assume they are legitimate with them. You assume they are legitimate . I mean why are they out to get to you . They had people protesting at your house last night. They have been doing it for weeks. 90 some of these people have already called for you to resign. They passed a bill before they even talked to you, before they even had a hearing. Theyre not interested in any bipartisan solution. As evidenced by the fact that the chairwoman wouldnt even contact the white house chief of staff who had a bill that he worked on with the previous chairman, the late chairman cummings, a bipartisan bill to address concerns at the post office. Im asking you why are they after you . You were appointed by the board of governors; right . Yes, unanimous appointed by bipartisan governors unanimous vote, not all republicans, democrats thought you were the right guy for the job right . Yes, sir. Why are they out to get you . I have to idea. I do have a lot of support out there amongst employees and people in america, though, i receive it every day. Got an amazing record in business. Youve got an amaze g history of community service. You help kids with their education. You served your community. Served our country and these people are out to get ya. As the wall street journal said this is one giant conspiracy from the democrats. I just want to know what could be their reason . What could it be, mr. Dejoy . We know it is not based on the facts. What could it be . Might it be politics . Might it be . Might it be the election coming up . Might it be the fact that they actually want to wait and count votes after election day . Maybe they want six weeks after the election. Maybe they want to be counting votes six weeks after the election, the president ial election, the biggest election were going to have, maybe they want to be counting votes six weeks after like they did in the chairwomans race or four weeks after like they did in new jersey or maybe they want to wait forever like they did in the democratic iowa caucuses, might that be the reason . The chaos and confusion we saw with all three of those elections. Maybe thats what they want. Could that be the reason, mr. Dejoy . I dont know what motivates people to have different opinions of me. They have called you all kinds of names today already. Protesting outside your house. They were there last night, werent they . Yes, sir. Banging pots and pans outside your house, disrupting your neighbors and you. Uhhuh. When the facts as you have testified are not anything close to what theyve been saying for the last three weeks, what they said saturday on the house floor. This is we know what this is about. We all know what this is about. This is about these guys wanting chaos and confusion because they i think they know this. I think they know on Election Night President Trump is going to win. They know on election day the vote count on election day, President Trumps going to win, and they want to keep counting. Six weeks, four weeks, iowa caucus, whenever, i dont know when they decided that one. I still dont know if they declared a winner. I dont know if it was bernie or biden or whatever was running then. Thats what they want. Theyre willing to go after a guy like you, who has served our country, served his community, helps kids with their education, amazing record in business, they are willing to go after you, you have been on the job 70 days. Everything that youve testified is nothing new. Same thing has been done by the postmaster generals yet they are coming after you because thats how much they want to get this president. Its disgusting. We all know whats going on. You t fact that you you know it too. You wont say it. I think that shows your character as well. But i will say it because its the truth. The American People understand it and see right through it. I yield back. The gentleman [inaudible]. Congressman youre recognized. Good morning mr. Dejoy. Good morning. Before you became the postmaster general i believe you appropriately resigned for being the finance chair to have Republican National convention; correct . I did sir. In your written testimony you said we should keep the nonpartisan tradition of the usps and in this case occupying a high level political post at the same time youd be occupying a high level usps post would create at the least appearance problems if not more; right . Yes, sir. Also i think i couldnt hold both positions. Yes, sir. Mr. Duncan, are you on the line, sir . Mr. Duncan . Yes, congressman. Yes, sir, as chairman of the board, you are one of the highest ranking officials at the usps; correct . As chairman of the board, im a member of a part time board that is Senate Confirmed but youre the chair of the board. You are the highest ranking official at the usps. Id like to point out that you are also on the board of two republican superpacs, namely the Senate Leadership fund and american cross roads; correct . Yes, sir. And i just went to the usps website, sir, and i looked at your bio and i would be remiss if i didnt point out on your official government bio at the usps website you said as rnc chairman, he, namely you, raised an unprecedented 428 Million Dollars and grew the donor base to 1 point million, a record at the time. This is on your official government usps bio. Mr. Duncan, i have a couple other questions for you. In your written testimony, you mentioned that an outside Research Firm called Russell Reynolds associates was contracted to find the quote unquote best person for the job. Best person for the job of postmaster general; correct . Correct. You further noted in your testimony that Russell Reynolds reviewed 212 candidates, and then they narrowed the search to 53 after they reviewed those peoples bios and backgrounds, and they vetted them; correct . Yes, sir. And