[background noises] [background noises] welcome everybody to todays hybrid hearing pursuant to house rules some members will appear in person and others will appear remotely via webex. Some members are appearing in person and let me first remind ereveryone that pursuant to the latest guidance on the house attending physician all individuals attending this hearing in person must wear a face mask. Numbers werefa not wearing a may facemask will not be recognized and let me also make a few reminders for those numbers appearing in person, you will see members and witnesses appearing remotely on the monitor in front of you when you are speaking is what is known in web acts as active speaker you. A timer is visible in the room directly in front of you. Members appearing remotely i know youre all familiar with web ex by now but let me remind everyone of a few points. First, you will see each person speaking during the hearing whether in person or remote as long as yous have your web acts set to active speaker review. If you have any questions about this, please Contact Committee staff immediately when second have a timer that should be visible on your screen when you are in the active speaker s with thumbnail. Numbers who wish to pin the timers to their screen should Contact Committee staff for assistance. Per the house rules require that we see you please have your cameras turned on at all times. Fourth, members appearing remotely who are not recognized should remain muted to minimize background noise and feedback. With this i will recognize members verbally. But numbers retain the right to seek recognition verbally in regular order. Members will recognize in seniority order for questions lastly if you want to be recognized outside of regular order you may identify that in several ways and you may use the chat function to send a request you may send an email to the majority staff or you may unmute your mike to seek recognition. Obviously, we do not want people talking over each other so their preference is that members use the chat function orce email to facilitate formal verbal recognition. People staff will ensure that i am married aware of your request and i will recognize you. Begin the hearing in just a moment and they tell me they are ready to begin the lifestream. Chairwoman, point of order, imagine the mask you dont have on. I am talking. If you are talking you can have your mask off. I thought you said during questions you have to have it on. To come into the room you have to have the mask on but as you talk as you and i know its hard to talk with the mascot so it can be removed when you are asking questions. The committee will come to ord order. Without objection of the chair 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 gentleman from illinois mr. Quigley will be permitted to join the committee and be recognized for questioning the witnesses. In addition the gentlewoman from North Carolina, mr. Walker, will be recognized at the proper time to introduce his constituents. I now recognize myself for an Opening Statement. Good morning. I would like to welcome postmaster general louis dejoy and the chairman of the postal board of governors, Robert Duncan to this oversight hearing and i thank you all for being here. And all of our districts we are hearing from constituents about significant delays in the delivery off mail, medicine, fod and other supplies. These delays are especially concerning and potentially lifethreatening during the Coronavirus Crisis. These are not isolated complaints and they are widespread in our offices have been receiving thousands of calls and emails about the detrimental effects these delays are having on our veterans, seniors, Small Businesses and families across the country. When we asked leaders about these delays they downplayed them and they dismissed them as temporary and they discounted them as minor, unintended consequences of reforms being put into place but then we saw National Headlines describing these delays in much more detaie and i have a document here that lists or 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 five, six days in new york city and Postal Workers Union says. In kentucky Ranking Member homestake quote, Postal Services cost cutting is frustrating kentuckians and raising election concerns. In california the home state of our vice chairman mr. Gomez quote, like armageddon rotting food, dead animals and chaos at postal facilities amid cutbacks. This list goes on and on. Last friday when mr. Joy was confronted in the senate with these widespread reports he said he felt bad about what he call called, the dip in service. But then after mr. Joys testimony in senate we obtained an internal Postal Service document entitled pmg briefing and this is a presentation prepared directly for the t postmaster general and it is dated almost two weeks ago august 12. According to this document these delays are not just but this document warns the postmaster general of significant and widespread drops across the board and firstclass marketing periodicals and other categories. This document shows these delays are not a myth or Conspiracy Theory as some of my colleagues have argued. These deep declines did not start in april or may when the Coronavirus Crisis hit us but in july when mr. Joy came on board and began making his changes. Our entire country is experiencing these delays as a result of lewis to joys actions such as his decision to restrict the number of trips from Processing Plants to delivery units. Perhaps mr. Joy got his sweeping changes would not cause any delay and in my opinion that would be incompetent at best. Or perhaps this was intentional and maybe mr. Joint was warned that his changes would cause delay but he disregarded those warnings and that would be extremely reckless in the middle of a Global Pandemic with less than three months before an important election. Or perhapsps there is a far simpler explanation and perhaps mr. Dejoy is just doing exactly umwhat President Trump said he wanted on National Television, using the blocking of funds to justify sweeping changes to hobble male in voting. All of these options are bad but when you install someone as postmaster general after he donates millions of dollars to your campaign but rushes to make changes without conducting evequate analysis and when he withholds Key Information from congress and doesnt level with us and people begin to ask what in the world is going on and given all of this is not surprising that the Postal ServiceInspector General has already opened an investigation into mr. Joys controversial onchanges. We will be asking mr. D joy some hard questions today. We will also be asking mr. Duncan as chairman of the board about his own role in choosing mr. Dejoy as postmaster general and about his own role in vetting mr. Dejoy for conflict of interest, including mr. Dejoys ownership of the major Postal Service competitors and 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 and they dont want these changes and they want them reversed. We they dont want anyone messing with the post office and they certainly dont want it politicized. They want to have confidence that their mail, their medicinew and their ballots will be delivered on time. I look for to hearing from our witnesses and i now recognize the distinguished Ranking Member mr. Cromer for an Opening Statement. Thank you, chairwoman maloney. I appreciate you calling this hearing today on the United StatesPostal Service even though it wouldve been nice to do so before we voted on the bill saturday. We all agreed the Postal Service needs to be reformed to better serve the market people and we all worked Postal Service to be as efficient and effective as possible to assure americans perceive their perceptions on time, Small Businesses thrive and mailin ballots are delivered in a timely fashion. But meaningful reforms is going to take bipartisanship in something we have seen very little of in the last few days. Democrats fabricated baseless Conspiracy Theory about the Postal Service and hastily passed a bill saturday but before hearing from you, mr. Dejoy. The bill had no Prior Committee action and to that the bill and no hearings, no markups and because of this rust process the bill was significantly admitted by the democrats before it went to the rules committee that then proceeded to the house floor process that prevented any amendment to the bill. There waso no republican input, not it any step in the process. Just this morning we have learned that the u. S. Postal service opposes the bill that you all past saturday. They read the bill and realized that it ties their hands and will make it harder and more expensive to deliver the mail and at least this legislation is 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 in the president does not support the bill, the Postal Service does not support the bill and the senate will likely not take up the bill. This is a political stunthe. During saturdays debate chairwoman maloney unveiled a 60 page powerpoint that she just received overnight from an apparent whistleblower. Madam chair, i dont need to remind you that youre an atom r shifts record with whistleblowers is less than stellar. The deck is dated august 12 proving it played no role in the creation of your bill which was unveiled the day before. The deck contains delivery performance data and that data since the u. S. Postal service thirdquarter report it shows delays in july and august and im very interested to hear from mr. Dejoy today about what he has learned about the causes of these delays. How much of an effect is an ongoing pandemic and increasing employee sick leave having on u. S. Postal Services Delivery performance and how does that compare to any temporary growing pains from efforts to make the Postal Service more efficient and selfsufficient . I say i am interested to hear mr. Dejoys response because i do not know the answer to those questions and i dont l believe the chairwoman does either. Fthis is why i repeatedly said that this committee is doing things backwards. When we make policy its our job to understand why it happened. How would you find out why . Ever hearing on the topic with the postmaster general and and certainly before you pass the bill and returning to today let me say the postal issues are something i have not heard about a great deal in my rural district for example, i distantly remember when the Obama Biden Administration a mail facility was closed resulting in letters that once took a day to get from point a to point b not to you three, four days and i heard a lot about the Postal Service for my grandmother who spent her entire career at 27 years as a Rural Mail Carrier in the heart and some of these go out to the postal families who lost loved ones during this pandemic and as her grandson in the congressman representing the First District of kentucky and is Ranking Member of this committee i want to see them return to being a viable institution and t i am disappointed at the hysterical frenzy ripped up by my colleagues by their friends and the left on the media and lets look at the repeated claims again, do they need a bailout to survive in november . No, mail volume has declined the Package Delivery has shot through the roof. This increased usps revenue by 1. 5 billion and has nearly 50 million cash on hand and can operate until it august 20, 2021. They removed blue postal boxes and mail sorting machines . No, the Postal Service is more than adequate capacity to handle the vote by mail and everyone in the u. S. Were to request to send their mail that was still less than one days average volume. The blue boxes and mail sorters were both components of longstanding programs and responses to significant volume, 33 reduction over the past 15 years. For records under president obama approximately 12000 blue mail the boxes were removed and we didnt hear one word from the other side when he did that. The mail sorters were on track to be removed because they were sitting idle and simply taken up floor space for more productive activities. Is the Postal Service telling states they wont deliver ballots on time . No, what the Postal Service is doing and has for years is try to warn states who vote by mail laws dont into account with the Postal Service can and cannot do. Usps can treat ballots as first class mail or better than firstclass mail but they cannot break the law and the time and space. The letters the democrats characterize as threats and propaganda are good faith efforts to present weeks of certainty and confusion such as what happen very recently with chairwoman maloneys race. The charges about overtime those olme from an effort to reduce billions of dollars in overtime in extra truck trips the Postal Service spends every year. If overtime an extra truck trips are normal or normal everyday part of your Business Operations it means something is wrong and you better fix it. On friday before the senate screwed Committee Hearing mr. Dejoy acknowledged the recent dip in service and took responsibility for this ibperformance lapse. The logical step is to understand why this happened and come up with a plan and even though your bill would prevent that, madame chairwoman, i hope that today helps in that process and i yield back. I think the gentleman for his statement and i ask unanimous consent to place in the record the Service Performance measurement postmaster general briefing, an official report from the post office data, research, facts and in this report the facts speak for themselves and they show that t under the first two months of the postmaster general work the service fell anywhere from six10 in all the major categories. My bill merely funds the post office and returns it back to the way it was so that the services can get the mail out to the people during a pandemic and before a very important election. 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, the people deserve to get their mail in a timely way and most districts are having people calling frantically where is my mail, where is my medication so facts speak for themselves and i am placing this into the record. I now recognize the sink was chairman of the subcommittee on Government Operations who has done a great deal of work in this area, mr. Conley, for an Opening Statement. And q madam chairwoman. Thank you for your leadership. I was proud to cosponsor your bill that passed the house with 26 republicans showing the courage to address an emergency with respect to the most esteemed institution of government in america. We have an obligation, constitutionally, to ensure that something that has been a part of the American Fabric since 1775 has attention. The Postal Service is not only planning for its economic survival but fighting to maintain 120 years of professional service, rid of rotten systems that served elected officials and not those who rely on mail every day. We are here today to save the Postal Service and we have in front of usnt a newly appointed post mr. General and the fhairman of the board of governors that selected them for that post. We have a pmg who six weeks into the complex and aweinspiring new job in an midst of a Global Pandemic and just weeks before a consequential National Election where the Postal Servicel will play an unprecedented role decides to announce a sweeping reorganization that he admits and willw down mail undoubtedly infuse confusion idrug Postal Service and into r neighborhoods all across america. He announces these and other abysmally unsorted changes without engaging staff, unionss and the trade organizations, mailers, mail recipients or congress. In fact, congress was told mr. Dejoy did not feel prepared to idrespond to any questions we might have yet he felt confident enough to freeze overtime and freeze mail delivery and announce weeping organizations. Mr. Duncan, congratulations on being the rubber stamp. The Service Board of governors is required by s law to represet the publicy interest, not the president or a Political Party were not even the postmaster general. Today the Postal Service employees 650,000 people and is the foundation of more than 1. 7 trillion mailing industry employs for another seven andli half Million People but at the turn of the last century u. S. Postal service was nothing more than 77000 positions right with gross incompetence and often embezzlement of funds. It was rural americans that used its political voices at that time to professionalize the post office and instead of traveling miles to the closest general store to m pick up mail from a sycophantic political hack role residents lobbied comments congress for rural delivery and innovation that brought mailt delivery to even the most distant of homes and businesses. The massive grassroots lobby effort brought those with acumen and expertise into the post office and refocus political leaders and what they were elected to do and serve the people, not their political parties. As a nation the people transform the Postal Service in the post office into the Postal Service in this History Lesson resonates today yet another reckoning for this country in the Postal Service here again the people of the nation have stood up loudly and consistently to condemn attempts to turn a crown jewel of ourew federal government by o of the most trusted agencies among the hundreds that serve this nation into a spoil systems honeypot and we cannot and must not let that happen. During this pandemic the Postal Service was a lifeline to the delivery of lifesaving prescription medication, medical equipment, food pantry staple, stimulus checks to pay rent and utility goals, census forms and even coupons to help struggling families stay out of poverty. What leader would think that even the possibility of slowing down mail and at times such as this is ah good idea, what leadr would take steps to freeze over time for a workforce literally risking his life everyday to deliver mail to the people of this nation, 40000 postal workers have contracted covid19 or been quarantined because of it. 40000. As the new pmd mr. Joy has recklessly cut hours and delayed delivery times in the pursuit of unsupported operational efficiencies and has never once asked congress to help despite a team of members ready to provide financial and other supports. The chairwoman and i along with the question of hundreds of members have been fighting to provide Postal Service with 75 billion in support and to pay overtime and hazard cost to the to get a workforce and to invest in eight modernize green postal fleet that doesnt explode to pay for Information Technology investments in streambank medications from trucks and planes that are running late with cross county or mail deliveries. Mr. Dejoy and mr. Duncan have failed to work with congress to get this enactedor and thus far the Passenger ServiceAirline Industry has received 25 million in Revenue Stabilization in the Postal Service, not a dime. In august 18 pmd announced he would put a hold on some of these sweeping operational changes but his announcement did not convince two routers known what it did not include an agenda to support election mail that demonstrates a commitment to helping the Postal Service and its a historic role in the upcoming election and lastly, pmd is still not advocating for the additional funding for the Postal Service despite the fact that the republicancontrolled trump appointed board of governors unanimously called for that package. Not a democratic idea, a republican dominated board unanimously recommended it. The recent operational and organizational changes mr. Dejoy has made have resulted in delivery delays across the country of the chairwoman to serve and those arent our status but yours, mr. Postmaster general. These delays have real impact on realize and real consequences. Most devastatingly the damage the Postal Service was credibility and in a very brief time congratulations, mr. Dejoy, and esteemed institution that now is in doubt in the america publics mind and i applaud my colleagues in the house for passing the delivery for america act bill because we need to act now and we need to reverse this and we need to reassure the mark in public that they will get their mail on time and that their ballots will get there on time and be counted. This is about the future of our Democratic Institution and this is the future about the most important election in my lifetime. That is what is at stake today. I yield back. Spirit madam chair, i would like to make a point that you didnt notify our committee that mr. Conley as ranking or as chairman of the subcommittee would be delivering open remarks and thats another example of this rushed process but i would like to ask that our Ranking Member, mr. Conley subcommittee also be allowed to deliver opening remarks. Absolutely. Staff told me they reached out to you and your staff and its general that the subcommittee that has the jurisdiction should speak on both sides and i have in my notes that mr. Heist will be or is now the Ranking Member on the subcommittee of Government Operations and will also be giving an Opening Statement and i was told that they did reach out and in the llture i will personally call you myself to make sure it gets to you. I was told my staff they talk to your staff and they had reached out to you and if that did not get to you then i apologize and i will personally call you every time but it is 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. Again, its important as toth wy we need to be prepared and not rush things like we have this postal reform bill. Madam chairwoman. Yes, mr. Conley. If i could come to your defense it has been your practice as chairwoman that when it is the jurisdiction of the subcommittee you have always allowed the subcommittee chair and the Ranking Member to have Opening Statements and that is practice and not something you sprung on us today and i can think of at least four examples mr. Raskin is one, mr. Rotter his mother and their Ranking Members. It is the practice of the committee on the chairwoman maloney to do just that. Madam chair, if i may. I agree it is practice but we were notified and it wasnt on the agenda item that we received but we appreciate that and it is my understanding and it is prepared to deliver an impromptu Opening Statement. Thank you. I want to thank mr. Conley for pointing that out and also pointing out the double standard that business is such as airlines and others are receiving federal aid in the heroes package and in the covid relief package p but the Vital Services from our post office that so many people depend on, lilifeline to americans across america deserve to be funded to fuand i now recognize the distinguished subcommittee chairman for Government Operations for an Opening Statement. And your recognize, mr. Hice. Thank you, madam chair. I appreciate that, and yes, we were not notified of this but it happy to take a few moments. Again, here we are having a hearing after a vote. I think this is absolutely disgusting. Certainly we had many votes without bothering to have a hearing, but i dont want i dont ever recall having a vote to socalled fix something and then have the hearing afterwards. This is unprecedented, and ben to me i believe is an example of political 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 unveiling of the democrats were trying to do and that is to influence the upcoming election in the heroes act it is a requirement for universal mailin ballots in the heroes act is the requirement that both the states cannot be involved in requiring voter id and so we are going to have tens of millions of ballots sent out across the country to many people that are perhaps deceased or have moved into states are not going to be able to have any notoriety if the democrats have their way and then we will have the ballot harvesting takes place. This is whats at stake and i agree with chairman kong lee saying this is what is at stake and if the democrats have their way it will be filled with fraud and confusion, it will be filled with lawsuits because that is what is in the