JUDY WOODRUFF: The postmaster general of the United States today testified before the Senate,
facing the first public scrutiny of his recent moves at the Postal Service, which reportedly
have caused widespread delays in mail delivery.
Democrats have accused Louis DeJoy of sabotage, saying that he is trying to limit voting by
mail, which is expected to surge this fall because of the pandemic.
William Brangham has a report on today's hearing.
LOUIS DEJOY, U.S. Postmaster General: Thank you, Chairman Johnson, for calling this hearing.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: From the start of today's virtual hearing before the Senate Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the newly appointed postmaster general addressed
a central question: Would the expected surge of mail-in ballots be delivered on time?
LOUIS DEJOY: I want to assure this committee and the American public that the Postal Service
is fully capable and committed to delivering the nation's election mail securely and on
time. This sacred duty is my number one priority between now and Election Day.
SEN. GARY PETERS (D-MI): Did you discuss those changes or their potential impact on the November
election with the president or anyone at the White House?
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Postmaster DeJoy, who was appointed by the Postal Service's Board of
Governors, was in his prior life a major donor and fund-raiser for President Trump.
And, today, he pushed back on the idea that the reforms he's instituting are being done
to help the president's reelection. President Trump has repeatedly, and incorrectly, said
voting by mail is rampant with fraud and demanded it be stopped.
Senator Gary Peters, Democrat of Wisconsin, pressed this line of questioning.
SEN. GARY PETERS: You will give us your word today, under oath, that you have not taken
any action whatsoever in your capacity as postmaster general for any political reason
or at the suggestion of any -- any administration official?
LOUIS DEJOY: Sir, I will tell you, my first election mail meeting, I instructed the organization,
the whole team around us and out in the field, whatever efforts we will have, double them.
We are very committed, the board is committed, the postal workers is committed, the union
leadership is committed to having a successful election. And the insinuation is, quite frankly,
outrageous.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The changes DeJoy has implemented, which today he said he would suspend until
after the election, included reducing overtime hours for mail delivery people and decommissioning
hundreds of large high-capacity mail sorting machines.
Senator Maggie Hassan, Democrat of New Hampshire, described how one sorting machine in the city
of Manchester had been sold, and the remaining one broke.
SEN. MAGGIE HASSAN (D-NH): When we have only one machine that can do a certain kind of
sorting in our largest distribution center in the state of New Hampshire, and it breaks,
and everything has to stop until it gets fixed again, you're really sabotaging the Postal
Service's ability to sort mail efficiently, and you're undermining postal workers' commitment
to that everyday delivery.
So, will you commit to having your team look into this??
LOUIS DEJOY: First, Senator, I don't agree with the premise, but I will comply with your
request.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: DeJoy said the removal of some of these machines was normal post office
procedure in response to the decline in envelope-sized mail and to make space for the increase in
package-sized mail.
But senators from both parties, including Republican Rob Portman of Ohio, said these
mail delays had real-world implications beyond the election.
SEN. ROB PORTMAN (R-OH): We have a number of veterans who've contacted us and said they
weren't able to get their medications.
One is a 70-year-old, served in Vietnam, has COPD, has trouble breathing. The inhaler refill
was mailed through the Postal Service. Due to delays, he ran out of it while waiting
for it to arrive.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Importantly for November, DeJoy promised that almost all election mail
would be treated like first-class mail, which would insure quicker delivery.
There had been reports the post office was considering a slower category for ballots.
DeJoy sought to assure the public that, despite what they have heard, the Postal Service had
more than enough capacity to handle this volume of ballots in the fall.
LOUIS DEJOY: We deliver 433 million pieces of mail a day, so 150 million ballots, 160
million ballots over the course of a week is a very, very small amount.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Despite these assurances, many of DeJoy's critics aren't satisfied.
As the hearing began today, six states and the District of Columbia, led by Pennsylvania,
filed suit against the Postal Service and Postmaster DeJoy, saying these changes have
made it harder for states to -- quote -- "conduct free and fair elections."
In the end, Postmaster DeJoy defended his reforms as much-needed fiscal discipline for
the post office. He and others have noted that the service lost $9 billion last year.
He argued that, in the age of FedEx and UPS, the post office needs to change in order to
compete.
LOUIS DEJOY: I believe there is an opportunity for the Postal Service to better serve the
American public and also to operate in a financially sustainable fashion.
Our ability to fulfill that mandate in the coming years is at fundamental risk. Changes
must be made to ensure our sustainability for the years and decades ahead.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Postmaster DeJoy will testify before a House committee early next week.
And, today, the post office's Board of Governors announced that they are establishing a bipartisan
election mail committee. This would be to help a lot of these states who are going to
see a surge in voting by mail, help them work out their programs.
That same Board of Governors offered today its full support for Postmaster DeJoy -- Judy.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, William, you mentioned a lot of the criticism of the postmaster.
Is it thought that he did enough today to allay these critics' concerns?
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: It's not totally clear, Judy.
I think that the big concern is, is that -- and this was cited by several of the senators
during the hearing today -- is that the president himself keeps politicizing the Postal Service
with everything that he says, all of his accusations, false accusations, about voting by mail being
full of fraud.
So, everything that DeJoy does is seen through that lens. So, even though DeJoy today contradicted
the president and said voting by mail is safe and reliable -- DeJoy said that he would be
voting that way this election -- there's still just so much suspicion because of what the
president keeps saying.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And, in that connection, William, as you know, the president ramped up some
of this talk, this conspiratorial talk, today about the post office.
He suggested today that what Democrats might have in mind is creating so much chaos that,
after the election, they could sneak in Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, to be the
next president.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Yes, he keeps saying this, and there's really no truth to it.
I mean, here's the theory undergirding what the president is saying, that mail-in voting,
which he alleges is going to cause all this chaos, so let's delay the election.
Now, the president has no authority to delay the election. That's Congress' job. And Congress
-- 100 percent of congressmen and senators who have been asked about this have said,
we're not delaying the election.
But the president is sort of alleging that, according to the law, which is true, that
if, on January 20 at noon, when the president and vice presidents term expires, and a victor
has not been declared, the number three -- that's the House majority leader -- would become
the president.
But, as I have said, there is no evidence whatsoever this election is going to get moved
one iota. And so this is a bit of a moot point, but he keeps using, I think partly because
he thinks Nancy Pelosi is, I guess, a scare tactic for his supporters.
JUDY WOODRUFF: William Brangham following these hearings and this issue.
Thank you, William.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You're welcome, Judy.