interestingly, according to david williams, the former vice chairman of the board, the former Inspector General for 13 years, at the usps, as well as a published report over the weekend, mr. Dejoy was not among the 53 presented to the board. Either one, Russell Reynolds considered mr. Dejoy and decided there were 53 better candidates than him, or mr. Dejoy was not considered by Russell Reynolds at all before presenting the 53 finalists, which was it, mr. Duncan . We were still in the process of developing a pool before we had our first round interviews at that point. I understand. Youre talking about the first round interviews, the round of 14. But you dont dispute, obviously in your answer, that mr. Dejoy did not make the initial cut of 53 finalists presented to the board, but he was inserted into the round of 14, not by merit, but by his connections . It would be the same as an ncaa team not making the round of 64, but then swooping in to the round of the sweet 16, and thats what happened here. So let me ask you this question, mr. Williams repeatedly asked the board to do a background check on mr. Dejoy, by the Postal Inspection Service. Do you know what the Postal Inspection Service is, sir . theyre saying quote the obama biden democrats and liberals special interest allies are trying to steal the election from republicans. I assume you still believe that about joe biden and the democrats are . I have no knowledge of that. Is in the cnn article that puts you directly. Here. And then we have another article from the las vegas sun. It says, again and eroding the letter that democrats the democrats will soon be trying to pad the ballot boxes across the country with voters they do not exist pretty do you still believe that to still be the case. When the dates of these letters. This article is from the las vegas sun, from 20 oh eight. Do you still believe this sentiment. I dont believe anyone at this point whos in albany who is trying to steal an election pretty. Thank you, that would be in contravention of what the president said in a tweet, on august 20th. Their trying to steal his selection of the democrats. There are lots of false premises about making the cut. The press says is that we had lots of input in the administration. I think there about a half a dozen different things. We ran into a period of time after the holidays and when the covid19 was started. Where we werent as fast as possible we get together and talked about that we need to make sure that we have as many candidates as possible. Because you can better choice of things. During the period of time, that mr. , the majority or interest became available or not to me. I submitted that name as i have many others. The germans time has expired. Mr. Massie, you are n congressman, youre now recognized or we can to the next person. Okay, we have some difficulty. Going to go to mr. Roy and then come back to mr. Massey. Mr. Roy. Thank you madame. Can you hear me pretty. Quickening for you but we cannot see you. Now we see a pretty. Excellent and appreciated. Mr. Enjoy can you answer a couple of questions army renominated by the president of the United States are you selected by a unanimous bipartisan board. I was selected by a bipartisan unanimous board. Thank you. A minute agonk my calling bowman said, that you have done 70 days of damage. Yet mr. Coley, if im not mistaken, is on this committee for 11 years, chair, Government Operations committee for seven years pretty and give the oversight committee, in april of 2019. The Financial Condition or, why do you think that mr. To join, that we are having a hearing today. 71 days before election and 48ec hours after we voted on legislation. Before we have theha hearing. Why do you think we are having hearing today. I do not know sir. But i will say that i am surprised at the lack of attention to the Financial Condition of the Postal Service over the last ten years. So youre saying to me that the Financial Condition of the Postal Service is nothing new. This is something that we have known has been coming for a long time. H and they have lost money for at least 13 years. I think ten years. Okay. So does thehe United States posd to Service Deliver 8000 pieces of mail give or take a month pretty. Yes sir. And doesnt have about 14 billion cash on hand. [inaudible]. Yes or. Every single american voted by mail, which wont happen the way. Valadez. You would be less than about 2 percent of the mail delivery in a given month. In other words, they are they perfectly capable of handling any amount of help that we have have or will have for the election in november pretty. We are ready to handle the election now serve. Do you believe that this hearing today, so far this morning or any point today will cover any off the following. The ppe extension to ensure Small Businesses can survive. If our governments keeping businesses shut down s. Thousas of meetings. And hotels, the thousands of barbershops, across the country. There are struggling to survive. Is anything in this hearing, discusses any of that to the best of your knowledge pretty. Noen sir. Are you aware off this Democratic Congress pulling of any legislation to deal with these issues, this month rather than m going home they get callg congress back on saturday to have a hearing. Im sorry have a vote before we even had a hearing on saturday. Are you aware of that predict or is is the only thing the voting on in august pretty. I have been following the agenda of congress. Because i have my own issues to deal with pretty. I appreciate that. Perhaps there have not been that many problems so i appreciate that predict what weve been, Human Trafficking pretty will not be discussed today pretty obviously for hearing on the Human Trafficking and what we can do. Stop that. Ive been asking for a hearing on that