heroes act to produce if the t democrats have their way. And thankfully that bill wasnt going anywhere any further than that over this past saturday before the hearing. And we canan talk about delays. We havent even had a hearing since april and now all of a sudden we were called in for an emergency over this c whole thig we had a briefing in april of this year dot the hearing. And the purpose of that briefing was to discuss the delays the Postal Service due to covid19. There have been delays and there ,are thousands of workers who ae not showing up for work due to covid19. Are we surprised that there are delays, ofur course not. We had a briefing to discuss that just a couple of months thago. The postmaster general has nothing to do with covid19, nor does he have anything to do with thousands of workers not showing up. We also have cities that are rioting. Of course there is delays and many of the cities be at portland, chicago, la or wherever it tmi might be. The fact of the matter is the bailout passed on saturday in the house of representatives was pointless. It uses the opportunity to have any reforms and so we have a Postal Service right now that those 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 cash money on hand. And yet we pass a bill for another 25 billion did not go we disallow them from 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 but just what iswh desperately needed. So, with that, i do look forward to the hearing Going Forward and i fully anticipate a lot from my friends on the idle, opposite sides of the aisle. I do anticipate the continued attempt to portray a conspiracy that doesoe not exist when in ft it is their own party that are fully committed based upon the heroes act and other common to influence the upcoming election using fraudulent methods and with that i will yield about and appreciate you giving me the opportunity to speak. I now recognize mark walker to introduce the first witness was a constituent of congressman waters. Think you that im sure maloney and Ranking Member gohmert. Its my pleasure to introduce keys earned the respect of charitable and earnest communities. Since its creation in 2005, the Family Foundation has positively impacted thousands of people. Duke university,nt the Health Center for children, Police Foundations just to name a few. I was present when he was in the hall of fame for the Junior AchievementBusiness Leaders from the Worlds Largest organization educating k12 on Financial Literacy and entrepreneurship. Just thisne past week i received in the mail the family contribution, the sponsorship that serves 18,000 children and adults. It isnt something he flaunts its just something he does. Throughout his professional career h hes gone as a reputatn in the supply chain field as the ceo of newbury and logistics he took a company from new york to North Carolina and transformed it into a prominent u. S. Provided in contract logistics creating close to 9,000 jobs it wasnt he who passed the postal accountability and enhancement act. It was actually congress, the leading sponsor on the bill is the one with the biggest picture in the roo ram the former chairf the committee henry waxman. Today he will be viciously attacked with prepackaged questions and false accusations. One member suggesting impeachment. Thats original. How sad is it when the culture reached the halls of congress a demands and before this committee today is not the democrats weve stemmed to be. Hes here today because he supported the President Trump and with this congress, that makes you a target. Over the past month, speed for have had protest with hundreds of people with walking streets and threatening neighbors. In this day and age an Industry Leader with a passion for service can be persecuted in the court of Public Opinion or his political affiliation. As the circus unfolds today remember that louis dejoy is a Community Minded philanthropist and businessman and most importantly a man with a good heart doing his best to serve g his country. I want to commend you for being here today. Unlike the senator from delaware lets hope they at least know how to mute themselves. The second with mrs. Robert duncan. Appointed to the board of governors by President Donald Trump in august of 2018 and his emrm expires in december of 2025. Please stand and raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm the testimony you are about to give us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god. Show that the witnesses affirmed this inir the affirmative and without objection, your written statements will be part of the record. With that, mr. Dejoy, you are recognized for your testimony. Good morning, chairwoman maloney, Ranking Member and members of the kennedy. I am proud to be with you today on behalf of the 630,000 dedicated women and men of the United StatesPostal Service. On june 15 i became americas 75th postmaster general. Since that time for a variety of reasons, theres been a great deal of pretension to the Postal Service by our elected officials, the media and the American People. I want to begin by assuring the committee and the American Public that the Postal Service is fully capable and committed to delivering the nations securely and on time. This sacred duty is my number one priority between now and election day. To be clear, we will do everything we can to handle and deliver election mail in a manner consistent with a proven processes anprovenprocesses ande have relied upon for years. Nevertheless, i encourage all americans from trees to vote by mail to request their ballots early and devotedly as a commonsense best practice. As a part t of the conversation, there are many inaccuracies about my actions i wish to again correct. First, i do not direct the removal of the collection boxes or the removal of Mail Processing equipment. Second, i didnt direct a cutback on the hours that the Postal Offices. And i didnt direct the meimination or any cutbackel in overtime. I did, however, suspended these practices to of any misperceptions about our commitment to delivering the nations mail. Any further assertions by the media or elected officials is furthering a false narrative to the American People. Let me describe the actions ive taken in the 70 days since my appointment. With logistical problems i plan to use this experience to help lead the operating change required for the Postal Service to grow in sustainability. On the day of my swearing in of the Postal ServiceInspector General issued an astonishing report about the scheduled delays in Postal Service transportation and substantial cost associated with witnesses and the fundamental operating principles. Upon the review i directed the Postal ServiceOperations Team to develop and execute on a plan to improve our adherence to the transportation schedule of our over 40,000 trips a day. They have accomplished this goal as we approach 98 and wasteful extra troops are down by over 70 . While we have had temporary service declined which shouldnv have happened, we are fixing this. In fact, last week the service improved because all major categories, and im laser focused on improving the service for the American Public. The second of the two changes ive made is the postmaster general is installing a new Organization Structure to better align resources to instill greater accountability for the performance and to focus your organization on the surface and ground. These changes creating our new ontime Transportation Network and designing and engaged organizational structure will be the catalyst for significant improvement in cost, performance and growth that i plan for this vital american institution. Madam chairwoman, the women and men of the Postal Service demonstrated extraordinary commitment to the mission of Service Throughout the covid19 pandemic. In every community in america we continue to work to keep our employees and customers safe as we fulfill the role delivering the medication, benefit checks and Financial Statements that the public depend upon. Sincef the beginning of the pandemic, theres been a public outpouring of support for our postal employees as they perform very essential Service Throughout the nation. This is a welldeserved rest of it today to their dedication. The chairwoman, Ranking Member, i hope they can agree the financial state of the Postal Service is unacceptable and it needs to be fixed. I look forward to working with you and this committee and our stakeholders to restore the Financial Health of the United StatesPostal 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 mayay have. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. And we will now recognize chairman duncan u. R. Recognized for your testimony and he will be appearing remote. You are nowin recognized. Thank you. A chairwoman maloney, Ranking Member gohmert and members of, the committee thank you for inviting me to speak today. My name is mike duncan and the past two years, ive had the honor servin of serving as the n of the United States postal board of governors. Throughout my life ive looked for ways to help strengthen and support institutions that are important to the american communities. Thats why i spent five years on the Tennessee Valley board and ive served on numerous boards and commissions. Whenos i accepted this positioni do so because of my admiration for the United StatesPostal Service and its Public Service mission. I know how important the postalt service is in communities like that. It provides important jobs to more than 630,000 americans which at one time. I needed a plane ticket on the road to visit the facilities and toto speak directly with customers, union members, union leaders. It deepens my understanding for the importance of the Postal Service. Serving on the board of governors at this institution is a significant responsibility. The governors by statute represent the public interest. I cant forget the challenges that are putting us at risk. It should come as no surprise to the members of this body. On two occasions ive sent the annual report to congress. In each of those communications i wrote the Business Model is broken and will always produce widening offices in the coming years absinthe to adding change. Westphal postmaster general notified the board of the impending retirement and in response the board immediately recognized we would be faced with the most important decision we would think as governors. The selection of the new postmaster general. Postmaster general. The board agreed the Postal Service would benefit from a transformational leader one that could helpor us build and confrt the longstanding challenges. Its an amazingal institution ad we can do a lot to make it better that we are unable to fix our broken Business Model without the help of congress and the postal regulatory commissi commission. But we can do is increase our efficiency and cutut down a on unnecessary expenses and also focus on marketability and modernization while reducing the expenses. Business as usual is not an option. For these reasons its a search process they most enjoy for the postmaster general of the United States. He is the fifth postmaster general since 1971 to 20 institution in the privatehe sector and we believe the private sector experience could be an asset to identify ways to include the Postal Service. In addition, mr. Dejoy has decades of experience in amanaging sophisticated changen Fortune Companies are the major contractors for the Postal Service foror more than 25 years with a deep knowledge about the institution. Like the postmaster general, g e board has profited from the ability. Five years from now the United States. Fullstop with the 250th anniversary of the american Postal Service. Throughout the nations history, this institution has delivered to the American People. Now we have a sacred responsibility to preserve, defend and strengthen the organization for generations to come. Thank you for. Your time. I appreciate and look forward to questions. Thank you for the testimony. I recognize myself for questioning. Mr. Dejoy, we have all been flooded with concerns and complaints from our constituents about the delay in the mail and for the vote on my bill delivering from america on saturday, 26 republicans voted a with us and expressed the same concerns. People depend on their mail for their medications, for business, for keeping in touch withh their families. Its critically important and we have seen headlines across this nation. We have maintained this internal document if they did less than two weeks ago. Lets go through a little bit of it now. This document clearly shows major degradationsho acrosstheboard beginning in july when you started your changes. Here is the document for firstclass mail and overall it is down an astonishing 8. 1 from baseline before your changes for the past two months, beginning in july. The second one is the marketing mail and that is done did it go down 8. 42 . Now, the next and its on the wall where you can see it better, the next stop is periodicals and that is down almost 10 , down 9. 57 . So, mr. Dejoy coming q. And youre a repeatedly downplayed these delays, you just downplayed it in your testimony, but this is just a disaster for the people who need their mail, dont you agree . Would you turn on your microphone, we cannot hear you. Thank you. N we are very concerned with the deterioration and service and are working very diligently. In fact we are seeing a big recovery this week, and the fact report i requested to be put hae put together. Oddly enough we didnt have a measure briefing at the executive level like this before my arrival with a whole executive Team Involved in looking at what the underlying circumstances were and we are focused on fixing it. We have seen a nice recovery, and my goal is to get it to where we were not meeting mac tricks before with this fundamental change we have a good shot at getting the states and metrics that we supposedly are governed by. You testified youve been on the job 70 days. So this is essentially your report card for the periodar of time. If any other ceo had this kind of plummeting record and its two months on the job, i cannot imagine why he would be kept on. When you testified on friday, senators asked you over and over about the status of these delays. They also asked you to produce an analysis about the negative impact of your changes. It would have been easy to mention to the senators that this document existed. You could have said as a matter of fact i just received a detailed briefing, and unfortunately the data shows major delays in nearly all categories, but you didnt do that. You dismissed these delays as a dip. My question is why didnt you disclose this document when you had it . They asked me for an analysis on my decision. Theres a lot of reasons for delays besides d just my actioni took. Theres other reasons for the delays in the nation. I would say running trucks on time would probably increase delivery but for some reason it back it up five to six days to the district i represent. August 14, this committee sent you a a te ten page letter withe Ranking Member of other committees and they asked you to produce all communications, and im quoting a from the letter, l communications, evaluations,lu assessments or reports regarding mail left behind or delayed as a tresult of these new policies that you instituted. We asked for these documents by friday. And on friday night you did produce some documents to us, but you didnt produce this one so my question is why did you leave this important internal document from the postaldo professionals that was delivered to you and briefed to you two days before the senate hearing, why did you leave it out of . Im not familiar with the request in total and how we supported it. Im sure the staff answered the questions as they were asked. Let me just for the record clear up that isnt a policy change. That is a request that we run our 40,000 trucks a day on schedule. Your intuition is right. You would think that the mail that move faster, and it did give it a good portion of it moved faster. Also, sitting there looking at a report that summer between 1,000,000,003,000,000,000 worth of costs was wasted on trips being out of schedule. Its an easy request that i spoke with everybody in the organization about my time is limited. Im concerned why we didnt receive any of this information. And i have to say we send our letter two days after you received this briefing and this document. It must have been fresh on your mind. There is absolutely no excuse for concealing and withholding this information from the committee or your testimony before the senate when you were asked questions about the information in the document. Unfortunately this Committee Received it from someone else. So mr. Dejoy coming your withholding information from us, concealing documents and downplaying the damage that w youre causing. So let me close with this. This committee expects a full and complete production of all the documents they requested no later than this comingg wednes wednesday. If youou continue to withhold information or otherwise fail to comply, you can expect a subpoena. Iab know many members plan to ak about how you intend to pick the problems that you created and reverse these horrible trendlines, so we will get to those questions next. With that i will recognize the distinguished Ranking Member for five minutes for his questions. Virginia foxx will be the first to respond. Virginia foxx from the great state of North Carolina. Thank you madam chairman. Madam chair, i do note that you are going overtime a greatim de, but postmaster general dejoy, thank you very much for being with us today. Some claim the expedited pilot in the changes are deliberate efforts to slow down mailing her to Postal Service employees, is that true . No maam. Are you banning employees from charging overtime or are you trying to limit unplanned overtime to ensure the Postal Service viability . At this time, no, man, and at no time since ive been here. Ithank you. Postmaster general dejoy come as a logistics expert, and ist believe that representative walker outlined your expertise very well, what does the consistent use of unplanned overtime and the need for extra trips mean in terms of the efficiency of operations . Besides costing substantial amounts of money for the Postal Service in terms of the billions of dollars, itll is also it doesnt keep the Delivery System in balance, which also results in delays in mail and equilibrium and production process across the whole network. Ten more efficient ontime oppositions result in better delivery performance. Absolutely. Does unplanned overtime hinder the Postal Services ability to stay financially viable . Absolutely. My husband and i have experienced some very 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. What we know from our colleagues on the other side of the aisle is a runaway from accountability in every case in the federal government or an allied Services Like the post office. So let me applaud you for pushing on accountability. Mr. Dejoy come as we are all aware, the Postal Service is not a Government Agency that receives appropriations. In fact, it is law the postal reorganization act of 1970 created the u. S. Postal service as an independent and selfsustaining entity. Postmaster general dejoy, do you believe that it is your duty to uphold this law and ensure that the usps is itself sufficient . I do. And what will it take to make the usps self sufficient . Legislationla with regards to our health care, medicaid integration and pension reform, flexibility. We are in the 14th year of a ten year analysis. The Postal Service itself is a library of oig reports inidentifying flawed practices d billions and billions of dollars of costsos and waste nobody sees to Pay Attention to. And the Postal ServiceManagement Team itself delivering, helping fix ourselves both in terms of service and commerce and we have a plan to do that. Part of that includes running our trucks on time. And these oig reports have come from democratic president s and republican administrations both; is that correct . Yes, maam. If you have no operational flexibility, can you possibly makeke this Postal Service self sufficient . I think we have a good shot. We have revenue ideas for the Postal Service also. And we are beginning to finalize the plan. I need to briefed the board, but im very excited about the Management Team under our new organizational structure. I am excited about the dedication, the 650,000 men and women, and i think that we all canme embark upon, with a little help from this congress, we are about to embark upon some significant andn exciting futu. I believe in the six day delivery. I think the carrier, with the carriers relationship with the American People is the most important ingredient in giving us the Approval Rating that we have. We have plans to greatly enhance that relationship and improve our growth. I want to thank you for bringing your expertise to become the postmaster general of the United States. You have the exact background that we need and the commitment that we need to make the post office work the way that americans want it to work. Thank you madam chair and Ranking Member. I will yield back. I now recognizeno congresswon norton. Thank you very much madam chair. This hearing is very necessary to clarify matters that were left open when they tookok the boat already on this bill. Mr. Dejoy, in your testimony you the coronavirus, and im quoting, was having aif significant issue in employee availability in many parts ofn the country. It i want to know what you would be reducing overtime. Is it more necessary to the postal employees during this national emergency, during this pandemic with so many people at home given what youve already testified to about the issue and important availability across the country. Why wouldnt overtime be necessary to make up for all of that . Thank you maam. Since ive been here weve spent over 700 million in overtime. The overtime rate before my arrival was 13 within the organization. Its still at 13 . As i said in my Opening Statement, this is a continued misinformation regarding what i did since i got there. I never put a limitation on overtime. Thats very important testimony, mr. Dejoy. Because in some states we arewe seeing tenvo times the normal volume of mail. Id like to ask about Additional Resources two weeks before. Is expanded amounts of overtime one of the items under consideration when youve already announced he a will brig Additional Resources, does that include expanded over time . Yes maam, it does. The 650,000 men and women of the Postal Service are very committed to having a successful election. Over time, extra truck trips, recruitment and each thats very important for the record, that expanded over time will be allowed in the two weeks before the election. My next question is on the png Postal Service document we havent received. This is what is said and wh thed why my necessary questions were asked. Im quoting the patience and plan. Over time will be eliminated. There you see before you. Again, we are paying too much for overtime and isnt Cost Effective and soon will be taken off the table. More to come on this. We asked your general counsel, and he claims that came from a midlevel manager and shouldnt be treated as an official statement of post office policy, so i ask you what they postal manager send this document without some kind of word from you or from the top of the agency and can you explain who this was . I have purposely tried not to find out who that was. Tried not to find out . Thats right. That was not a directive from me. Theres 50,000 managers within the organization and this is one of the reasons i changed the organization quickly after the rollout of the truck schedule. Are you looking for whoever it was that jumped ahead of you in issuing that . Absolutelyy. I wish that you would give that name to the chair when you find it as well. In a statement on august 15, you stated over time will continue to be approved as needed and when i say approved what that means. And managers andlo employees continue approving and using overtime as they did before your tenure began or are there any changes since you took office . Same as prior to me being here. Have you entered any internal guidance to that effect and what you provided to us . Im sorry i didnt hear the question. Have you issued any internal guidance to that effect that an employee can continue to improve and use overtime . I never issued a guidance against about. Are you intending to issue guidance to the affect . I told the Operations Team. They know there is no difference process them prior to my arrival. Of a gentlemans time is completed. Can i ask that he provide any written guidance on overtime . I will make that request on behalf of the committee. Can you hear me . Yes we can. