Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has agreed to House Democrats’ request for him to testify next week about his controversial Postal Service changes that have raised hackles around the nation, according to two people familiar with the matter.
On Sunday, Democrats moved up a request for DeJoy to testify to Monday, Aug. 24, calling it an “urgent” matter. The Oversight and Reform Committee hearing is likely to be tense, with Democrats loudly objecting to changes that have slowed mail delivery in numerous parts of the country amid President Donald Trump’s calls to restrict the use of mail-in ballots for the November election.
A number of Democrats have called on him to resign, and moderate House member Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), even said that he wanted DeJoy, a major Republican Party fundraiser, arrested by the House sergeant at arms if he didn’t agree to testify.
“Over the past several weeks, there have been startling new revelations about the scope and gravity of operational changes you are implementing at hundreds of postal facilities without consulting adequately with Congress, the Postal Regulatory Commission, or the Board of Governors,” House Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) wrote to DeJoy on Sunday, giving him a deadline of Monday to respond to the testimony invitation.
“Your testimony is particularly urgent given the troubling influx of reports of widespread delays at postal facilities across the country–as well as President Trump’s explicit admission last week that he has been blocking critical coronavirus funding for the Postal Service in order to impair mail-in voting efforts for the upcoming elections in November.”
Maloney also has requested the testimony of Mike Duncan, chairman of the Postal Service’s Board of Governors. Duncan also agreed to testify, according to a person familiar with the matter. Duncan is a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.
A spokesperson for the Postal Service didn’t immediately have a comment.
“I’m pleased that the Postmaster General will testify voluntarily before the Oversight Committee on Monday about the sweeping operational and organizational changes he has been making to the Postal Service,” Maloney said in a statement Monday. “The American people want their mail, medicines, and mail-in ballots delivered in a timely way, and they certainly do not want drastic changes and delays in the midst of a global pandemic just months before the election.”
The House is also expected to vote as early as this Saturday on a proposal to block DeJoy’s plans to overhaul the Postal Service. The emergency vote would occur weeks earlier than Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other House Democratic leaders had originally planned to return to Washington during the August recess.
House and Senate Democrats have also demanded reams of documents from DeJoy and senior USPS staffers as they probe why the Postal Service has cracked down on the use of overtime for postal workers, restricted certain deliveries and warned states that if ballots are put in the mail too late, the Postal Service can’t guarantee delivery of them by Election Day.
Even Trump seems to have changed his tune on what he wants from the Postal Service, telling reporters on Monday: “I have encouraged everybody to speed up the mail, not slow the mail.”
Zach Montellaro contributed to this report.