forever year. We are not having that hearing on that. Were having hearing on this topic is nothi right pretty. I think we will be sticking to Postal Service matters pretty. That is right. I appreciate you being here in front of the committee. I think the fact of the matter is isth itself political exercie. This is h a show hearing. Cor evincing out there in social media some of the difficulties that technology and Everything Else. The fact of the matter is, we are jamming through this for theater pretty were doing a hearing on the monday after a vote on the saturday and has no chance of becoming law. And people are sick of this. They want the Postal Service to operate. And youre trying to work on making it operates. Weng should have hearings on the status of the Postal Service. We should work on legislation. There bipartisan efforts to do that. We should actually roll her sleeves up do that work. By the way, also the same thing about the ppe. I was proud to work with them, Bipartisan Legislation to help solve this pretty white are we not doing that right now. Why arent we doing that today. That is our job. There people out there who are cant make a check. They cant pay the mortgage and are wondering when they can have the revenue in order to survive. Available to have people still work for them. Thats what we should be working on. I am positive that this is a waste of time for the Congress Pretty American People are sick of it we should be allowing the Postal Service to go back to doing his job year. Should be focusing on doing ours. Thank you gentlemen for yielding in the comments and just as ain point of informatio. The democratic thomas did pass the heroes act may 15th. They did fund all kinds of help to people. That was sitting on his desk as well as this bill. So we have a choice. Madden. I now recognize congressman ruskin. Madam chair. His. Madden. I have diabetic constituents waiting for medicines. I have people waiting for chemo drugs. But this headline really to the case for me. The rate they reported feeding on packages affronted. Mate as postmaster general quebec on cast. By californias mail centers. This is from, not some haven of liberal take news. This is Business Insider magazine. Mr. Postmaster general, why do you celebrate on departure of a puzzle vehicles if the deterioration service as you progress, has caused letters and packages sucking up in the mail centers. Should we be celebrating this if they dont have peoples packages and letter on them. So were concerned withiv evey place delivery and every package buildup in their a lot of contributing factors to why. Okay. Let me finish. The process is an interval part of delivering mail. This is a cost effectively. And the alternative is to run trucks like predict and run extra troops pretty and they were empty also pretty thousands of her empty. President trump called the post office a joke producing a joke. Postal service is not a joke. Mr. Joy if ioy wanted to bece a postal clerk a letter carrier would you hire me without a background check. If we have a process. I do believe it includes background checks. Out. Is compelled right pretty except they didnt have one for you. , had background checks. Ive got secret clearance, fbi background checks. I have had everything pretty. So you would be willing to release the contracts pretty. Predict why would i do that. Will that is interesting. Let me go to mr. Duncan about that. Mr. Duncan, would you be willing to allow russell to turn over the file from this process. Mr. Duncan. [silence]. Statement let me come back to you mr. D joy. The former chairman vice chairman of the board of governors. Mr. Williams was also the Inspector General. Also reported that you didnt come through the normal ninterview process. But you are apparently the product of the different nominations by differentuc political people in the astonishing thing about what you said last week was that when you finally were brought in for that first interview, you basically interviewed panel rather than them interviewing you to the point that one of the members said they wanted to ask at least one question so that it couldnt be said that it was not a real interview. Now you were also reported stating that you werent sure that you wanted to accept the job t that you needed to essentially interview them about what it entailed. I gave you confidence that the job was basically yours for the askingas when you finally met te selection committee. Sir i did not think the job was mine for thein asking. I dont know what mr. Williams contention is hard what his problem is with me. He was the Inspector General for 13 years. Hes also part of the reports that have been sucking up this committee has not done. So what you make of them calling the treasury secretary and the involvement in the Selection Process for an absolutely unprecedented. He had nothing to do with my selection. I was called by russell pretty. Did you talk to the secretary, the un was together pretty. Thats totally inaccurate. You never talk to him about you for taking the job, you never talk to him pretty. I talked to him about the job after i received the offer. I did not accept the offer immediately pretty. We never spoke to o him befoe about his soliciting your interest in the job pretty. I kept my interest which you identified did not know that i had an Interest Rate ahead of preferably good life prior to this. But it was interested in helping predict and i was called by Russell Reynolds. The blue. One of the reasons we have background checks, with your permission, to see it is because we identify patterns of misconduct or potential conflict of interest that are out there. Sir i have no patterns of that pretty. Me finish my question. Madden chair. Logistics which have contrast with the Postal Service going back