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Dejoy, thanks very much for coming today. I want to clear up some of the biggest political misinformation the majority is actually putting out, and then i also want to say thank you very much for the acknowledgment. My colleagues [inaudible] you have over 10 billio 10 mih on hand and access to a 10 billiondolla 10 billion lint makes you l fiscally viable 2021 is that true . Yes, but i would say that only in washington dc would that be a good position to beul in a. Is 135 billion of liabilitiesd and 2. 5 billion biweekly payroll enddoublequotes of others but yes we can get t through the election and with the loan i dont know how we would pay it back but should we take if they should be fine through mid21. Isnt it true at this time of the year then you also did last year and processing more and an uptick in government items such as the stimulus checks . [inaudible] mostly due to the package increase. Products are down 15 or so on average. But package volume is up substantially. Package volume is very costly for us to handle in an overcapacity method. So now do you believe the money on hand, its down by 15 into the hard worand the hard wr 600,000 postal workers that you can handle the increase . 60,000 men and women are working with the Management Team and employees. The use of the United StatesPostal Service process over 700,000. Any kind of rioting does produce delays with any type of Public Service, so i dont have a specific measurement on that, but i would say this, that as we coronavirus cases throughout the country have extended its ha thd an impact on ouran employee availability. The urban areas hotspot the average is dont play out with those areas like philadelphia significantly below the rate and what it has been independent we actually peek in terms of availability issues and at the end of july timeframe. I want to go back to any policy changes to the Postal Service just eliminateh in mitigating our extra tracks we still run seven, 800 extra trips a day and have thousands if that truck runs late so it wasnt a flood directive, that was my directive, to come up with a plan to the Management Team that the plan together and executed another plan. But everythingi else i had nothing to do with. It was a a collection boxes and sorting out machines. Searching for the good i havent seen that yet. Any transfer on the new ideas transitions dont always go smoothly we should have a Recovery Process. The process is taking too long and it should be resolved in a couple or few days. We should focus on it now and recover quite rapidly Going Forward. Over and over again without the lethal. [inaudible] it is made up of shipments for a day or six days, a week [inaudible] we are having a technical problem right now with mr. Clay. We cannot hear you. Its breaking up. We are going to try to correct the problem. We cant hear you. We are going to hold your testimony [inaudible] aggravating during the Coronavirus Crisis because [inaudible] madam chair, for the sake of timeme we are going to hold upon you then go to mr. Lynch. Since my mom and two of my sisters and a bunch of my cousins and inlaws work at the post office. It is a common sense get your work done sort of perspective the postmaster general of the United States did you know that the Postal Service has never allowed itself to be in a situation that it is in today . Throughout the history theres been a tradition of Reliable Delivery from the very beginning of the one section eight clause seven of the United States constitution. Since the flu to the Great Depression millions of people outio of work with Bank Failures the mail was delivered on time. Even during the second with the threat of the votes and International Mail was delivered on time. They continue to send their members into the post office to doos their job to keep the couny running. Two weeks ago after youve been postmaster for the few weeks that all changed. In the middle of a pandemic that killed 170,000 americans on the eve of a National Election when the cdc is advising people not to gather they started removing high71 speed mail sorting machis across the country. They stopped them from sorting the mail and stopped the National Letter carriers and handlers from working overtime to deliver the mail i and for te first time in 240 years in our history of the 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 on time for the elections in november. And we havwe have reports from e country as you acknowledge surface has been delayed and ate mail is piling up. You have an ebay once proud tradition. As a member, we have achieved Investigative Committee of the congress and to conduct oversight on every matter that impacts the American People both foreign and domestic. There are members that have been to iraq and afghanistan and theyve been to yemen, somalia, you name it. They literally go to the ends of the earth to investigate matters that affect the American People. Especially when it involves our sons and daughters in uniform. In this moment its our postal workers that happened to be our men and women in uniform, beyond the front lines of the pandemic. Throughout the pandemic theyve risked their own health and safetyis to deliver or try to deliver mail medicine and imbalance to every American Home and business six daysve a week. As a member of this committee, im supposed to ask you a question. In my heart im tempted to ask after 240 years of patriarch service hothe servicehow can ons up to just a few weeks. I understand you bring privatesector expertise. I guess we couldnt find a government worker who could screwed up this fast. It would take them a while. The president is running this post office to do business, but he said, running it into the ground, as he has declared bankruptcy a few times on his own business. In the effort to apply the alternative facts based on what youve actually done, one can only reach as a factfinder we can only reach to conclusions. One, either through gross incompetence defended the 240 year history of delivering the mail reliably and on time or the second conclusion that we could gather is that you are doing this on purpose and deliberately dismantling this once proud tradition. The gentlemans time is expired. Has expired. The gentleman may answer the question. At last question is this, what the heck are you doing. The gentlemans time is expired. The gentleman may answer. I would like to agree with you on the heroic efforts of the 650,000 employees across the nation. In the history of the Postal Service for the 250 year history of serving the American Public. I am very proud to lead the organization. The rest of the accusations will you put these machines back . Know i will not. Well, there you go. There i go what . Order, order. R, the gentleman may answer the question without being interrupted. Will yous put the machines bac . The answer is no and every accusation that he made other than the truck schedule is inaccurate and more misinformation for the American Public. You wont put the machines back though. You took them out madam chair. Mr. Jordan is recognized. Is he here . I believe that is not the order. Know its congressman palmer. Im getting different signs appear. Why dont we go back to the old way of writing it down. Okay. Congressmanen palmer is now recognized. I think the chairman and i just want to point out a Washington Post article from august 26, 2015 almost five years to the day there was a decline of firstclass letter delivery of 18 to 44 , and a 38 decline in the performance over the same time in 2014. This was during the Obama Biden Administration. The United StatesPostal Office in 2012 started closing dozens of mail sorting facilities from january to june of 2015 there were 494 million pieces of mail that didnt arrive on time and 48 increase and deleted mail delivery. And i ensure that i was intended to impact the 2012 election yet this committee didnt see fit to look into that. This will be yeswi and no for te most part. Is p there anyway the post offie and note whether or not the mail ballots that are delivering to households are they eligible voters come is there anyway to the post office to know that . He no sir. I bring that up because there is an analysis by the commission in 2019 and a recent u. S. Census bureau fiveyear Community Survey there were 378 counties nationwide that have more Voter Registrations than citizens living there that were old enough to vote. These are counties where they received 100 . In iowa there is at least 18,658 extra voters. Under the National Voter registration act of 1993, the Judicial Watch said notice to the large counties in five states, california, pennsylvania, North Carolina, virginia and colorado. The politics reported that Los Angeles County had anan estimatd 1. 6 million ineligible voters in 38 states with counties with the Voter Registration is over 100 . Including Montgomery County maryland where the representative, my distinguished friend. The same article cited a 2012 study that found 24 million Voter Registrations that are no longer valid or significantly inaccurate. The total included 1. 8 million dead people yet another 2. 75 million who are registered in at least two states. New york, for instance, and in thihis most recent primary that impacted your race, now chairman, had 84,000 ballots. Almost one fifth of come over fte fifth of all of the ballots i think past, 12,000 in your race were disqualified. So, my question to you, mr. Dejoy, is there any way to be sure that more ballots than a household should be eligible to be received or not being delivered . Say that again. Is there anyway for the Postal Service to determine if a household is getting more ballots than they should be . We are focused on delivering the mail said the answeso the answer o way to know the answer, madam chair i reserve my time. Whats going on . I think the chinese have packed in or something. What is that noise . The clock is still running. Ten his time be restored . We will give you adequate time. Have we resolved this . There is a problem, what is it. They are dealing with technical, you have extra time. There were technical problems. Are technical problems. I do appreciate your indulgence, thank you. The Census Bureau reports 11 of americans movie cheeringmo sectn eight of the Voter Registration act which was passed by the democrats in 1993 signed by president clinton and voted for by mr. Cooper and mr. Clay and madam chair maloney. Ra. For those people whove never had a real job out of business what you are trying to do is improve the performance of the post office so what happened in 2015 does not continue to happe happen. The accusations are that you try to throw the election. The fact is the federal asgovernment has not done its part during the Obama Biden Administration to make sure the voter rolls are accurate make sure job more difficult. This is not your job one way or the other. No sir. We do one count on the post office not to deliver stacks of ballots if nobody is there like abandoned the house or apartment complex that would be reported . We deliver mail to the address specified. Of hundreds of mail in ballots are dumped what it be that they are legitimate . There are processes for the postal inspector im not sure what they are and that they deploy way to identify any fraudulent type of activity. We need to make sure this election is not tainted by a fraudulent mailin ballots. When mentioning the riots in portland and seattle and other places there was a chuckle from one of the democrats on this committee and i take offense to that. This is a picture of the burnedout post office in minneapolis. Okay . There wasnnnn mail that was los. May be Prescription Drugs or Social Security checks. It is a fact not only mail delivery is delayed when anarchist lay siege to the country it endangers postal workers and delivery people it may have endangered peoples lives you cannott get they are medicine because it burned up in the minneapolis post office. Thats not funny. I hope the democrats is this committee in congress will take seriously whats happening in american cities. I yield back. Were still having difficulty connecting with the congressman. Congressman cooper. Mr. Dejoy this is what you reforms have done in 70 days. A lady paid five dollars on juld to send a certified letter National TennesseeSocial Security office. The distance is 20 miles and it took 12 days to arrive. Just this morning excellent reporting from channel five tv mail trucks are being forced to leave on schedule even when completely empty. Imagine a 53foot truck forced to travel hundreds of miles completelyto empty due to your socalled reforms. Here are the records that is not efficiency. That is insanity. For anyone thinking of voting absentee the effect of your policies is to unilaterally move up election day to octobe october 27th. If you force more empty trucks on the highway you can esinglehandedly move up election day even earlier. Already 550,000 primary ballots were rejected in just 30 states and the main reason was late delivery. How dare you disenfranchise so many voters when you told the Senate Committee just last week you had a sacred duty to protect election mailpr. It is a felony for an employee to delay delivery of mail. A postal employee can be fined or imprisoned up to five years to delay the mail that you can delay all the mail and get away with it . They can be prosecuted but you cant . Even if your actions are 1 million times worse . Mr. Dejoy do you have a duty to obey us law like every other american . I do. Previous postmasters general have been punished for much smaller conflicts of interest and in 19971 had to pay 25,027,000 of the 350,000dollar conflict of interest if youre 30 milliondollar conflict of interest 100 times larger were treated like your predecesso predecessor, youd have to paid two. 7 milliondollar fine and probably be ousted from postmaster general. Are you above the law that applies to other postmasters general . I dont agree with the premise. I am in full compliance of all ethical requirements. There is no ig investigation and i welcome the result of that report. As a mega donor for the Trump Campaign you were picked , two men who have already pled guilty to felonies to be the deputy finance chairman of the rnc. Did you pay that several top executives for contributing to Trumps Campaign by bonus thing or rewarding them . That is outrageous claims are and i resent that. I am asking a question. The answer is no. You did not bonus or reward . No. No. Nobody you solicited for to the Trump Campaign . Actually during the Trump Campaign i wasnt even working at my company anymore. We want to make sure Campaign Contributions are legal. L,. Does that complicit. I am here to represent the Postal Service it has nothing to do improving the Postal Service. Does anybody understand have a 10 billiondollar per loss . With no ig report. And your communications with mark meadows and treasury secretary manu chan. Mr. Dejoy is your backup plan to be pardoned like right roger stone . Oh my god. You have two seconds to answer the question. I have nost comment. Its not worth a comment. You are not recognized for five minutes. Thank you madam chair. In Operation Iraqi freedom and quite frankly to me is offensive the drivers and to try to compare military Service Members on the battlefields to those members it is offensive so those that have 100 percent politicized so when asked on National Television are you saying, is this an attempt by the president you will be interfering in the election absolutely theres no evidence whatsoever President Trump is using the Postal Service to interfere in the election. But democrats dont care about the facts. And theres no evidence at that ever occurred to concoct a narrative in the American People just like the russian collusionn hoax. And is vastly in need of reform that attend billion dollar loss per year businesses cannot operate that year on that way if they wanted reform they would work with a witness today and republicans to craft the bill and counterparts in the senate and the administration to come up with theldd reform that woud pass is a political stunt with the newest interference hoax. I represent nine counties in florida last week we held primary elections. Florida saw the largest since 1982, in 18 years two. 3 million mailin ballots were cast making a 59 percent there were minimal issues with those handled by the Postal Service and noby issues in mind nine counties with absentee ballots in this district that i am aware of so is it fair to say the Postal Service successfully delivered during the primary last week . Yes or. Two. 3 million mailin ballots are a significant amount for onear state. What are the factors that led to the Postal Service to deliver the substantial increase of mail in ballots on time . When it comeses to ballots prior to my arrival in the highend awareness of this election froze throws everything it has to move the ballots through the system. Usually they are identified with special markings and every employee and manager is very much focused to make sure that ballots move quickly through the process and advance the first class mail. So those particular processes were deployed and will be coming into the 2020 election. And florida has a reasonable timeframe for Postal Service to return the ballots as opposed to some states meaning they can be requested at theat last minute to delay their ability to get to the precinct in time. Thank you. That is a big part of the effort of the Postal Service. Prior to my arrival the purpose of sending out the letters to the states we just want to make everybody aware what will work. We can put the additional process on but it would be more helpful if we had reasonable standards from the election boards to comply with our processes to do it more efficiently and effectively. Do you need any additional funding to successfully deliver ballots in florida this november . No we do not. Are there any lessons other states can learn from the way florida handles our ballots with absentee voting . Im not particularly to the on dash familiar with florida up we have a general counselle who is put out letters with regard to each States Election guidelines and we have a website that has just beenenbe posted on the normal process. In general on behalf of 650,000 postal workers valid early and vote early is common sense. But if florida had a good , process i am sure they are electoral board procedures were good. We can do this all by ourselves we appreciate every states help to review the standards and take the advice of the Postal Service general counsel and our website builders of having connection problems with mr. Clay we will move to mr. Connelly. I hope you can hear me now. 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 of changes would have on the Prescription Drug shipment and the delivery of those shipments to yourug customers . Did you analyze that before you implemented the changes . We have a whole operating organization i asked to put together a plan and when we could comply with our schedules. I reviewed this with every regional area vp on a discussion and they pulled it out. Co iam the coo of the organization but i received a commitment we would be able to go forward with the plan committing to our existing stschedule. And there is some insulin. Did you examineon the effect that requires special storage. Never did i say dont put the mail on the tracks when they left on time. We still have thousands of trucks per day and within a certain timeframe. So there are hundreds of extra trips. So the intention is to put the mail on the tracks and they leave on time. Mr. Dejoy what about that insulin sit on the floor somewhere and it could spoil or whatever. Did you give that anyny consideration . And then working extremely hard to bring the Service Levels back to where they were and exceed that. We were headline a. K. A. Copy of any 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. While you are added and then to put the back information im not aware every specific types i will and the intention is on schedule and the automated sorting machine and mr. Norman from South Carolina is recognized. Going into fiveminute dialogue and we are not yelling over you is typical how this hearing has gone. Do you know 67 members did not even take the time to show up . And the Mueller Report and the impeachment as president obama said and it did not receive the 25 million as the United StatesPostal Service equipped are you unlocking blue boxes to stop the mail . Anything with blue boxes is not stopped. And what about those burnedout mailboxes and the citys on fire there were some certain actions and procedures for public unrest that we deployed on a variety of Different Things but yes we will slow it down. And in the safety of the delivery and those burnedout cities were problem when this allimportant bill that we had to take up on saturday. You are not the chief operating officer to be everything you been accused of i yield back. It my my my he been on the job 70 days and you causes much ruckus. That is called accountability and thats what we pass the bill. We pass because of the bill a dubious distinction and as postmaster general. And see a decline in service that correlates to the reorganizationio that you undertook is that a fair characterization . And with those actions of course we all live in the context of the worst pandemic and 100 years 40000 postal employees who have gotten the virus or in quarantine because of it and sadly a few dozenn dad. A and on the eve voting by mail 76 percent of all americans and may tend to vote by mail and then along comes this lets stipulate your motives were up your and you came at this he see some problems you want to create efficiencies and make us work better what you thank you would take into consideration the context as a good ceo scaring the public about the reliability of the Postal Service as a new postmaster general and then scaring voters because of your service do you . I understand the context it was the summer time and getting ready for the peak season and to start to try to roll this out. And then the truck is on time. But if the truck leaves in the mail will move on the next truck or the next day. But i have a limited time. And you have no contact with the Trump Campaign during your tenure. Is that. I have spoken to secretary manu chen and other people that i have had no contact of the Postal Service. Did do not tell the board of governors in august that byou ha had. I had put out to different people that this is not helpful. So you did have contact with the Trump Campaign for a good purpose. [laughter] when you say the Trump Campaign i have not spoken to the campaign the leadership in that regard i have spoken to people that are friends of mine that are associated with the campaign. One of those was secretary mnuchin. You may answer his question. What was the question . [laughter] what conversations did you have was secretary of treasury about the Postal Service . And theth s consequences. And we have this note and to be stuck in the mud and i will try to grow cost and revenue it was very high level and lets get the deal done. And that was it. Mr. Jordan is now recognize. Six