Rep. Payne, Jr. Fights to Save Postal Service
Media Contact: Patrick Wright -- Patrick.Wright@mail.house.gov
Washington, D.C. — Congressman Donald M. Payne, Jr. supported a bill today to stop drastic changes to the U.S. Postal Service and restore effective postal delivery to the country through the current COVID-19 global pandemic. It is the latest action in Rep. Payne, Jr's battle to save the post office from President Trump's attempts to defund it. In the last two weeks, the Congressman has written or co-signed four letters to House leadership, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, and others to provide funds for the Postal Service in the next coronavirus bill and improve service to all Americans during this global pandemic. In addition, he has met with local Postal officials to find out what can be done at the national level to help local post offices.
The bill, Delivering for America Act (H.R. 8015), would halt post office closures or consolidations, stop the reduction of hours at postal locations, ensure that employees receive overtime pay for overtime hours, and return postal service to the level Americans experienced on January 1, 2020, before the coronavirus public health crisis crippled the nation.
"We need to pass this bill because too many towns and residents across the country have experienced extreme delays in postal service during the last three months," said Congressman Donald M. Payne, Jr. "There are residents in my district who haven't received mail for weeks. The Trump administration has admitted they would like to limit effective mail service to hinder mail-in voting during the 2020 election. But the Post Office must be protected at all costs. I will continue to fight until we restore effective postal service to the nation and restore trust in this very American institution."
The bill comes after the Trump administration stated that it would like to limit the effectiveness of postal service to create distrust for mail-in ballots. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who took office on June 15, issued a series of changes that have affected mail delivery nationwide. Recently, he slowed delivery when he dismantled 19 mail sorting machines that could have sorted 35,000 pieces of mail per hour at locations across the country, a move that could prompt a criminal investigation. Previously, DeJoy demanded that any undelivered mail at the end of an eight-hour work shift should stay at distribution offices to limit overtime and delayed delivery even longer during a national health emergency. A second memo reassigned 23 executives to give DeJoy unprecedented power to control the Post Office.
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