HOUSTON – The U.S. Postmaster General announced Tuesday he will halt operational changes at the United States Postal Service until after the 2020 election.
Some Texas congressional members called for legislation to prevent the postmaster from doing another about-face.
Embattled Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced Tuesday that he’ll wait until after the November election to make operational changes at the USPS. DeJoy said retail hours won’t change, mail processing equipment and collection boxes will stay where they are and overtime for employees will be restored.
DeJoy said the USPS is prepared to adequately handle all election mail this Fall.
Twenty Democratic states had threatened to file lawsuits after some mailboxes were removed and sorting machines were stopped. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said she believes DeJoy had a change of heart due to the pressure he received from the public. Rep. Jackson-Lee said she wants a detailed list of all changes he already made.
“I do want to find out whether there (have) been any civil rights violations of denying people their mail. Whether there’s been any criminal activity of taking up postal boxes. What authority did they have?” she said.
Jackson-Lee said in a press conference that this goes beyond mail-in ballots. She said this affects veterans, people that use the postal service to receive prescriptions and people who rely on mail. Two other Democratic congressional members also held press conferences Tuesday where they called the operational changes on the USPS an attack orchestrated by the nation’s highest office.
“Trump’s national assault must end, heartened by DeJoy saying no change and prepared to approve overtime,” said Rep. Sylvia Garcia.
Congressman Al Green said when fellow members of Congress meet on Saturday, he hopes they will be able to pass a law, HR-8015, to restore the USPS to what it was at the beginning of the year.
“My hope is that he (DeJoy) would restore things as their status of January 1, 2020,” Green said.
He said the U.S. Senate needs to pass the HEROS Act, which would give the USPS $25 billion. DeJoy will go before members of Congress on Aug. 24.