weeks after june 23rd the primary election . Was at the Postal Services ball they were counting ballots after the election last month . No sir what about the democratic of Iowa Caucuses is that post office fault if we still didnt figure out who won the caucus. Was at the post office fault . No sir. 14million cash on hand. Changing out the sorting machines with mail collection boxes is Nothing Happened every postmaster general we do these sort of things. Its no different that there were 12000 mail collection boxes changed out by the Obama Biden Administration. It was a lot. So where they out to get you. And they have their own concerns you assume they are legitimate. Why do you assume they are out to get you . They were protesting at your house lastn night. They are calling for you to resign. They are not interested in Bipartisan Solutions so why are they after you. And unanimous vote and bipartisan republican and democrats that you are the right guy for the job. So why are they out to getet you . An amazing record of business serve the country and they are out to get you when all of the facts as the wall street journal said this is one giant conspiracy from the democrats. What could be there reason . We know it isnt based on facts. What could it be . Might it be politics . Or the election coming up . Or the fact they want to wait and count votes after election day . Maybe they want to count votes may be they want to be counting votes like they did in the chairwomans race or four weeks like in newn jersey or the democratic Iowa Caucuses. May be the chaos and confusion we saw with all three. Maybe thats what they want i dont know what motivates people to have different opinions. They called you names already. They were at your house last night banging pots and pans disrupting your neighbors and you. Use, the facts are not anything close to what they have said the last three weeks we all know what this ishi about. It is chaos and confusion. They know Election Night president t trump will win. And they want to keep counting. Six weeks, four weeks i dont know if they still declared a winner. Thats what they want and i guy like you who has served our country and community, and willing to go after you and you are on the job 70 days. The same thing has been done but they are coming after you. Thats how much they want to get this president. And that shows the character. I yield back. Congressman you are recognized. Good morning mr. Dejoy before postmaster general i appropriately resigned to be the finance chair you resigned from the finance chair of the rnc because in your written testimony you said we should keep the nonpartisan tradition of the us ps and to occupy a highlevel political post at the same time a highlevel usps post p would create an appearance problem if not more. Yes sir. I also think i could hold those positions. [laughter] mr. Duncan are you on the line . Your one of the highest ranking officials at usps. As chairman of the board. You are the chair of the board the highest ranking official. I would like to point out you are also on the board of two srepublican super pacs with american crossroads one of them. Rr yes sir. I looked at your bio and i would be remiss if i didnt point out that you said the rnc chairman raise an unprecedented 420 million to grow the donor base to one. 2 8 million on your official usps bio. I have a couple of the questions for you. In your written testimony you mentioned an outside Research Firm and then to know in the testimony that he reviewed 212 candidates and they vetted them. But the former vice chair of the board or the Inspector General and a published report over the weekend that mr. Dejoy was not among the 53 presented to the board and then they decided there were 53 better candidates than him or that he was not considered before presenting the 53 finalists. 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 connections. Is the same as the ncaa team not making the round of 64 but then swooping in at the sweet 16 and that isis what happened here. Said mr. Williams repeatedly asked the board to do a background check on mr. Dejoy by the postal inspection service. Do note that is sir quick. Yes or. And you and the board refused to do that background check. You were once quoted in a unfundraising letter and with those liberal specialinterest allies im sure you still believe that about joe biden and the democrats . I have no knowledge of that. And democrats will soon be trying to pass the ballot boss on at the ballot box. Is that still the case . This article is from where . 2008 las vegas sun. Do you still believe this sentiment . I dont believe anyone at this point trying to steal an election say thats in contradiction with the president said on august 20th tweet. They are trying to steal this election, the democrats spent the gentlemens time is expired but you may answer. There were a lot of false promises. We had a lot of people Even Congress members and the Board Members i put it in half a dozen names. We ran into a period of time after the holidays with covid we were not moving as fast as possible. We need to have his many ycandidates as possible with a better pool we have better choices. During that time mr. Dejoy interest became known to be. I submitted that name along with many others. Your time is expired. You are recognized we can go to t mr. Higgins. We are having difficulty we will go to mr. Roy. Thank you madame chairwoman. Thank you for the indulgence. Mr. Dejoy answer couple of questions were you nominated by the president of the United States are selected by a unanimous bipartisan board . They u board unanimous bipartisan. Thank you. My colleague said you did 70 days of damage but yet if im not mistaken he has been on this committee 11 years on for seven years and given the Oversight Committee in the hearing of april of 2019 the Financial Condition of usps why are we having a a hearing today 48 hours after we voted on legislation before a hearing . I do not know b serve but i am surprised at the lack of attention to the Postal Service over the last ten years. So you say to me the Financial Condition of the Postal Service is nothing new but we have known this is coming for a long time that they have lost 13 consecutive years. I think its ten years. So that means give or take . And with 14 billion cash on hand. Is that right . If every single american voted by mail which wont happen by thee way it be 2 percent of the total mail delivered. Fate we are very ready to handle the election now. The ppe extension to ensure Small Businesses can survive while governments keep businesses shut down to thousands of fiveminute music venues and hotels and barbershop on barbershops struggling to survive is any of that to the best of your knowledge . Noesev sir. Are you aware of Democratic Congress pulling up any legislation rather than going home that calling congress back on saturday im sorry to have a a vote even before we have a hearing are you aware of that . I have been following the agenda of congress because i have my own issues to deal with. There hasnt been that much to follow discussing Human Trafficking i have been asking for a hearing on the score job Human Trafficking and what we can do to stop that ive been asking for a hearing on that for over a year today its on this topic. I think we are sticking to Postal Service matters. I appreciate you being here in front of the committee. This is a political exercise. To show hearing ive been sitting on social media with the difficulties with technology we jam through this for theater a hearing monday after the felt that has no way to become law the American People and the Postal Service to operate. We should have hearing about the Financial Service of the Postal Service work on legislation to improve it we should roll up our sleeves and do the work but i will say the same thing about the ppe i was glad to work with that Bipartisan Legislation why arent we doing that today . That is our job there are people out therewhy who are struggling who cant pay their mortgage and wonder if they have the revenue to survive thats what we should be working one madame chairwoman. And then to be allowing the Postal Service we should focus on doing hours. I yield back. Thank you for your comments and as a point of information and the Democratic Congress did pass the heroes act may 15 to find all kinds of help to people that is sitting on Mitch Mcconnells desk as well as this bill. You can stand alone remove the heroes act. Now mr. Raskin. I have diabetic constituents waiting for insuli insulin, constituents with cancer waiting for chemo drugs but this headline took the cake for me. Rats reported eating on rotted packages of food and meet in the california mail center not from a haven of liberal fake news but business insider. Mr. Postmaster general, why do you celebrate on time departure vehicles if the deterioration of service that you regret causes letters and packages to be stacking up . Should behi the sub celebrate them going out on time if they dont have their letters on them . We are concerned with every late delivery and package buildup in their contributing factors. But let me finish. The process is the integral part of deliveringg mail costeffectively. The alternative is to run trucks late and extrara trips . Those extra trips were empty. I have limited time you cannot filibuster. Is the post office a joke . The Postal Service is not a joke. If i want to become a letter carrier or a postal clerk word you hire me without a background h check . We have a process that i do believe include a background check. Everybody has to haveet one except they didnt have one for you. Thats not true. I have secret clearance and fbi and i have hadui everything. You would be willing to release that . No. Why would i release a background check . Thats interesting. Let me go tout t mr. Duncan. Word you be willing to allow Russell Reynolds to turn over the file from this process . Mr. Duncan . Okay, mr. Dejoy the former chairman of the vice chairman of the board of governors mr. Williams who was also the Inspector General also reported you did not come to the normal Russell Reynolds interview process but the product of different nominations by different fereifpolitical people. When you are finally brought in forn the first interview you interviewed the selection ntpanel to the. 1 member joked they better ask you at least one question so it couldnt be said it wasnt a real interview. You are also reported stating you are not sure you wanted to accept the job because you needed to interview them what it needed to be entailed. What gave you the confidence it was yours for the asking . I did not think it was mine for the asking. I dont know mr. Williams contention is with me. He is part of the report that is stacking up this committee has not done. And with that Selection Process absolutely s unprecedente unprecedented . Secretary mnuchin that is totally inaccurate that we have never talked. Before taking the job . I talked to him about the job after i receive the offer i did not accept the offer immediately. You didnt speak to him before about soliciting your interest. I did not solicit any interest i. I kept my interest but he identified i didnt have an interest with a perfectly good life. I was interested in helping and was called by Russell Reynolds out of the blue. One of the reasons we have background checks is that we identified patterns of misconduct or conflicts of interest. I have no patterns of misconduct. This is s called new breed logistics that is x po that has contracts with the Postal Service going back many years. They identified problems of contract performance and billing practices. Word you consent to releasing that files everyone cano see . I dont even know what you are speaking about. Are you not aware of x po logistics . Do you have 30 million invested. He has gone way over hispey tim time. Do you have 30 million invested . T i vetted that with the Ethics Department of the Postal Service and was given specific types of guidelines to adhere to. I have nothing to do with that part and i comply with all ethical requirements i guess luggage everything you are interested in and we will see what you will happen. [inaudible conversations] the recess is over can you hear me . We cannot see but we can hear you. You cannot see me . There you are. I ask unanimous consent with those press releases to Us Post Office the first one apri april 282011 the other one is from february 3rd, 2012. In 2011 the post office announced, as a result of the study began in 2010 the Postal Service has made the decision to move Mail Processing operations from the ashland facility to the charleston West Virginia facility. And then the of up goes to charles in West Virginia. I went to read from another press release that says every 2 2012 the Postal Service has made the decision to move all Mail Processing operations Bowling Green kentucky moved to nashville, in the secondlargest city lost their Mail Processing facility in 2012. Paducah moved to evansville pa indiana and somerset moved to knoxville tennessee. This was Election Year while obama was president and biden Vice President. Reading a quote from chief operating officer. And to recognize the urgent need and with that infrastructure and consolidating operations is necessary to remain viable to have mail service to the nation. Somehow they would be at fault for disenfranchising votes and is complicit with mail sorting equipment to be moved out of facilities. I just mentioned ten facility shut down in kentucky in the Election Year. And to asked the chairman mr. Duncan and do you believe thato 2012 was part of a conspiracy to disenfranchise voters to keep people from getting their medication are Social Security checks . I have no knowledge of a conspiracyac to keep people from voting. Or from the days it would take a senator to receive a letter. As the coo in 2010 and then became postmaster general do you question her motives in the course of these operations . No. I worked very closely with her. She has great integrity and she knows the system and has been the operation system and was a letter carrier. She worked her way u up. And she has a business degree from mit. This was not a conspiracy then it was to realign theea infrastructure to the changing needs of the was customer. So postmaster general, mr. Dejoy how long will it be funded if there is no more transfers of cash . How long can youos operate . Late 2021. At least for one more year. I hope the members of this committee are aware and to be funded september 30th of this year it would be funded for another year because speaker policy isnt concerned it endsnd on september 30th everything that the post office shuts down if we dont do something and one other element of irony and hypocrisy to shut down 95 percent of the voting precincts and somehow isey try to blame the post office and with that i yield back. Requested financial help from this institution. Unlike any private enterprise the Postal Service has a universal Service Obligation to deliver mail to virtually every address in the United States regardless. But trump appointed a board of governors coworkers and senators on both sides of the aisle are against that mandate. As you know theres a bipartisaa bipartisan bill sitting on Mitch Mcconnells desk that would eliminate him to free up tens of billions of dollars for the u. S. Postal service. Heres the Business Advice pick up the phone please call mitch mcconnell. One vote t and one stroke of the pen by this president would free up billions for the Postal Service to be able to accomplish to be able to revitalize the organization for decades to co come. I have some questions about the nesiness plan. Its Standard Practice to meet with your team and develop a plan before executing operational changes. This is the plan that was released in may just before he became postmaster general. Did you make any written modifications to the plan since youve taken all this . First of all, you are incorrect in my position of the o healthcare. F the in my written statement have you made any modifications to the businessns plan . Im working on making modifications to the business plan. On august 13, developing a plan to achieve Operational Excellence in Financial Stability. A plan going to usurp this plan . It would. And i must say, we do need to identify that legislation also requires the Postal Service to be selfsustaining. And it has not been. That by getting rid of the mandate is so important. I want to make sure we are working on a written plan. If youve made any written modifications in the memos to the team members what you provide the committee the information so we know how youve modified the w plan . When we come out with a plan certainly you have other documents you cant give a draft . We know that in battleground areas it was down even more so you were able to get back to us. What they as me ask you this. Tlets turn to the impact with the internal communications of show senior managers not to even plug in the previously disconnected machines without approval from headquarters. Mail processing equipment will ueremain where they are. Will you tell your workers and the American Public right now that employees can plug in a disconnected machines . I am unaware oim unaware ofe ouat you are speaking. You will allow them to plugin machines to be able to do their job . Im not going to agree to something that im unaware of. You know how insane this is, like saying you cant plug in the blenders to do the job. Ik you are the head of the unit, the head of the business. The buck stops with you. I yield back. We now recognize that congressman hyde. Thank you madam chair. The fact that you allowed mr. Raskin to grow significantly over his time while at the same time cutting off the ruling isnt going unnoticed. It was 3. 4 trillion didnt even extend which is what it is supposed to do a. Its funny to me that the heroes act which was supposed to be about covid help in the relief did not extend ppe but it did have a lot of voting reform and it that actually brings us into the conversation here today. I think you would agree the sanctity of the voting in the ballot box and is a paramount issue for americans, would you agree . Wo yes, sir. And im sure all of us would. In 2017, there was an investigation by the office of special counselel that concluded the United StatesPostal Service improperly coordinated with the Postal Workers Union in support of Hillary Clinton. They worked overtime to make up for the absence ofen all that. Its also interesting that the union we are referring to come into the National Association of letter carriers which just ten days ago endorsed biden for president. Let me ask you how many fraudulent votes are necessary for it to be considered too many . I dont know, sir. We dont want fraudulent posts. There is no reason for that. Your friends predecessor committed to congress to fully implement some of the recommendations. In fact all of the recommendations to avoid future violations. Id like to ask you what kind of changes that you need to prevent these types of violations from future . Lace in the that wasnt a focus ive had in my 70 days but i will take a look att the status of that initiative. Theres no questiothere is no qd that the vast majority are faithful, honest, dedicated Public Servants. That being said, what theyve identified is without question in many cases political riots and in fact to lay this out when you have a union that consists of 300,000 workers and the union comes out and endorses a candidate in this case and the union is supposed to be expected to handle the ballots to both parties fairly does that raise any concerns for you at all . To support and donate candidates ive done so myself for 20 years. In my mind, it doesnt raise any awareness on the concern with regards to postal workers and their initiatives. The Postal Service has 650,000 people and we will have like the restam of the american society,e will have people who dont Pay Attention to the laws but for the most part i believe in the ability to donate and support thank you for your answers and i respect the right for people to vote if they want to have told this is the case where you have 300,000 that have endorsed biden, and there must be in place some sort of mechanism to ensure the handling of the ballots in all political material is properly handled and not in a biased way. And i look forward to your responding to us in the next week or so. I i yield back. I now recognize the congressman. Thank you for being here. I want to see if we can find some Common Ground to resolve the differences. Can you tell us the unofficial motto of the Service Packs for [inaudible] into service, not profit. Do you know how many veterans served in the Postal Service . 100,000. What percentage rely on the Postal Service for their prescription medicine . I dont know. Its about 80 . So i guess at the beginning i want to ask you this. The defense department, we dont tell them you have to sell weapons to make revenue to serve the American People. We dont say that about our Health Service for the National Institute of health. Why shouldwh we have a Different Service for the Postal Service, why do you have to make a profit instead of just serving the American People . That is an interesting and good question. Its not that we need to make a profit, it is to be selfsustaining to at least cover the cost. Im not a legislator, and the postmaster general. Do you remember the time in the history where that was not a requirement flex it was from 1840 we funded the Postal Service. We didnt require them to make a profit because we thought people should survey and one of the reasons they view it as Public Service. I appreciate at one point that you made which is you assumed that those who would disagree with you would have a legitimate difference, legitimate perspective. Your prospective is that these machines are not required because packages need to be d delivered and open up floor space. Its your testimony that you didnt direct it. Who directed it . You dont know who did it or at . Emented there isem hundreds of them around the country in different places within initiative in the organization. Your perspective is this is necessary to make efficient packages. Millions have the opposite view and concerned that this may slow down the delivery. Do you have any sense of how much it would cost to restore these machines . Would it be more than 10 million . Less than a billion . I would assume so. Lets stipulate that you may be right about the efficiency. We have donald trump saying hes up in the polls. Everyone can agree on one thing whoever wins the American People should have confidence in that result is the regardless, what is the harm in putting those machines back until election day for the peace of mind, for the confidence of the American People . You make a statement about for a billion dollars youre not nggoing to give us a billion dollars. To make the request of the way of getting us a billion dollars. We havent been funded in ten years and cant pass any legislation if we give you the money do you seeon the point . Its a hypothetical and not willing to what is the harm . I am trying to understand what most americans are trying to understand what his arm even if they dont do anything but as the harm . In washington and make sensee but to me it makes none. If it will restore peoples faith in democracy and avoid a polarized get to meet a billion and i will put the machines then. Thats a commitment. The last question that i have for you, i understand youve committed tor the american peope that you will have these delivered in time. Can you give a specific and detailed plan and the attack to congress on how you are going to make sure they get delivered ontime . I need to get back to you. If there is a plan that we can theres normal processing procedures plus enhanced processing procedures i can probably give you some type of summarized objectives that we will try to fulfill. I appreciate the commitment and you will pu he will put thes back. Thank you. The gentleman yields back. I now recognize that congressm congressman. Thank you madam chair. He went over four minutes, so i may go over a few minutes and i hope you willl indulge me in my questioning. Mr. Dejoy, thank you again for being here today. Im sorry for some of the rhetoric that youve had to endurweve had toendure over yos in office. Thats something i want to remind everyone. Youve been postmaster general for around 60 days; is that correct . 