Transcripts For CSPAN2 Postmaster General Louis DeJoy Testif

[inaudible conversations] welcome, everybody, todays hybrid hearing. Pursuant house rules some members will appear in person and others will appear remotely via webex. Since some members are appearing in person let me first remind everyone that pursuant to the latest guidance from the house attending physician all individuals attending this hearing in person must wear a face mask. Members who are not wearing a face mask will not be recognized. Let me also make a few reminders for those members appearing in person. You will see members and witnesses appearing remotely on the monitor in front of you when youre speaking in what is known in webex as active speaker view. At time is visible in the room directly in front of you. For members appearing remotely i know you are all familiar with webex by now but let me remind everyone of a few points. First you will be able to see each person speaking during the hearing. Whether they are in person or remote, as long as you have your webex set to active speaker view. If you have any questions about this please Contact Committee staff immediately. Second, we have a timer that should be visible on your screen when youre in the active speaker with him know. Members who wish to pen the timer to the screen should Contact Committee staff for assistance. Third, thousand rules require that we see you, so please hae your cameras turned on at all times. Fourth, members appearing remotely who are not recognized should remain muted to minimize background noise and feedback. Fifth, i will recognize members verbally here but members retain the right to seek recognition verbally in regular order. Members will be recognized in seniority order for questions. Lastly, if you want to be recognized outside of regular order you may identify that in several ways. You may use the chat function to send a request. You may send an email to the majority staff, or you may unmute your mic to seek recognition. Obviously we do not what people talking over each other, so my preference is that members use the chat function or email to facilitate formal verbal recognition. Committee staff will ensure that i am made aware of your request, and i will recognize you. We will begin hearing in just a moment when they tell me they are ready to begin a live stream. Chair maloney . Yes. Point of order. You mentioned the mask. You dont have one on. Well, im talking. If you are talking you can have your mask off. I thought you said during questions you had to have it on. Well, too, the roof yelped at the mask on but as you talk him as you and i know, its very hard to talk with the mask on. So it can be removed when youre asking questions or [inaudible] mr. Raskin . [inaudible] the committee will come to order. Without objection if the chair is authorized to declare 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 gentleman from North Carolina mr. Walker was recognized at the proper time to introduce his constituent. I know 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. In all of our districts we are hearing from constituents about significant delays in the delivery of mail, medicines, food, and other supplies. These delays are especially concerning and potentially lifethreatening during the Coronavirus Crisis. These are not isolated complaints. They are widespread. 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 postal leaders about these delays they downplayed them. They dismissed them as temporary. They discounted them as a minor, unintended consequences of reforms being put in place. But then we saw National Headlines describing these delays in much more detail. I have a document here that 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 i do six days in new york city, Postal Workers Union says, end quote. In kentucky Ranking Member conyers home state, Postal Service costcutting is frustrating kentuckians and raising election concerns, end quote. In california found state of our vice chairman mr. Gomez, quote, rotting food, dead animals and chaos at postal facilities amid cutbacks, end quote. This list goes on and on. Last friday when mr. Dejoy was confronted in the senate with these widespread reports, he said he felt bad about what he called a dip in service. But then after his testimony in the senate, we obtained an internal Postal Service document entitled pmg breathing. This is a presentation prepared directly for the postmaster general. It is dated almost two weeks ago, august 12. According to this document, these delays are not just a dip. This document warns the postmaster general a significant and widespread drops across the board. In firstclass marketing periodicals and other categorie categories. This document shows that these delays are not a myth or a Conspiracy Theory, as some of my colleagues have argued. These deep declines did not start in april or may when the coronavirus hit us, but in july when mr. Dejoy came on board and begin making these changes. Our entire country is experiencing these delays as a result of his actions, such as his decision to restrict the number of trips from Processing Plants to delivery units. Perhaps mr. Dejoy thought his sweeping changes would not cause any delays. In my opinion, that would be incompetent at best. Or perhaps this was intentional. Maybe mr. Dejoy was warned that his changes would cause delays, vitae disregarded those warnings. That would be extremely reckless in the middle of a Global Pandemic with less than three months before an important election. Or perhaps there is a far simpler explanation. Perhaps mr. Dejoy is just doing exactly what President Trump said he wanted on National Television, using the blocking of funds to justify sweeping changes to hobble mail 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, when he rushes to make changes without conducting adequate analysis and when he withholds Key Information from congress and doesnt level with us when people begin to ask, why did the world is going on . Given all of this, its not surprising that the Postal Service Inspector General has already open and investigation into mr. Dejoys controversial changes. We will be asking mr. Dejoy some hard questions today. Well also be asking mr. Duncan as chairman of the board about his own role in choosing mr. Dejoy as postmaster general, about his own role in vetting mr. Dejoy for conflict of interest, including mr. Dejoys ownership of stock in 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. They dont want these changes. They want then reversed. 