Eshoo, House Democrats Call on Postmaster General to Reverse Assault on Postal Service

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Anna G. Eshoo joined House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Committee on Oversight and Reform Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, and 172 other House Democrats today in writing to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy calling for the reversal of policies that have worsened the crisis facing the Postal Service and exacerbated a dramatic increase in delayed and undelivered mail. 

In the letter, the Members wrote, “[T]he United States Postal Service is a pillar of our American Democracy that is enshrined in the Constitution, which empowers Congress to ‘establish Post Offices and Post Roads.’  The Postal Service provides critical services for the American people: delivering medicine to seniors, paychecks to workers, tax refunds to millions and absentee ballots to voters.  

“It is always essential that the Postal Service be able to deliver mail in a timely and effective manner.  During the once-in-a-century health and economic crisis of COVID-19, the Postal Service’s smooth functioning is a matter of life-or-death, and is critical for protecting lives, livelihoods and the life of our American Democracy.”

Background

Recent operational changes put in place by Postmaster General DeJoy, including reductions of overtime availability, restrictions on extra mail transportation trips, testing of new mail sorting and delivery policies at hundreds of Post Offices, and the reduction of the number and use of processing equipment at mail processing plants, have led to reports of a dramatic increase in delayed and undelivered mail and threaten the longterm timely delivery of mail for millions of Americans.

Text of the letter to the Postmaster General can be found HERE.

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