70 today. Now, i want to make this clear to the American People watching this Committee Hearing. You report the postal board of governors, is that correct . I do. And it is a bipartisan board comprised of both democrats and republicans is that correct . It is. And its made up that way because the statute passed by congress requiring a bipartisan board of governors,e write . Thats right. If theres one thing i hope my democratic colleagues learnng its ie reports the port of governors, not the president of the United States. Theres been a lot of rhetoric by my friends on the democratic side of the aisle pertaining to all of the changes that have been made. In fact, i want to reference a tweet by the representatives i assume this is a photo op, where hes chained himself to one of the blue boxes that have been in the news lately. Your opening testimony, you said you didnt order the removal of the blue boxes, sorting equipment or the reduction of overtime. Can you explain to us who did and what that process was, because i think its important for the American People to know because theres a lot of democrats here, even though theyve talked about politics and theyve talked about the tct that the president wants to sabotage the election. The democrats are using this as a political ploy. They are spinning this to try to benefit politically. In fact, the representative has received 32,000 from the Postal Workers Union since 2012. So, im sure his Campaign Donors probably appreciated that photograph. Again if they wouldnt mind telling us about the process briefly of the removal of the blue boxes, who ordered them and how that came about. So, this is a longstanding thing thats been going on in the Postal Service for a long time. The fact that im here at the committee to talk about boxes and things, id much rather epend the time to talk about the legislation would require to help get us into a sustainable, you know, position, and other matters that concern. I have nothing to do with boxes or machines or restricting overtime or throwing the election or anything. Correct me if im wrong on average about 3,100 collection rocks as a year hav is a year hn offline dating back to the time when obama was presented is that correct . Its been a long time. Am i correct to say that when thundering beat obama by an administration they remove 12,000 blue boxes is that correct . I think there was about its odd to me to associate this with the president of the United States. You can do that here. I have a hard time. Do you remember the democrats calling for the been postmaster general to resign because president obama removed 12,000 boxes . I dont think i recall that. I dont either. So, lets be very clear. Removing the sorting machines and blue boxes that were removed, they wont affect the Postal Services capacity to handle the ballots this season, you testified that correct . Correct. The democrats say because of the false narrative the president wants to somehow supposed to election. Is that narrative true . I am not engaged in sabotaging the election. As a matter of fact, arent you planning on voting by mail, did someone tell me the . I am, yes. You have confidence when your ballot is in the mail itll get to the appropriate official ontime . Yes, sir. Will you pledge here today that the Postal Service will do its best to returnrn all ballots this election on time . I do, sir. What would you tell americans that are concerned about something happening to their ballots once they put it in the mail this season, what would you tell them because theyve seen a lot of that from our colleagues on the democratic side. This has been their spin since the russian hoax fell flat, since thehe impeachment of diedn the senate. Every Conspiracy Theory today that the democrats have used to try to hurt the president has fallen flat, so this is the new flavor of the day. And its had the consequences of putting a lot of americans concerned that if they drop the absentee ballot in the mail but its not going to get to the Election Officials. How can you believe the fear that the democrats have caused . The American People have the commitment of the 650,000 men and women of the Postal Service that we will do everything within our power and structure to deliver the ballots on time but again we would remind them to request the ballot early and vote early. Its discouraging to hear the rhetoric from the democrats about this whole issue. My grandmother was a mail carrier in tennessee, spent her whole career as a carrier. The men and women i know in the Postal Service work extremely hard, and they deserve better than the rhetoric and the postal bashing that has been coming from the other side all for political purposes. We all want to see the post post office succeeds especially the districts like mine that still havent recovered from what the congressman mentioned the changes that obama made when he took the facilities out in paducah kentucky. I will pose my question with this. This is a sad day for the q Oversight Committee. The Oversight Committee is responsible for identifying waste, fraud and abuse. The committee is supposed to be responsible for making the government transparent and accountable. This mr. Dejoy, youve come here with a background. You are one of the most qualified postmaster generals weve had with her background in the logistics business. It is an honor for the federal government to have you trying to reform the post office. Though the democrats rushed ugthrough without even having a Committee Hearing on it, that ties your hands and also gives 25 billion to the Postal Service, which i find ironic because mr. Dick govern in the markup on saturday said he didnt trust you. Weve had a couple of other democrats say they didnt have confidence that they gave a 25,000,000,000. Checklist of strings attached. They tied your hands to where you cannot t make any needed reforms. That isnt what the committee is supposed to be about. I apologize as a member of the committee i hope that we can do better in the next congress and i will yield back. Pigeonholing yields back and i recognize myself for a plaintiff personal privilege and information. The bill the house passed that i offered, i authored that the left of the postmaster general came forth with changes to the post office have slowed the mail down. It doesnt in any way hinder any effort to make the post office more efficient and effective. I also funded the post office because it deserves to be funded. Its a national treasure, a national service. [inaudible] could you turn on your microphone, please. Some of us, i want to assure the members of the committee this isnt some sort of hope. We are here as you might imagine because weve been hearing from the people that hire us. People who live across the country in our districts so for me thats the people of baltimore city, Baltimore County in howard county, maryland. Just like all of my colleagues have others im sure youvee complained. And i just want to keep this focus on the face of those people. These are Senior Citizens like you and like me. Theyve worked hard, they are at a point in their life theyve defended as they always had depended on the mail. Some of them have high blood pressure. They pay for their medications. Others have heart trouble and wait for their medications. These are men and womenrt who pt on a uniform and various war and conflict and represented us and rely daily on their mail for their checks, for their medicine. These are smallbusiness people like you used to be and many of the members of the committee who watch the small businessch compe now not being able to keep up with basic things they rely on to come through the mail and then they were just average citizens, somebody that wants to pay the bill because they dont believe in the internet and they believe in writing an oldfashioned check and then they are told by the company that they are being charged now with aha late fee because it didnt arrive on time so these are real stories and when the mail slows down as a desperate impact on the communities, particularly communities of color. These changes i assume our changes youve visited and implemented with the boar boardf governors; is that correct . The organizational change each and requirement in the initiative are within my authority but i have discussed on major changes are required to have an advisory opinion is that correct . There is some level of change do you have analytics to justify the changes youve made and if so, could you provide them at a later date to the committee . I need to get back to you on that. Its my understanding the removal of mailboxes that was 20, 30 years ago or last week required density studies. Is that the case . I believe it is. Could you supply the densityt studies at thstudy for the lasts because theres been an accelerated removal of boxes and accelerated removal of sorting machines, 671 to which you said earlier you would not put back online. I am not a conspiracy theorist, but i dont believe that comfy dumpy fell. I think he was pushed and when i see these things backed up in such a way that we get your report dated august 12 that says yes there had been an 8 decrease in mail arriving on time, 9 decrease in periodicals arriving on time, and a decrease in virtually all other classifications, it just makes some of us a little suspect and im sure you would understand that. Whathey ask are you familiar wih the expedited afternoon sorting program . It was introduced on the 25th of july. Ul it affects 1200 zip codes across the United States; are you aware of that . Im aware that if a lot of zip codes. Are you aware that it shakes up a lot a of the mail at the pt office . Im aware of the process was and where there is longstanding procedures the intention of the plan is to adjust and get back on schedule. And it wasnt a change, it was a Pilot Program to marry up the delivery, the carrier delivery to homes and businesses with the schedule that of incoming mail. Are you aware of the National Association of letter carriers filed an official briefing against that program . I am, but i will tell you that program for the pilot went off, we had a discussion with the Union Leadership, and they were amenable to rolling out a program. And just before i yield back my time, sir, what would you say to those veterans got the Senior Citizensor because average americans and those, smallbusiness people who spend disproportionately impacted in the last five or six weeks because of the slowdown . We are concerned about every delivery that is late, and we are working very, very hard to get it back on track. Thank you, madam chair. Mr. Grossman, you are now recognized. Can you hear me now . We can hear you. They are not seeing you yet. There you are. Okay. Okay. First of all, thank you for being here, mr. Dejoy. Sorry some of the questions have been unduly rude, but i will start with a question here, first an increase in regular mail deliveries you anticipate because of the election this october c. Compared toio last october. Im sorry, i didnt hear the question. What percentage increase in mail deliveries do you expect this october compared to last october i think the election mail is a fourrun, its about over the course of a month about 2 of normal male. Could you compare that to other days or times around christmas, for example, any other i think the narrative goes like mothers day is high or christmas is hire. We just handled census mail, so its not a lot of mail, but it is critical. There are cutoff dates. Its not a mothers day card, it is a ballot and its important. We put in extra effort to make sure that it gets there on time. Okay. But you dont consider it say compared to how much mail you had maybeon three years ago its not a volume issue, sir, its just every ballot counts so we want to get every one of them. Okay. I know here in wisconsin, i assume nationwide, there is postage that comes with the absentee ballots. Do you have plans to handle the additional postage that youre going to get on the election . You broke up but i think that i know what youre getting it. At. We are not charging g anything extra for anything. All of our rates and classifications that wasnt the point. In wisconsin, the local unit of government that issues the absentee ballot pays to have the ballots sent out and actually puts the stamp on the ballot coming back. So at least in wisconsin you should be getting more revenue with the election. What do you plan on doing with the additional revenue you are getting or do you plan on doing something apple . I dont know, im not getrstanding how we would extra revenue. One way or another we would have had a stamp on it going out for a stamp on it coming back. In any case, the revenue will go to come any revenue we guess if it was additional revenue will go to cover our losses. Im assuming when you get additional revenue you will like it when more mail is being sent because you have fixed costs and are even ahead of the game if you have more valentines day cards or christmas cards or in this case more absentee ballots or whatever. We love the mail. So you should be happy, okay, that should put it on a firmer ground. Right now, and you have a total of about 14 million 14 billion in the bank. Do you anticipate the election causing that to be run down at all or do you anticipate its going up or having any dent on it . I dont think it will have much of an impact in either way. Hispanics of 14 billion in the bank now youll still have 14 billion as far as you know on december 1. It depends. We will probably lose ten or 11 billion this year, so depending on how package volume stays, we could have less cash. And if i may, having 14 billion, we also have, i have 12 billion worth of liabilities that need to be paid at some time over the next six months. We have 135 billion of liabilities but we are running a 633,000 Person Organization that doesnt get funded even though the federal government ends in september, they have an expectation of getting funding. We dont have an expectation getting funding so we have to drive costs out and increase revenue. Thats the big difference we have been any other agency. So it sounds like a lot of money but its not a lot of money for what they do. But you anticipate still we will have cash, yes. The time is expired and the gentleman may answer the question. We have plenty of operating capital right now to get through november, and s. The congresswoman is nowem recognized. Thank you madam chair. Mr. Dejoy, the culture and ethos of the Postal Services every piece every day. Ive been in briefings who told me since you are a vita your aro longer the mission of the usps. Over time, to finish delivering mail is not allowed with piles of backlog of mail being left on delivered. Sorting machines are unplugged. My first question, is it still the policy and the goal of the usps to deliver every piece every day or have you eliminated or changed in any way . First of all, that is misrepresentation of anything that ive taken them about yes thanother yes thegoal is to dele every day and we were not doing that before i got here reclaiming mys time is cleary gotten worse since your arrival. We have piles upon piles of mail that as a result of the changes youve made it appear to have deleted the mail even further than supposedly they were delete previously. No change ive made. The change youve made. I made one change. Youve made far more than one change. Reclaiming my time. You are not being honest with this committee. I am being honest. Ive asked that the chair at a time back and direct the witness not to interrupt me. Madam chair reclaiming my time i didnt interrupt any other member when they were talking and i asked not to be interrupted. The time is mine. Mr. Dejoy you are not being honest with the committee about removing the sorting machines. Weve been asking about details for weeks and youve been hiding them from us about removing them. August for fewer staff gave the Committee Briefing on the issue and all they told us is that they would be moving machines around to where they were needed most. We have the slides. There was no mention of taking any machines offline. August 11 general counsel responded to the request for more information with no mention of taking sorting machines offline. T the culture of this information is being trickled down to the florida postal leadership. My officeer asked whether machis were being removed at the royal palm facility thatt covers all f south florida and we were assured the capacity was being expanded that it was only after kespoke with local postal workers i was told about the machine and royal palm that hasd been shut down and roped off since july. Outlets finally revealed the internal plan to remove more than 600 plus sorting machine. You were not transparent. Ne we had to get it from the news reports here that i want to take this opportunity to enter into the record,d, madam chair, august 18, 2020 email from the director of maintenance operation. Without objection. It reads please us a job to the respective maintenance managers they are not to reconnect, reinstall machines that have been previously disconnected without approval from headquarters maintenance nd matter what they get from the plant manager. Mr. Dejoy, yes or no come and youve indicated in this hearing that its not your job to decide whether sorting machines were on or offline but at the same time you told mr. Connor you will not bring them online because they are not needed is a ye to say yo have any plant managers requested machine to be reconnected . First ofd . All i disagreed im not asking you anything other than reclaiming my time. Yes or no answer have any plant managers across the country in the usps request did mail sorting machines be reconnected . How would i know that . You are in charge. You dont know if there are plant managers that have requestedkn the with me just assure you that there are plant managers that was reported in the press in both washington there are plant managers in texas and washington, and i have articles i can show you the fast to have sorting machines reconnected and brought back online theyve been too scared to come forward to say so so you have l indicated that its local leadership anleadership and in g record to say that its not your job to decide whether the sorting machines are brought online or not. Someone needs to mute, madam chair. People that are listening, please mute. I need probably an additional 30 seconds from the introductions added onto my time. Its not your job to nic made te decisions about the machines into the same time coming you have said that you are not going to bring them back online because they are not needed. It cant be both so my local barcodes and handlers to work with sorting machines regularly into this specific barcode machine assured they it wouldnt be difficult to plug it back in. How difficult would it be to reconnect machines that havent already been destroyed, for example on display come if we can bring that up on the screen, i was sent a photo from a Processing Distribution Center in florida where the power cord is hanging from the ceiling and not plugged in. Local handlers tell me the sorting machines regularly, and that specific machine tha but it wouldnt be difficult to plug it back in. Do you believe that it is the local handlers job to decide whether they need a sorting machine and will you give them the freedom to plug the machines back in and bring machines that havent been taken apart back online to make sure we can get the mail out w on time which you acknowledge has gotten worse since your arrival . The time is expired for the gentleth man is to answer the question. That was a long list of accusations i just want an answer to that question is it my time now . No, its always my time. I would like an answer to the question whether or not responsible for making decisions as to what machines were used or not used. But those are decided locally. The gentlewomans time has expired. [inaudible] you havent told the truth in this hearing and its your fau fault, it is on you, youve acknowledged that. The time is expired. [inaudible] congressman higgins, you are now recognized. Thank you, madam chair. That was quite a debacle. This is exactly why america doesnt trust congress. Our cities are on fire. Violent mobs run the streets at night. The chinese have crossed the American Economy with a virus and the democrats are talking about a mailbox conspiracy. Postmaster general dejoy, or you aware of any evidence whatsoever that supports a mail delivery conspiracy . No sir. Would you repeat that . Are you aware of any evidence whatsoever that something of a nail box or mail delivery conspiracy . I am not, sir. Postmaster general, thank you for being here today. Let meha ask you are you here on subpoena for voluntarily . Im here voluntarily. You are better than me because you are sitting attempt by it and by my colleagues to assassinate your character and might i suggest that as an American Patriot andas constitutionalist if i were you, i wouldnt appear before the Committee Without a subpoena in the future. Congratulations on your character for being here voluntarily choose your self to this harassment. I will be 59 today and i cannot remember a time when the Postal Service wasnt in some sort of financial trouble. Do you recall at any time some sort of an error i am not recalling that the Postal Service was operating within budget and was never in financial trouble . I think in the late 90s and early 20s era ssierra era y birthday, sir. Thank you. Thats kind of you. Out of the last 40 to 50 years, thereve only been a couple of years where there was anything that could be described as Financial Stability in the Postal Service. Dedicated men and women, but the fact is they are legendary but in the Postal Service. Let me ask you why did you accept this job . Tell america why you took this job. Senator, i have a the certain experiences in my life businesswise with large projects we know you are qualified. I get that. But America Needs to hear from your heart why did you accept this incredible burden to serve your government and your nation in this way ive been active in my community and i the country most of my adult life and this was some end that was asked for me to participate i thought i could help lead to a better place and thats why i took it. The from this american and from our constituents, thank you for taking on this burden. Perhaps next week we will have a hearing suggesting smoking cigarettes could cause cancer. Who did not know in america that the Postal Service is constantly going through modernization effort attempts and struggles to become solvent into the future . You have a lot of mail. I have one question in closing. Mimposing. My understanding is td 71 million pieces of mail a day. Can you handle that election cycle doesnt affect about 150 million americans are registered to vote and your average mail delivery is 471 million a day. Can you handle the mail delivery for the election cycle . Of the whole organization is committed to delivering the mail and we will do it. Roger that. Thank you sir for appearing before us today. I apologize on behalf of all of america for the way that youve been treated by my colleagues across the aisle. Madam chair, i yield back. Congressman sarbanes, you are now recognized. [inaudible] think you postmaster for being here with us today. I will be king. I dont trust you right now. I dont know whether its i dont trust your judgment or your motives. If you think that you could implement the changes you did without having a negative impact that weve seen, then