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 medicine, their ballots will be delivered on time. I look for doing from our witnesses, and i know recognize that distinguished Ranking Member comer for an Opening Statement. Well, thank you chairwoman maloney. I appreciate you calling this hearing today on the United States Postal Service, even though it would have been nice to do so before we actually vote on the bill saturday. We all agreed the Postal Service needs to be reformed to better serve the American People. We all want the Postal Service to be as efficient and effective as path to ensure americans receive the prescriptions on time, Small Businesses thrive in mail in ballots are delivered in a timely fashion. But meaningful reform is going to take bipartisanship. Something weve seen very little of in the last few days. Democrats fabricated of faceless baseless Conspiracy Theory about the Postal Service and hastily passed a a bill saturdy but before hearing from you, mr. The bill had no Prior Committee action to that the bill. No hearings, no markup. Because of this rush to process the bill was significantly amended by the democrats before it went to the rules committee. It then proceeded to the house e floor under processor prevented any amendments to the bill. There was no republican input, not at 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 and makes it harder and more expensive to deliver the mail. At least this legislation is consistent with the obama biden years at the Postal Service. More delays, or financial losses. This chain of events should democrats are not serious about meaningful reform. 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 stunt. During saturdays debate chairwoman maloney unveiled a 60 page powerpoint text she just received overnight from an apparent whistleblower. Madam chair, i dont need to remind you that your and adam schiff record with whistleblowers is less than stellar. The ashman played no role in the creation of your bill which was unveiled the day before. The deck contains delivery performance data updated since the u. S. Postal service is thirdquarter report. It shows the delays in july and august. Im very interested to from mr. Dejoy today about what he is learned about the causes of these delays. How much of an effect is the ongoing pandemic and increasing employee sick leave having on u. S. Postal Services Delivery performance. How does that compare to any temporary growing pains to make the Postal Service more efficient and selfsufficient. I say im interested to hear mr. Dejoys responses because they do not know the answers. I dont leave the chairwoman does either. This is one of repeatedly said, madam chair, that this committee is doing things backwards. When we make policy its our job to understand why something is happening, how would you find out why. You would have a hearing on the topic with the postmaster general. When would you have this hearing . Certainly before you pass a bill. Returning to today let me say that postal issue something i have long heard about a great deal in my rural districts. For example, i remember when the Obama Biden Administration a mail facility in paducah was close resulting letters that once took a day to get from point a to point b now taking three to four days. I also heard about the Postal Service from my grandmother who spent her entire career 27 years as the world mail carrier. My heart and so please got to our Postal Service families who have lost loved ones during this pandemic. As her grandson and the congress and rep sending the First District of kentucky and has a ranking of us can do what is service return to being a viable institution. But im disappointed at the hysterical frenzy whipped up around this issue by my colleagues on the left and the friends in the media. Lets look at the most often repeated claims again. As a Postal Service need to bail out an order to survive november . No. Mail on has declined but Package Delivery has shot through the roof increasing usps revenue by 1. 5 billion. It is nearly 15 billion cash on hand and can operate until at least august of 2021. Next question come as a postmaster general sabotaging election for removing blue postal boxes in mail sorting machines . No. The Postal Service is more than adequate capacity to handle the vote by mail. If everybody in the u. S. Requested via mail that still is less than one days average volume. That blue boxes and male sores were both components of longstanding programs in response to significant reduction in mail volume. 33 reduction over the past years. For reference under president obama proximally 12,000 blue mailboxes were removed and we didnt hear one word from the other side we needed that. A mail sores on track to be removed because they were sitting idle fix simply taking up for space or more productive activities. Is the Postal Service telling us there will be able to deliver ballots on time . No. What the Postal Service is doing and has for years has tried to dont take in account with the Postal Service can and cannot do. Usps can treat ballots as firstclass mail or better than first class mail but they cannot break the laws of time and space. The letters the democrats characterized as threats and propaganda are good faith efforts to prevent weeks of uncertainty and confusion such as what happened very recently with chairwoman maloney. The charges about over time, those came from an effort to reduce millions of dollars in overtime in extra truck trips the Postal Service spends every year. If overtime extra truck trips are normal or normal everyday part of your Business Operations that means something is wrong and you better fix it. On friday before the Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing, mr. Dejoy acknowledge the recent dip in service. He took responsibility for this performance labs. The logical step is to understand why this happened and come up with a plan. Even though your bill would prevent that, madam chair, i hope that today helps in the process. 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 briefings, an official report from the post office, data, research, facts. And in this report the facts speak for themselves and they show that under the first two months of the postmaster generals work, the service fail anywhere from six to 10 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 didnt 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, lets not dismantle the services to the American People, the patterns, the seniors. 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 medications . So the facts speak for themselves. Im placings into the record. I now recognize the distinguished chairman of the subcommittee on Government Operations who has been a great deal of work in this area, mr. Connolly, for an Opening Statement. Thank you, madam chair, and thank you for your leadership. I 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 is been part of the American Fabric since 1775 has a future. The Postal Service is not only fighting for its economic survival. Its fighting to maintain 120 years of professional, professional service rid of rotten systems that serve elected officials and not those who rely on the mail every day. We are here today to say the Postal Service. Rev in front of us and newly appointed postmaster general and chairman of the board of governors selected him for that post. We have pmg who six weeks into the complex and aweinspiring new job in the midst of a Global Pandemic and just weeks before a consequential National Election where the Postal Service will play an unprecedented role decides to announce a sweeping reorganization that he admits could slow down mail and will undoubtedly infuse uncertainty and confusion throughout the Postal Service and into our neighborhoods all across america. He announces these