Donald Trump said last week he was opposed to more funding for the cash-strapped USPS
Washington:
The U.S. Postal Service said on Tuesday it would end changes accused of slowing mail delivery until after the November election, changing course in the wake of the political storm President Donald Trump unleashed when he recognized that he wanted to undermine the agency.
Trump, who faces a tough re-election offer, also questioned the reliability of postal voting at a time when a large chunk of voters are expected to use postal ballots as a safer option amid the pandemic COVID-19.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump ally who took the job in June, has come under intense pressure from Congress amid the reforms he has implemented.
“There are long-standing operational initiatives – efforts prior to my arrival at the Postal Service – that have been raised as matters of concern as the country prepares to hold elections amid a devastating pandemic,” he said. DeJoy said in a statement. Tuesday.
“To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until the end of the election.”
Trump said last week he was opposed to more funding for the cash-strapped USPS, acknowledging that the funds would be used to help process votes.
“They need this money to run the post office so that it can receive all of these millions and millions of votes,” Trump told Fox News Thursday.
“But if they don’t get them … that means you can’t have universal postal voting.”
His comments came after DeJoy presided over the removal of mail collection boxes and processing equipment as well as the reduction of overtime, which a union leader said has slowed mail delivery across the country. .
He also reshuffled senior management, and the USPS warned most states that it couldn’t guarantee on-time delivery of mail in ballots.
Democrats in Congress took advantage of the president’s changes and remarks to claim that the White House was plotting to undermine confidence in the post office and help Trump’s candidacy for a second term.
“Pure Trump. He doesn’t want an election,” Joe Biden, Trump’s Democratic challenger and former vice president, said last week.
Dead end
In his statement, DeJoy said he would maintain regular hours at post offices, stop the removal of collection boxes and sorting machines, and that overtime “will continue to be approved as needed.”
He also said the post office “will commit reserve resources in all areas of our operations, including transportation, to meet any unforeseen demand” from October.
Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said the measures do not go far enough.
“(W) e need a PERMANENT cancellation of ALL harmful DeJoy policies,” he tweeted.
Democratic President Nancy Pelosi has called the House back in session to address issues, and DeJoy is expected to testify before both House committees this week and next.
A logistics official in North Carolina, DeJoy has donated $ 1.2 million to Trump’s campaign and nearly $ 1.3 million to the Republican Party since 2016, according to the New York Times.
The controversy comes as the White House and Democratic leaders remain deadlocked on a new emergency spending program.
Democrats want to include USPS funding in a follow-up bill to the $ 2.2 trillion CARES law passed in March, which provided relief to consumers and businesses until the provisions expired keys in recent weeks.
USPS Disclaimer
Republicans have been hesitant about how much Democrats want to spend especially on aid to states and local governments, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called on them Tuesday to be “reasonable.”
Since his statement last week, Trump has hesitated on how to handle the post office, indicating he may be open to more funding for it in a possible package.
“The US postal (system) has failed for many decades. We just want to MAKE THE POST OFFICE EVEN BIGGER, while saving US taxpayers billions of dollars a year,” Trump tweeted Monday.
The United States is home to the world‘s worst coronavirus outbreak and Americans are expected to count on postal voting in record numbers, with about three-quarters of the population able to do so this fall.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