i worry about your judgment. And if you did understand what the impact would be, then im concerned about your motives. But youve goyouve got an oppoy to demonstrate to us that your judgment is sound and that your motives are pure. You are a businessman. Weve heard a lot about that today. You are an expert in supplychain management which requires a lot of planning, specifics, details on all kindse of minutia. Friday when youre in the senate you said, quote, as we head into the election season, i want to assure the committee and the public that the Postal Service is fully capable and committed to delivering the nations election mail securely and on time. This sacred duty is my number one priority between now and election day. Is that what you said . Guesser. Yes sir. And you said it again today, the idea of getting people their mail securely andhe on time. Ive got to tell you, im very concerned about the issue thats going to happen with the mailin ballots. We heard thaweve heard that wis today. We have a president ee is betting that hes opposed to usps thatng because hes hoping a hobbled the Postal Service wont be able to handle the mailin ballots in your own general counsel has warned 46 states that the ballots may not be delivered on time. Traditionally, as you know, the Postal Service has always prioritized sorting the election mail separately and pushing it out as fast as possible including daily sweeps at the facilitiesai. Guess they didnt localities have been left wondering if this is no longer the case and what the president s continued broadside against the ballots will mean in practice for those efforts. On friday again for the Senate Colleagues of ours, using firstclass better treatment of election mail withinio to chang, quoting you in response to senatosenator peters you said y, we will deploy the processes and procedures that defends any election mail in some cases ahead of firstclass mail. I will note that on the website is a frequently asked questions to the officials there say they shouldo say theyshould use firsr higherlevel service or election mail using usps marketing mail service will result in slower deliveryrv times and may increae the risk voters will not receive their ballots on time to return them by mail. So, youre saying that the post office is going to handle this on a firstclass basis, but at the same time, telling Election Officials that theys should take responsibility for this or otherwise the marketing mail service will come in more smoothly. Weve heard about your commitment to the Senate Colleagues and youve said it again today. But to be honest, mr. Postmaster general, we need something in writing that would be very helpful, detailed account of how exactly you are going to execute onl your promises. Your special logistics. We want to know what are you doing to make good on these words. How is usps defining its interface with states and localities and vendors and others to ensure that the ballots get priority treatment. We need to return policies and directives, not just words. I assume you kno no usps long offered memorandumss of policy o assure systemwide execution of the key policies and procedures. I was looking atid a bunch of these last night and in that vein im asking, can you commit today to the immediate issuance of the usps policy in writing that would guarantee all delivery is treated as firstclass or better for the 2020 general election, can you do that for us . I will our process is to do that physically. I have to get back to what i can get you on writing. Wed like to see that in the form of the memorandums we can verify the commitment that you are making. This is where the motives can be shown to t be pure. The classification of the mail and then we are talking about a physical process. So, we could advance in front of the firstclass and still wouldnt call it a firstclass mail. Im just asking to see him writing a memorandum on this at the post office and the public and we can get some confidence from a. The other thing, im running out of time, when we talked about your ability to issue these reports. Could you commit as well that today you will get some data specific updates with regarding how they are going to do that in a periodic basis perhaps that would be very helpful could you do that . I will commit to give the committee an update on the improvement of service lets say next monday where we stand on the service. I need to check if we can get down to the individual level to see what we can do. I would appreciate that. It would demonstrate that you take this sacred duty seriously. If i could add the letters that went out were not a warning or indication we were slowing down. It was to educate the state Election Officials on what the process was. This was done in the years past. With the pandemic we increased the content because we know the vote by mail would be higher. Weve reached out to 50,000 contacts with state and local officials in the regional areass and through headquarters to try to integrate their processes and our process so we would have a safe and secure election. The time hasd expired. You are now recognized. Thank you madam chair. Mr. Dejoy, i apologize for some of the behavior can you hear me . We can hear you and we can see you. Postmaster general general, o apologize for some of the treatment you had today. Obviously by what i was hearing that you dont really need this job. Im not going to ask directly if you needed to but im sure like most people in the Trump Administration including the president didnt need to take the job of the country and one to make it better and help people and i think you fall in that category, so i want to apologize for some of the statements made today that are very disturbing to me. You are just trying to do your job. Of were hired by the board governors. Yod you have any discussions with the president on what to do to the post offices or [inaudible] i never spoke with the president about the Postal Service prior to getting the position, and i havent spoken to him about anything regarding the Postal Service is. So you were brought into this job to help you be more cost efficient come help make changes. So obviously postal workers do their job and youre doing your job and now they come after you, attacking you for doing your job. I think we all agree firstclass mail has dropped considerably but the packages have increased significantly . Thats one of the reasons why for making some changes to the cost efficienciecostefficienciet of discussions about the sorting machine. Is it true to say that for the volume even the additional census and additional ballots even though christmas is higher mail time than anything else, theres still enough sorting machines to do this in your office will be able to move the packages with the changes you are making, is that a true statement . We will have plenty of sorting capacity. But the issue is some of the hotspots in the country areas like philadelphia destroyed. The average could be 20 percent. The council has found that bias towards Hillary Clinton with that increase analysis what do you think the post office can ensure political bias is not deliberate . I am full confidence the 650,000 men and women will handle election mail safe and secure. Like the rest of the country those individuals that do things they shouldnt and we have that Management Team to look for that stuff. And those to be mailed out with the election and a lot of states do that. And to try to make sure that there might be a challenge on the ballot. You may answer the question. Thats what we are working with this day election m officials we will be sending a letter out to every american again describing our participation in the election process and again requesting the ballot and to vote early. And with postal managers running ballots over to the election board. We will do everything we can to make sure it gets to where it needs totds be. Thank you very much thank you to the postmaster general and that chairman of the board mr. Duncan in your patience to answer questions. As both of you know president nixon 1970 signed the postal reform bill to guarantee the independence of the post office. The website is history to move from politics and i assume that is the essential mission of the post office . Yes sir. And to be presented and i want to ask questions about that. And to make political donations within the law but i do want to go througho them because of the questions phrase. According to the federal Election Commission records since 2016 you donated three. 2 Million Dollars to republican candidates and their committees. Is that right . It sounds right. The rnc was the beneficiary of 3,000,000. 3 million. Yes. I amca a republican, sir. You contributed one. 2 Million Dollars to the Trump Victory fund. Correct . I need to check that but it sounds about right. My understanding is in 2019 you were announced as the chairman of the Republican National convention and Fundraising Committee. Taking place in charlotte. Yes. That is a notforprofitpr foundation that was selected by the Charlotte Host Committee that is bipartisan for the city. And june 122020 shortly before you took out over with the postmaster general. June through january of april this year before you were selected you provided 18 contributions of 650,000 to various republican committees. Correct . You have something in front of you. I dont know what you are looking at. For the record i give a lot of money to republicans. Right. That is totally within your right you are a supporter of president ig trump. So how do you square to be a supporter of the president and other members and the independence required of the postmaster general. Can you really do both . Absolutely, sir. You are aware of the fact that President Trump has made hostile statements about thest Postal Service and called it a joke. I assume you disagree with that. I do, sir. Yois he has also vehemently and repeatedly attacked to say that mailin ballots will lead to massive electoral fraud in the 2020 election. Do you agree with eio that . I am in charge of delivering ballots. I dont want to comment. Thats not my responsibility of the editorial. That is up to the states. That is it your view it has nothing to do with the United StatesPostal Service. If there is pride it is our attempt not to have any fraud with the are not on United StatesPostal Service. But if the mail is not delivered on time and republicans and democrats who do vote by mail dont have a Timely Delivery that will result in them being disenfranchised is that correct . The mail will be delivered on time. We have heard you made significant reforms to try to improve the Postal Service that those have coincided with the runup to the election and you have apologized for that. Not just the blue boxes that you heard from congressman cooper. Your time is expired but you may answer the question. Thank you congressman. I had nothing to do with the election boxes the sorting machines or the post office hours or limiting over time. The change i made was to run the tracks on time to mitigate extra trips based on the oig audit that was astonishing in the amount of money we were spending and the number of late trips we were running it was very important aspect of the network if they ask why that on time trucks matter. They do it is a fundamental premise how the whole if they dont run on time that mail carriers cannot leave on time they are out at night have to come back to get more mail and the collection process isme la e late, the plant process is distorted i see several billion dollars of potential savings in getting the system to connect properly and thats why we ran out to put a plan together to get the fundamental basic principle. I would not know how to reverse that to say dont run the trucks on time . Is that the answer we are looking to get me to say here today . Your time is expired we recognize our congressman you are recognized. Thank you matter chair also thank you to the postmaster general for being here today on july 292020 usps general counsel sent a followup letter to 46 states including pennsylvania expressing concern the states deadline it doesin not fit with the delivery standardsry. Can you confirmy the ease letters is something usps has done under previous postmasters general . This has been done in the past that was set out before the 16 election but we have intensified the effort to work with the election board and communicate with the election board to help them gain more knowledge. It is amazing how many people in high places really dont understand how we use a postmar postmark. I agree with that. The democrats are making a lot ofts noise about thes letters. In the letters to the states does the usps say they will not deliver ballots in november . No. They state they will not or cannot process ballots this november. No sir. Do they say the voters should not vote by mail . No sir. Specifically recommends people voting by mail should complete ballots no later than october 272 comply with pennsylvania to request ballot as late as tuesday october 27. In order to be t counted on time tuesday november 3rd under pennsylvania law do you agreea pennsylvania should move the dapplication deadline back . For example on or around to be sure they can receive the ballots on time and return them no later than october 27 by the general counsel. I didnt catch all the details. Basically if it is best if the state election boards follow the recommendations of the general counsel to ensure that every the ballot we will do everything we need to do but i dont know why we want to put this said in conflict of democracy at know why we should take any chance then to have a properly integrated system between election boards and the Postal Service if thats what they support what we try to do to make peopledo aware. Why would you want to put more risk in the system than necessary . Pennsylvania law says it should be received by november d 8 00 oclock p. M. I am 55 years old i use the Postal Service for the past 37 years to deliver my mail. Pay my bills i dont wait until the day the bill is due to mail a check. I mail it within enough time i have to walk to the mailbox somebody has to collected has to be taken another place to be processed and delivered states should take that into account when i set up their laws because theres another point i would like to get to Governor Wolf announced pennsylvania will cover theia cost of postage for every mail and ballot this year usps handlernd states that postmarks are not required with a pre canceled stamp for postage the prepaid postage with the ballots will they be postmarked . We will work to try to set up a process to postmark as much as we can. Currently. Prepaid postage does not get postmarked. If nothing were to change so if nothing were to change you cannot postmark. If we dont make a special effort to postmark prepay the mail we would not be postmarketing there are other ways to i did on identify election mail but they are not seamless suffers. You have to make some adjustments. I hope the chairwoman would have thought of that and that would been the value of this hearing prescient used to bill to say you cant make any changes. Because youre trying to do things to make sure the items that you handle are done in time. I do appreciate that. Postmaster general can you agreed to deliver when requested and when we turned . We will give every effort of the 650,000 people to fulfill that obligation. You want change anything youve done previously . You can answer the question. I think i did. Two documents from the record and one from citizens for responsibility and ethics. You have answered some questions about your contributions to the president he also contributed 586,000 to attend a dinner in february of this year . I dont thinks so. Records show that you did. Also nominated to be the ambassador to canada your wife. Shebe is. Mr. Duncan, wherever you are . You also have been asked President Trumps campaign as the american crossroads super pac. I am director of american crossroads super pack. You contributed one. 9 million to the Trump Campaign. That is not correct. Not you personally but the super pac. I dont know the answer. You are both vested to make sure that president is reelecte reelected. Im not here to talk about the president s election but the Postal Service issues. Mr. Duncan how much did they pay to look for a replacement . I will be happy to try to provide that for you. In your testimony you said 2012 and then got down to first round interviews that he was not one of them so we paid this company to do a National Search and he was not in the group but mr. Berger said we have another candidate. We were still taking recommendations. Answer the question did you recommend him as a y candidate . I gave him as a candidate as they did with others. That he was not part of what was provided to you as the search firm. Lets move on. The president has been very critical of the contract with the Postal Service have you reviewed that . But not the contract specifically. But you had that in fact we viewed it. The question was about rates and contracts and im studying the rate building process. So you did look at amazons rate . Yes. Along with hundreds of other others. In your statement of Financial Disclosure you sold your amazon stock and then you purchased options on june 24t june 24th. That would suggest to almost aanyone there is a conflict of interest m it doesnt require you make a decision but that you participate did you check with the Government Office of ethics and that was appropriate . In the Postal Service you file your forms i was going to a meeting at amazon i own stock someplace at Morgan Stanley and they told me i had to recuse myself from reviewing a number of contracts or sell the stock i called my broker to sell the stock but i did not buy options i bought covered calls at a loss thats what i did. I had to unwind those covered calls. You have thoseal calls. I had to pay more money than they sold them for you should have an understanding of what a covered call is before you accuse me of impropriety. Let me ask one last question have you removed any machines that automate the postmarketing process. I have not removed any machines. I will repeat again, for the 100th time, i have not removed any machines. Any machines. I have not removed any machines. Congresswoman miller you are now recognized. Thank you madam chair can you hear me . And a special thank you to our esteemed guest for taking the time to participate in this socalled hearing. Postmaster and chairman, my constituents in rural West Virginia rely on the Postals Service to receive essential prescriptions and mail and packages. Thank you for your continued work during the pandemic to ensure these Critical Services continue. In a year riddled with conspiracy theories such as claims of russian collusion we waste another opportunity to attack our duly elected president s that they are destroying the United StatesPostal Service. Everyone knows the Postal Service needs a overhaul without any necessary reforms is not the the answer. Democrats today are doing a great disservice to undermine american confidence in the electoral process. The postmaster general has said repeatedly usps will have no difficulty to deliverlt ballots that my friends across the aisle place the blame on the coat one the Postal Service to properly hold their own elections. The usps can handle the absentee and mailin ballots from the 2020 election and have enough money to remain solvent well into next year giving the postmaster general and Congress Time to work on a solution to put usps back on a sustainable path. While we all recognize the Postal Service is the essential duty of the federal governmen government, there seems to be only one party that is serious making sure it works effectively for the American People. On average, postmaster, how many pieces of mail does the uspste deliver per day . 451 million pieces. If every single eligible votingag age americans voted by mail in a single day, day, 153 million to the United StatesPostal Service ensure this was delivered. I think we have adequate capacity to handle the mail. You could do this without Significant Impact to your normal daytoday operations . You are asking me on one day . I have not done that analysis but the way the ballots flow throughoutut the week, we could handle that easily. Thank you. Have are you cannot control it deadlines the state set to request and return the ballot or how long it takes for the election boards to count them isnt that correct . Yesal maam. We saw huge delays in new york as im sure the chair is well aware. While you are here today mr. Postmaster general is to ensure that every american has the right to vote fully protected what is abundantly clear the Trump Administration but rather you are helping to ensure to fight incompetence and partisanship with many stay Election Officials across the country. With a scathing analysis of npr found 550,000 mailin ballots were in the president ial primary elections and of those came from new york and new jersey and californiaif with her is not a single republican in office. We must ensure all republicans can and should be able to vote safely and in person in the local polling locations and in past elections i hope the colleagues in the counterparts at the state level he the recommendation on how to execute this undertakingngm free from politics and partisanship and i yield back. You are now recognized. I have been on this committee over seven years and the hypocrisy how witnesses are treated and around the post office is astounding. Small businesses are a vital part of the economy were 75 percent of all employers and economic activity. Small businesses, many without savings or access to credit have relied on the Postal Service to stay afloat during the pandemic. It plays an Important Role to enable growth and commercial success. Last friday you testified that you feel bad about the dip in psour service. There are a few businesses that feel pretty bad. One louisiana Business Owner had lost 10000 due to a shipping delay. Us there was nots operational changes. There was maybe one request we adhere to the scheduled and i didnt perform any operational analysis myself, but weut had a team looking at how we would plan to rollout the chain and that was across the whole country and existing, not a new team. I dont know how much analysis we would need to comply with our schedules that are already established. It seems decisions were made without taking into account the impact. My district hasnt received mail from a week to ten days. The owner is concerned that it might be delivered late which could have a terrible impact on their business. Another person said she received her mail every other day and it still hasnt received the check she is relying on. When i went to the post office to mail out a package, the postal workers said we know who you are and we want to apologize. We are just doing what they are told. I didnt get those phone calls when president obama was the president. Will you commit to reverse any policy or practice that has the effect of slowing down mail and Package Delivery . I represent the chicago area and im hearing from postal people themselves and they want you to address the lack of staffing and delete start time which they feel has greatly impacted the delivery of the mail. We are very concerned about every delay package or piece of mail and we are also very interested in fostering the support of the small business. What i can tell you is we are working very hard to get the standards back to where they were before. There are a variety of issues contributing to this, not just the requirement of trucks to leave on time but they are working across the country to b improve service. My district is urban, suburban and rural. My colleagues havee asked for something in writing and i would support that, we need something in writing, not just promises. An estimated 14. 