many years. Okay but the question is, they identify problems with contract performances and billing practices in the contract file. C would you consent to releasing that contract file so everyone can see pretty. I dont even know what you are speaking about. Are you not aware of logistics pretty. I am aware of it. City of 30 million pretty. Im chair. I have a significant logistics which prevented before the Ethics Department of the Postal Service. I was giving specific types of guidelines that i needed to hit print is very small part of the Postal Service business. I had nothing to doo with. And he complied with all those requirements. We had an investigation. I guess ill get to everything that youre interested and we will see whatil will happen. Time has expired. [inaudible]. [background sounds]. Mr. Joy. Heres what youve dented and sunny days my district predict the neuropsych, on july 22nd, is a certified letter to the National Tennessee Social Security office. The distances 20 miles. The letter took 12 days to arrive. Just this morning, excellent reporting from National Channel five tv. Proves in nashvilles mail arming forest to leave on schedule. Even when completely empty. Imagine it pretty 53foot trucks forced to travel hundreds of miles completely empty due to your direction. And this is to unilaterally move of election day november 3rd 2 Something Like october 27th. And if you force more empty trucks on the highway, you will able to singlehandedly move of election day even earlier. According to the npr, already 550,000 primary ballots, empty ballots were rejected in just 30 states. Only the main reasons was late delivery. How dare you disenfranchise so many voters. When you told the Senate Committees just last week that you had a sacred duty to protect election mail. You know that its a felony for Postal Service officer or employee to delay delivery of the mail. A postal employee can be fined or imprisoned for up to five years. For doing the mail was somehow you can delay all the mail and get away with it. They can be prosecuted but you cannot. Even if your actions are million times worse. Mr. D joy do you have a duty to obey u. S. Law like every other american. I do start. Will previously have been punished for much smaller conflicts of interest in yours. In 1997, the 70th postmaster general marvin, a tendency out of a 25000, 27000. 350,000 conflict of interest. If youre 30 milliondollar conflict of interest, 100 times larger than mr. Were treated like your predecessor, you would have to pay a 2. 7 million fine. And probably be ousted from being postmaster general. So mr. Did joy come are you of law that applies to other postmasters general . I dont agree with the premise bring them in full compliance with the ethical complaints that i need to have. And theres no other investigation. And i welcome the result of that report. Mr. Dejoy is a mega donor you were packed with Michael Cohen and another, two men who have already pled guilty to felonies. To be the three deputy chairman of the Republican National committee. Did you pay back several of your top executives for contributing to Trumps Campaign by bonus sing or rewarding them. Thats an outrageous claim sir. And i resented. Im just asking a question. The answer is no. See you did not reward any of your executives or anyone that you solicited for contribution to the Truck Campaign. No no sir pretty actually, during the Truck Campaign was a good working on my company. We want to make sure that the Campaign Contributions are legal. So you campaign i am fully aware of the legal constraints of the Campaign Contributions. In a reset the assertions. What you are accusing me up pretty. Im asking you a question. Do your mail delays of Trump Campaign goal, stated in his tweets, are the mail delays i am here to represent the Postal Service. It has nothing to do with that in all of my actions have to do with improvements of the Postal Service. My the only one in this room that understands that we have 10 billiondollar a loss rated am i the only one that understands that. [inaudible]. We give the committee your communications with mark meadows and a secretary. Mr. Dejoy is your backup plan to be pardoned. [laughter]. [background sounds]. You have two seconds to answer the question pretty. I have no comment on that. Today postmaster general mr. Dejoy testified in the upcoming provincial election in the postal pretty watch that entirely tonight on cspan2. This week, is the republicans turn. Tonight, the Republican National convention here their vision for the future the priorities for the next four years pretty watch President Trump and Vice President pets except the partys nominations for reelections predict live coverage of the Republican National convention. Tonight at 8 30 p. M. Eastern, the evening session case offering watch live on cspan pretty light streaming in on demand at cspan. Org printer listen when the free cspan radio app. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. Tonight on the communicators, look at Elections Security with jeff moss, the owner of the Cybersecurity Conference in a conference pretty easily but joe marks cybersecurity reporter pretty. Help confident or anxious should we be about security the 2020 boat against hackers from russia or elsewhere pretty. Im going to vote and im going to trust the results. But i think what it with this election the previous election, is much higher. And the people that have been talking about this issue. Theyre not terribly new. The now people are actually going to use, were before they were saying it was too expensive. And now there in the spotlight. For a long time, manufacturers were saying is unreadable because of the machine market. In the Gold Standard is that its and mocked. Tonight eight eastern on communicators andc