5 billion rural americans lack access to reliable internet rely on the Postal Service to meet their basic needs includingl receiving a lifesaving medications, collecting paychecks and paying their bills. Its important that rural americans have accessng to reliable affordable Delivery Services or they are inefficient to Service Since we talk about trying to the efficient theyve been forgotten about. They are not forgotten about. We are working to deliver to every american on a timely basis. The chase for Operational Efficiency has been at the expense of hardworking americans, and i hope youll take these concerns into account as you assess some off your decisions the past 78 days and beyond. I very much do. The changes im making art for the betterment of the Postal Service and the American People the longterm. We lose 10 billion a year and there is no end in sight. We have 145 billion in liabilities and ten, 14 billion in cash. So, we can sit here and blame me for this but the conditions have been around long before my time and they need to be addressed. Congressman green, you are nowe,w recognized. Thank you chairwoman and Ranking Member. Today democrats are pushing the Conspiracy Theory. But President Trump has put the Postal Service in great jeopardy. This is just more hysteria in a long line democrats including the russia probe, the mueller investigation. Remember adam schiff, he saw with his own eyes, russian collusion. I guess he mustve kept that from robert mueller. Who can forget the impeachment of sham. Of course its all so tax this. Nothing to offer the American Peoplens that attacks on the man they despise, the old debate could donald trump. The Postal Service i know theyve endorsed joe biden but they should look at this. The democrats are throwing the postal carriers under the bus just to getshe a trump. Its despicable. If postmaster general donations are a conflict to him doing a good job, one of the postal Union Millions in donations over the years to democrats disqualify them from delivering the mail . Message to all postal workers, the democrats are insulting your integrity. Recognizing the house Oversight Committee fuels the speaker pelosis conspiracy theories and now is outrageous abuse of power. Dont be fooled by the rhetoric to read the reality is the usps has the money they need in the near term certainly and they have the most tax on hand in years and 10 billion act that doesnt even tapped into yet but we have to come back this weekend to vote on more money for the usps. The Postal Service will prioritize ballots over other mailing process regardless of the postage used in the postmaster general dejoy has assured the American People and i quote the United StatesPostal Service is fully capable and committed to delivering the nations election mail securely and on time. The democratic attacks on the Postal Service are baseless. Theyve been losing some money, 8. 8 billion last year. A big reason for these budget deficits is the evolution of technology, internet, firstclass mail is down. The issue to significantly predate the Trump Administration but due to the pandemic unlike businesses booming car package volume through the roof, package revenue this year increased 2. 9 billion compared to 2019. In other words the Postal Service had made more revenue in the pandemic than it did in the last period last year. Uspsps is no immediate physical danger. June 30 the board said they have come and i quote, significant liquidity to continue operating for at least august, 2021, and of quote. Postmaster dejoy said i dont need anything to deliver that we do need legislative reform and freedom from a change in the postal regulation and read data need to be reimbursed for the cost. The fact is theed Postal Service wellprepared for the election, yes. Postmaster general dejoy has had a long career in logistics, unanimously selected by the boarboard of governors, which ho democrats by the way. Hes implemented commonsense costcutting measures to address the problem. Saturday the past. It tries ttries to hold the refd operational changes. In the short term the Postal Service will be find reforms must eventually be instituted to ensure solvency. As far as these protesters outsidee the home of the postmaster general, these protests who are banging pots and pans and bullying the postmasterer is terrible. Its unconscionable and completely in line with the book burning, criminals who are destroying lives, destroying property and democraticcontrolled cities that they are now. Its not call the congress back to fix the lost unemployment in the pandemic but lets call the congress back to the ticket the post office more money they do not need before they even hold the investigative Committee Hearings or to support a Conspiracy Theory that a bipartisan reselected postmaster general is trying to steal in election. St this is theatrical, its a joke. What a way to and. Another Conspiracy Theory and an attack on the president. Typical. Our postal workers are capable and ready for the 2020 election. With that i will yield back. Congresswoman you are recognized. Co thank you, madam chair. Postmaster general, shortly after you took the office i reached out to schedule an introductory call with no agenda and in particular to share my experience as a postal employee to kind of welcome you to the seat. My request was turned down. I was told you needed your time to get acquainted with the agency and that you didnt have time to have that meeting. Ive seen since youve been in office the time to get antiquated to make these really, really impactful decisions on delivery and processing of the mail you were comfortable with doing so. I want to ask you, mr. Dejoy, are you familiar with chapter one of 39 u. S. States code . No, im not. Okay. The United StatesPostal Service shall be operated as a basic and fundamental Service Provided by they people, to the people by te government of the United States, authorized by the constitution, created by act of congress and supported by the people. Mr. Dejoy,mr did you take an oah of office when he became the postmaster general . I did. I remember when i took my oath of office when i was sworn in to be an employee of the Postal Service, and to just tell you my journey because im sure you are familiar with some of the names. I started as a distribution clerk, then i moved to begin a letter carrier than in acting supervisor, then a supervisor delivering collection. I served in hr, i served in safety and health, i served as an investigator. I had the entire state of michigan and the district role of the Womens Program and for the career counseling and development. And i ended my career after several task forces were put on to monitor and track the mail before we make decisions like taking out equipment. I was a supervisor of delivery. I know what it took to remove a post office box, its called a collection box. Its not a blue box, its a collection box. So, i wanted to talk to you about have you ever served as a letter carrier . First off, i congratulate you on your career path. And no, ive never served as a letter carrier. So, i did serve. So the Postal Service is introducing a new initiative called expedited [inaudible] and it reduces the Morning Office time to allow carriers to leave for the streets earlier sd then upon returning from the streets, the carriers are then erto sort through, sort any undelivered mail for the next day. Are you aware of that initiative that youve ruled out, the impact they have on delivery . That was a program that was on the shelf. The intenthe of the program is o adjust, theres been a significant decline in male as you know, and to adjust. That was worked out with Union Leadership to run a pilot. I stopped the pilot when i stopped Everything Else. So, they intend is to get the carriers out earlier so they can come back earlier. Mr. Dejoy, i really stress that you do some deliberate work excuse me. Do some deliberate work to understand the impact that it has because if a carrier doesnt come back, this is a challenge that we have all the time. If he has only one piece of advertisements, hese must stop t every home so regardless of the volume, if you are making the same amounte of stops, you are not going to shorten the time. When you do that, the carrier is going to be out basically the same amounte of time so when thy come back you are delaying the mail. I have complained to my office from people getting delivery one now, sir. That isnt according to your oath or two of the chapter 139 says your role is. I want to in my short period of time id like to end this with some of my colleagues have said this is a theater, why are you here, you are here because the citizens of the United States rely on the Postal Service to deliver. Our seniors,te our veterans. One thing is clear. Youve been a major supporter of ther president. I do not resent you for that. But when you are getting messages daily that the Postal Service says we dont make a deal, they dont get the money, it means you wont have universal y male. I want you to know you have an oath of office i will live up to that end if i could expand with regards to the expedited process, that wouldnt result in one day a week mail of cross in the area. We do have some employee availability issues in some of the hotspots across the nation where we have to put no we could have 700 ballots in only 500 carriers. Why would you implement a . I havent implemented anything to affect not. That you are adding fuel to the fire. Im trying to im committed to six day delivery. I am committed to growing the Postal Service. I have ideas for the n new Business Opportunities for the Postal Service, and im trying to in the code says we must be selfsustaining, and we are not and that is what i am trying to do. In the interest of time, the gentleman has been testifying for quite a long time. We are going to have a recess for five and a. [inaudible conversations] the committee will now reconvene. Congresswoman, you are now recognized. Thank you very much madam chairwoman and thanks to the fitness for being here. Mr. Dejoy, first, before i have the discussion with you, my line of questioning, hearing my colleague talking about abuse of power was just such an outrageous statement did wha ise said was an abuse of power. We are here to ensure there is no abuse of power in any branch of government. When he talks about the collusion, we see that when the Senate Republicans finally get off of their butts and do their job, eventually there is corroboration to some of the work that happens here in the house. At least the house is going to ue its job. And theres issues that need to be addressed here and that is what we are going to do. So, this mr. Dejoy, your general counsel said we are currently unable to balance the cost to fulfill the universal Service Mission and other obligations. That letter went on to outlineea number of other changes that are being attempted to implement in the name of costcutting. You have spoken today about they measures that need to take place and in one instance you are saying how you want to get those done and then you also say you are not responsible for the changes that have been made. In your august 13 to, you took credit for the changes that have been made. Here is what you said. You took credit and set also unfortunately this Transformative Initiative has had unintended consequences that impact our overallni servicel servicelevel. As a Transformative Initiative its fair to say they were intended to have a meaningful impact and they are happening across several states and across the country. I dont know what you are reading from. The transformative changes that you all have intended. There were not costcutting measures. The changes was the organization and complying with the schedule. And those have happened across several states . Every state a truck moves and, yes. I have a slide i would like to show about firstclass mail. If you can see from the slide this is the u. S. Postal Service Slide that discusses the presort firstclass mail. It appears theres been a decline since july. This reflects nationwide numbers, would you agree, mr. Dejoy . Yes it does. An 8 drop is ap meaningful impact in the headline from across the country. It shows how widespread these delays are. Are. Would you agree that there are delays presently . Yes. Thank you. I know in my district that relies heavily on the mail because we cannot drive to different big boxes or other locations being an island, prescriptions usually take three to five days and its taken two weeks. Shannon runs a small retail store on st. Johns, usually ten days maximum priority which is kind ofer long for priority that we arbut weare an island and its we. Ivan jacobs, Priority Mail typically four days, now it is taking 12 days. It College Program item have disappeared. It goes on and on and on. Now come in 39 usc section 3661 p. Provides in the Postal Service determines that there should be a change in the nature of the Postal Services which generally affect service on a nationwide were substantially ptionwide basis, it shall set it a proposal within a reasonable time prior to the Effective Date of such proposal so the postal rate of three commission requesting an advisory opinion on the change. Now you have agreed with me in the previous questions that this has been a change that has substantial nationwide basis. It generally affect the Postal Services and its a change in the nature of the service it generally affects a nationwide substantial basis. Have you submitted the request for an Advisory Commission . The request for an advisory opinion on asking the organization to adhere to the transportation schedule doesnt require i didnt as i didnt ask about the transportation schedule, i asked to if i may finish my statement, i will let you finish yours. When a Postal Service determines there should be a change in the nature of Postal Service is, which generally affect service on a nationwide basis, the changes that have occurred have had a meaningful impact on service. Under buchanan versus u. S. Postal service, the factors for the requirements are a meaningful impact on service, a change that must be in the nature of Postal Service is any change which would, quote, effectph a broad geographic are. If thats not the case . The time is expired into the gentleman may answer. Thank you. The changee that was made was nt expected to have the impact for the duration of the period that it had also did not contribute in ten and 12 and two week delay is. Mail that was processed that didnt make it on the truck would have gone on the next. If you look at the chart you would see as soon as we went into day plus one, we were back up into the 90 percentile. There were other factors that are contributing to be delays throughout the country for these longer delays. The the gentle east chinas expired. We are working very hard across the whole country to get all the mail on the trucks and we are seeing rapid recovery. Once this is put back in balance we will have a better system and omch more costeffective system. The congresswomans time has expired. Congressman gomez you are recognized. Thank you madam chair. I want to focus on the change you takeha credit for just makig sure the trucks have gone out on time so i will read a series of thetions most of them at beginning are yes or no. You instituted a change to reduce extra mail delivery chips by requiring them to run on time and on schedule. Yes sir. In referring to the delivery schedule youve told the senate production processing within the plant wasnt fully aligned with established schedule that we had some delays in mail correct . Yes sir. Mr. Dejoy, when precisely did you implementse the change of requiring the trucks to leave on time . The date . The second week of july. Thank you sir. So you told the senate that of the analysis showed theoretically it would mean the deliveries would have been improved. Then you told senator rosen that it didnt happen for a variety of reasons. Then you continued, quote, the analysis showed we would improve service to every constituent. Can you briefly describe the variety of reasons that didntt happen . Basically the fact that you said that this would actually improve the delivery of mail on time, you said about what happened, then later on music for a variety of reason that the offense and. What are those variety of reason . This will improve service and reduce cost substantially, and it will also be the fundamental baseline of operations mr. Dejoy, reclaiming my time, im asking specifically as you said in the beginning of your testimony from a variety of reasons of the variety of reasons has to do with why it was down across the nation. With regards to this specific change, the production schedules within the plants were not aligned with the transportation schedules going out between the plants. That was about 10 of the mail was not aligned. Production plants were gettingot done late and the trucks were leaving. This wasnt a mandate that every truck leaves on time. We have a significant amount of extra trips. Judgments were made at each individual plant and that didnt provide for the transitional issues in doing it. We will get this back. We are working hard and it will be a successful endeavor for the United StatesPostal Service. That is what we are hoping. You are making the commitment to the senate on friday so im going to ask again to you committed to provide the analysis regarding the schedule that the show there would be little or deliveries would be provided by friday . I will go back and see what i can do. I have it right here. I will go back and look and send it to you. I highly doubt that youre going to do that. Not very are forthcoming. You also told the senate the Recovery Process this should have been a few days and amount to be a few weeks. Why have days turned into weeks . Im trying to figure that out. What i find interesting is you aryoure supposed to be a logistics expert. Thats what youve been brought in and what people have said and all of a sudden you said okay we are going to get them to leave on time but you didnt focus on getting the mail to the people wo time and said that that would actually improve. But the opposite happened. Then you would say that it would take a matter of days to fix, but that didnt happen. I know people that work and operations. N my wife works in operations, very good at it, and they are looking at data all the time to see what operational changes can be done and a to change the flow of whatever you are trying to accomplish. So, thats what people are questioning your ability. I actually talked to a lot of postal workers in los angeles. Ive represent los angeles. I was out there and they said that the delay in the packages, these changes is causing mail to back up. He you have baby chickens being left in boxes that are going silent and starting to rot. Food starting to rot, fly is starting to take over the facility. They take an oath to get the mail out on time. They are asking are you living up to that oath. I was actually avoiding following other colleagues who call on you to design, but i do think now it is time for you to resign, not necessarily because of a grand political conspiracy, but just the incompetence we have seen when it comes to the Postal Service. Its time either to step down and have someone that can run it with the board of governors should fire you. I yield back. And that was up until about 2014 when you merged with another company x po logistics you also served as ceo and then board of directors in 2018 you submitted your resignation. Correct . Ub yes. I would like to submit three documents for the record that entrenched report with Financial Disclosures publicly available data with the suppliers the last three years and are recent x po sec filing. Mr. Dejoy you received one. 86 million in rental payments from your former company. Correct . Approximately. Have you taken any meetings with x po logistics since becoming postmaster general . I have not. Have g you communicated with your former company . I have many friends and i casuallyen to them over the several months, yes it would have spoken to them. In your role as postmaster general june 13. Thats a very big job with a lot of responsibility you mentioned meeting with President Trump and secretary mnuchin. Do you keep a daily calendar . I do. Have you made any deletions to your calendar since becoming postmaster general . I dont think so. Do ethics officers have ouaccess to your calendar to screen conflicts of interest . We have an ethics officers that looks at meeting. And for access to your calendar . Yes. We get a commitment from you to submit your calendar dating back from june 16 to this committee . I dont know. I will check with counsel. That is a president one precedent smack occurring to regulations electronic calendars that are submitted and maintained a on computers are Agency Records so can we get that commitment. I am new to this. If that is the process and council says it must comply then i will. Madam chairwoman, the details of this calendar are extraordinarily important to the committees investigations if we do not receive them voluntarily i would recommend consideration of a subpoena. Lastly and selfishly i represent new yorks 14th Congressional District prick we have written several times regarding accessibility for a lamp at our post office i would greatly appreciate return correspondence to make sure we can ensure the disabled and elderly constituents can get access withly a ramp. The gentle lady yields. [inaudible conversations] you are now recognized. Some may continue to gaslight and mislead constituents i am here to get to the truth. To direct the systemic slowdown during a pandemic within months of a National Election is incomprehensible. At besthe these actions represent irresponsible leadership who has no business leading an agency and anti democratic and that is no way to repay those employees who risk their lives every day. The Postal Service is one of the largest employers of t veteranshe one of the most diverse workforces in our country. They are people of color and for generations working with usps one of the only living wage jobs accessible to black and brownn americans. They have a story how it made it possible to buy their first home are send their child to college it is welldocumented the same families seven disproportionately impacted by the covid19 pandemic and will bear the brunt of any effort to dismantle. Are you under a hiring freeze . Yes. For the record does it apply to any other category of workers . No maam. You are also seeking to push early retirement . Yes. Mr. Dejoy 40000 had to quarantine. 6000 tested positive and over 60 died. Do you know if these numbers are the most accurate . 83 have diede a. Does this mean you are collecting in Real Time Data on covid19 impact on your workforce . We have a task force that has complete visibility from ppe to cases in the geographical area. So you do have a mechanism to collect data with the impact on your workforce . Yesve maam. So those 220 postal workers have contracted covid19 a letter carrier was hospitalized and told by his doctors his respiratory system will never be the same. Will you commit to providing the data your formulae collecting on cove in 18 related deaths and positive test in quarantine of postal workers by friday . This is literally a matter of life and death. Can you commit to that on covid19 related deaths and positive deaths in quarantine by b friday . I will look into our ability to provide that to congress if it is available we will dot it. It would be keeping in with the oath you have took and offered. I want to receive them by friday before us and he said the delays in delivery s are attributable to employee availability in many parts of the country. So pursuing a hiring freeze and early retirement when you are already stressed by coronavirus exacerbates delay in the mail . Pursue wearing a hiring freeze has nothing to do. No. No. Mr. Duncan are you awar aware, where is mr. Duncan . Were you aware that newbury logistics was determined by the nlrb was antiunion animus . [inaudible] there was a one. 5 million lawsuit against new breed for Sexual Harassment and retaliation . No. We aware for women suffered miscarriages because the Company Refused to at company request for lightduty. No. Did you make any attempt to investigate these practices before making him the head of the most diverse federal workforce said why not . Yes. We had various background checks and we asked the dc from to do an additional background check. I question the integrity of the background check if you dont have answers. The hardworking people of the United States. Your time is expired. The only thing you should be delivering to thehe nation. Congressman armstrong you are recognized for five minutes. Im the last one that gets to go so i will ask the most important question of the day. The 25 million in the house of representatives if you dont get that money will you be fully operational on novembe . Yes. I sat right there in that chair in 2019 the last time we had a hearing and we listened for a day hearing about the systemicms problems in the years long of losing money in the disadvantages and the eyewitness in your seat at that Time Initiative something that iss unique andrew equal opportunity criticism from both sides. You are not the postmaster general april 2019. I was on a telephone briefing and inab 2020 we heard about the impacts of covid and them contracting the disease one democrat said we need 25 billion or it wouldnt exist. Want to say im sorry for the 83 people that have fallen in your t organization. I dont agree with that then or now that you are not the postmasterre general in april 2019. No sir. Unanimous consent to submit the memorandumntnt. Without objection. This is about the driving fear in placing a blame and raising money. I have members of Congress Members of the senate and that was about saving the post office. And that same thing of apri april 2020 and we waited until august. Have they not . I am not aware. Im asking unanimous consent on a ceased one ceaseanddesist. I love your organization. Letter carriers. I love the rural carriers. The only republicaner that cosponsor the pre funding bill on the pension. The best thing you heard you sale day you are committed to sixday mail. Maybe we are not just akoportionately impacted because we have been going through this for a long time. Thats the best thing i have heard all day long. Talking about votes in the system north dakota 23 percent is typically absentee but ohio and that is absentee. I dont think its beyond the realm of possibility they get to 60 percent this election cycle. It would be a great deal higher. But you cannot deliver a ballot unless requested. If they dont requesteds that they cant send it. Thats true but in places come i dont know the particular state rule. Thats what im gettingul to. Throughout the course of this that works but wisconsin doesnt require you to request a valid until october 29 but they had to be back on november 3rd the difference between 28 percent and 60 percent is 2 million ballots. And they dont require you to request one until october 31st in do back on the second north dakota doesnt require you to postmark the ballot until november 2nd and the difference between 23 percent and 60 percent is 126,123 ballots. How do we deal and the capacity that is in the issue. As with the dates that you identify as it gets closer we have situations when the ballots come in on the same imday the turnaround is so slow we have to look among the other 400 million pieces of mail to find the ballots to make sure they are delivered and postmarked and then we get it tond the state election boards thats whether it is counted or not. I have one last question you have seen an increase the packages volume since the pandemic began we seen a decrease the first class mail we went from 30000 down and zero. Is it because you are making more of profit you are prioritizing versuss firstclass mail . There is a lot of judgment used in each location. But the general intent is what comes in comes out. The first class package would move ahead there is no specific direction and i appreciate your support on the sixday weeki delivery. There are many ideas we are working internally to help connect with the American People and the new economy to grow revenue and sustainability. Your time is expired. Thank you madam chair. Welcome to the peoples house. We do have a tremendous d amount of time so i would appreciate straightforward question answers it is incredibly important all citizens especially Public Servants are fully aware of and understand the law. Do you agree . Yes. As an educational exercise, like to paraphrase the clause that says ever knowingly and obstructs the passage of mail should be ots fd or imprisoned not more than six months or both recommend you familiarize yourself with this passage in particular so lets look at how you come to work for the impeached president before this role you never worked in the federal government, correct. C correct. Clearly are not hired for your experience or the deep understanding of the federal government. So lets look at your resume. Before becoming the postmaster general, you were a Deputy NationalFundraising Committee for the gopt gop and you bought covered calls in the Amazon Corporation the matter what you did to hide it you have Financial Insurance and amazon. Are you aware a amazon uses the u. S. Postal service for 40 percent of that shipping. I disagree with the premise. 40 percent of shipping. I know there is a lot of shipping with us. Your covered calls expires this year she had to make a decision with this interest that could have Sensitive Information that could influence that decision it appears to be a classic example of a conflict of interest. Will you commit right now to divest any and all financial interest to avoid ill legal Insider Trading . Without a lot of time on an issue that doesnt matter i dont own amazon. Call it whatever you want want. You can continue but i dont own amazon. Your financial interest will be problematic and a conflict of interestprpr you have a simple choice to resign or divest. It is very clear you have vested interest to see the president remain in office in your financial interest is a conflict of interest greatly concerning even if you are not dismantling the Postal Service the number of people have completely with what youre saying to us. Over the past few weeks and with those changes that you made but again due to your action i would like to remind you serving your own selfinterestes your job as postmaster general is not to serve your own profit scheme on the taxpayer dime. You are to serve the United StatesPostal Service. This impeach president you have to realize has a track record those that have ended up in a lot of trouble for their activities. Michael cohen, roger stone, steve bannon. With all due respect you are not in good company right now so do the right thing and resign. I think the madam chair for bringing this to our attention. All we want is for our folks to have access and then to understand thetm importance that workers need protection at the workplace and we will get mail delivered onhe time. Because will be here on the streets is the opposite of what youre saying toou us. You have done so much damage in your short period of time and there is a conflict of interest there are legal consequencesat to that. You are now recognize porter. Woman what is the cost. 55 cents. I just wanted to check what about a postcard . I know. You dont know the cost to mail a postcard . D i dont. 55 cents for a stamp but what about greeting card with the square envelope . I will submit i know very little about a postage stamp so what is the weight limit for Priority Mail . 70 pounds. What is the starting rate for Priority Mail . For what. 14 ounces. Know the rate. The price. I dont know. Within 1 million can you tell how many people voted by mail in the last president ial election . No i cannot. To the nearest 10 million . I would be guessing and i went to guess. I am concerned im glad you know the price of a stamp but i am concerned about your agency. Nding of this i am particularly concerned because you started to take very Decisive Action as postmaster general to direct the unplugging of machines and changing procedures and locking collection boxes. As a professor i always tell my students one of the most important rules is to read the instructions. Did you actually read and naindependently analyze the Major Overhaul plan before you ordered them to take effect . Again, i will repeat come i did not order Major Overhaul plans. The items you identified were not directed byec me. You do not need much analysis to run the trucks on schedule. Please tell me who did order these changes at the postmaster general did not . The Postal Service has been around 250 years. There are plans and many executives almost 30000 in the organization and plans existed prior to my arrival that were implemented. Speak mr. Dejoy if you do not order these actions to be taken please tell the committee the name of who did. I do notot know. Mr. Dejoy, did you analyze these plans before they went into effect . As i stateds numerous times the plans were in effect and implemented before ii arrived. But mr. Dejoy do you take responsibility for these changes . I take responsibility from the day i sat in the seat for ever on ay i for any service that has occurred. You are asking about operational changes that go on throughout the whole organization and around the country. Mr. Dejoy will you commit to reversing these changes . No. Mr. Dejoy will you commi commit, will you commit that if the Inspector General finds you committed misconduct with your financial interest in any other companies such as amazon or xp a logistics, will you commitmi to resigning . I do not believe they will find misconduct. But i dont see why i would commit here to resign for any reason. You dont think theres any reason you should ever resign. Nothing effort hereso today. Mr. Dejoy do you today, do you own any financial interest whether options or stocks or own today any financial interest in amazon . I i do not. Em the gentle ladies time is expired. The chair recognizes the vice chair for the purpose of a unanimous consent request. I am asking unanimous consent to enter into the record a transcript of mr. Mr. Dejoy testimony in the senate augus august 21st he specifically said i will go back and get the tracks and that schedule that i directed. Without objections. The chair recognizes the congressman you are now recognized. Thank you sir for being so patient. I am not accustomed to be at the end of the questioning but it does afford us an opportunity for the larger picture. One side says blame one side says accountability. Doing what you did in the private sector you recognize accountability but i appreciate the fact it would be hard for you are accepting it now you accepted responsibility for the delays but we are still not clear what exactly or what changes took place in under ms. Lawrence questioning to stop the Pilot Program when you stop Everything Else. What were you stopping besides the Pilot Program . A removal of collection boxes around the country. And the process of reducing hours at postal retail centers. I stopped the removal of the sorting machines. Your argument for doing that that it wasnt working . No. And that what the speaker and the senator and we collectively thought about the heightened discussion. But why that and not the overtime issue . Why did you pick those and not the others that seem to have a pretty dramatic impact given the fact things did not go well. Would you want to look back and say maybe that is impacting us negatively . Is there another reason i have spent 700 million. You recognize there are Many Post Office locations cutting back on overtime. They are following somebodys order but you wont mention is. That so back to accountability you have to admit you own it . How do you know they areck cutting back on overtime . Let me put this another way. Are you certain they are not cuttingac back on overtime . The direction was given to stop cutting back on overtime and postal retail centers. I havent done and audit yet but i hope they are compliant. What about that order. Know what youre asking. When you stopped Everything Else did you include the overtime issue as well . There was no directive any time in the organization. Are you sure nobody is cutting back . No im not certain thats part of the problem at the Postal Service. Im trying to get my hands around. Thats why i did the reorganization. There is a lot of judgment in local areas. You are being selective what you are taking credit for. Some can say you are trying to avoid going before the regulatory body. But they are not changes when your own parties says when you started the changes you say yes but in your documents youn talk there were changes. You cant have it both ways there were changes but there is a line you dont want to have because then you have to go before the regulatory board and you dont want to dot that. It sounds like. It sounds weak. It soundsha like what happened. Have you communicated with anyoneny in the Administration Since you were considered for this spot about how to operate usps . No. Nobody has communicated with you working and those that work for the Trump Administration or the Trump Campaign of how to operate and then the only time i when we were negotiating ofth the terms of the 10 billion note and to think we have some to get some cost out and improve service. There was no direction. My time is expired. Before we adjourn, thank you for yourr time you have been here all day. Wait a minute. Is he here . He is virtual. Is one of our member of congress who has waved on from the great state of North Carolina, adams was here but is virtual. You are now recognize. Elma adams . I assume she is not here with us now . Is she around are not . S it doesnt appear she is here now. Before we adjourn i have a few items i would like to wrap up with the witnesses and also grant Ranking Member comber he why have all the time he want to consume he will get that im finished moving quickly , she is here . She is remote . Shes getting on. My apologies. Congresswoman adams you recognized. Please unmute yourself congresswoman. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] mr. Dejoy you want to hire the democrats computer guide to deliver the mail on time. I apologize for the delay we were trying to accommodate from your home state of North Carolina. So on friday senator peters asked you if you discussed the changes to postal operations atha p President Trump. Mark meadows, anyone else at the white house or anyone in the campaign and you said no. I believe mark met him on mark meadows has been on capitol hill and for the record do you stand by your statement you had no conversations with mark meadows about any change of postal operations . I am trying to remember the answer that i gave. Mark meadows accompanied Stephen Mnuchin and myself and senator schumer and speaker pelosi. We were in the room and started to talk about machines from that conversation there, mark meadows so that when we make the decision here i cannot remember when i spoke about that but we reach out to your office. So that particular process we spoke of the stop being we are doing. With my changes to heard on i didnt speak to anybody about that. Have you spoke anytime about changes to operations . Now. If you did not consult. You are now recognize. I apologize. Can you hear me . W yes. Thank you very much i apologize thank you for convening the hearing and thank you for being herebe today i want you to know that my office has received almost and emails to save the Postal Service and as a matter of fact the people love the Postal Services more than any that i know and i live in a country club representing the 12 district in charlotte that they cant afford their medication they cannot afford the ballots to come late or their voices to be silent. They need the u. S. Postal service and you have been charged with running the Postal Service and not a business. But i have a photo of my post office in charlotte. You getting your mail on time . I do not know. I heard you say in the opening you did not connected the removal of collection boxes and machines and you didnt know who was. But since you are in charge i think it would be helpful with all the questions asked for us to know that but since i mentioning the blue boxbu thing in my district they have been covered with trash bags. I understand that and i dont know if you know anything about this but do you . I do not know. Its in the post office that i go to i was told usps Senior Management you dont have an email going in novembe . I didnt hear the question. In other words you dont have an influx of election mail goingoi into november. Is that correct . I dont know how anybody would say that we will have election mail and we can handle it. If the machines are missing and then we moved we have a demand in North Carolina of almost 400,000 people requesting mailin ballots and in my district 53000. Do you know about those Voting Machines that are missing . I do not know specifically about machines missing in your district. You also said you didnt have anything to do with that and accepted what was here. Do you thank you can be helpful . I know you said thats not something you wanted to do but considering all testimony today and all the stress citizens are going through not getting mail and medication and things getting spoiled like insulin, do you have a Second Thought about that . First, as i said we are very c concerned about each delivery. My goal right now is to have these trucks filled with mail we have a great deal of improvement with regard to transportation we will be in much better shape over the next week. I will stop you right there i dont want to know about that part i want to know if you had any thoughts that on auh you announced the Leadership Task force on the 21st they announced the Bipartisan Committee is this initiative from what you announced on the . No. To be clear we had a task force at the Postal Service beforerc i arrived. After review i expanded the task force to include Union Leadership and then the board decided to show the connectivity of the board to the Management Team through those 650,000 workers to represent we are all together to guarantee to have a safe and secure election. Your time is expired. I will allow you to elaborate but your time iss expired. I just want to know if he would allow you in the Ranking Member to appoint a staffer to participate as an observer on this committee. He will have to reply and writing time is expired. But i do think that is a good request and im sure he will give good consideration. If you did not consult with these people about operational changes, we are interested in who you did consult with the for making these changes. The unions have raised concerns they were not adequately consulted for example. Will you provide this committee with the list of those you did eat at the Postal Service and any outside parties and the government orr . Private sector. Will you provide us with that complete list . I can tell you right now with all the Vice President s and coo of the existing Management Team and the vps around the area there is no complex problemsolving necessary to get your tracks to run on a schedule that is designed to take the mail from the Processing Plant to t the delivery unit so that was it i had the oig audit delivered to me that you have access to it will show you the damage done to the organization not running on time and i asked the Management Team to follow their Vice President s to put together a plan to run your tracks on time. They said we are ready to go and we went that is the extent of the analysis. So i will ask you again for those that you consulted with voluntarily but i would like it in i writing but if you refuse and we will be forced to consider obtaining by a subpoena. Mr. Duncan i would like to turn to you are used to with us. Yes. On friday senator rosen asked mr. Dejoy to provide the transcripts of any close nonpublic Board Meeting from this year. He said he did not have the authority to do that. But you are the chairman of the board will you commit to providing this t committee with the transcripts or minutes of any close nonpublic Board Meetings from this year in particular the emergency meeting you just held . I commit i will work with our counsel to provide everything legally possible to the full committee. Thats great. But if you have any other lingering concerns the council may not provide the information will a subpoena help . This is something we can work out. We have the minutes. Thank you for testifying to both of you. It has been a long day. Thank you very much i now recognize the distinguished Ranking Member for as much time as he may consume for final thoughts and words. I will be brief i will ask consent to submit this politico article t that just came out basically saying this Committee Hearing was a waste of time. Next postmaster general mr. Dejoy, thank you for being here today. Spending this time and also kifor taking the job. We have hearings i like this is harder and harder for good people to come from the private sector to put your name on the line to make government work more efficiently which is supposed to be the role of this committee i know what was more disturbing today to watch democrats you have never owned a business much less logistics try to tell you how to deliver anything quicker or let them struggle with what a covered call actually was. But nevertheless todays hearing did serve to confirm our suspicions of democrats motives for the whole hearing and the bill they passed on saturday. Our suspicion all along is that it was politically motivated as we have seen with the picture i have shown with representative defazio photo op to get more tweets and likes to fire up the base also an opportunity to raise money as we saw with representative armstrong and members of the Democratic Party our fundraising out of the post office. Our suspicion they had more than conspiracy theories and irresponsible charges and we have seen that in that the democrats have no interest to address the real issues affecting the Postal Service. They provided 25 billion because it is aor worthwhile institution. I agree and it is vital but it is unsustainable. Mr. Mr. Dejoy makes good faith attempts to improve the organization. I would love to say all the time we have spent the last several days has move the needle in a positive way but im not sure that i can. Hopefully the time republicans have spent talking about the real issues will lead to something positive and to shine the light on those democratic attacks to understand the real situation. If the majority is serious then we stand ready to work together. Congress needs to have a working relationship with the Postal Service. This week has been the opposite of the partnership and doing longterm damage with one of the most citizens serving federal entities. And the democrats conspiracy theories risking faith that they could dream of. There is no way they can produce results to help them be better to serve all americans. We can do better i hope to work with my colleagues to make sure its around for decades and centuries to come. I yield back. In closing thank you to our witnesses for their testimony and i want to commend all of my colleagues were participating in this important conversation. Pa icwith that and without objection letters from organization in support of the Bipartisan Legislation passed by the house on saturday shall be part of the hearing record along with articles and letters from across them country depicting the effects of the delays on veterans, elderly, chronically ill, farmers and Small Businesses and ordinary americans depending on the mail to be delivered without objection all members will have five legislative days to submit additional written questions which will be forwarded for their response and i ask our witnesses to respond as promptly as you are able. This hearing is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]