Transcripts For CSPAN Postmaster General Louis DeJoy Testifies On Postal Service Operations ... 20240712

Postmaster general louis dejoy, and the chairman of the postal board of governors Robert Duncan to this oversight hearing, and i thank you all for being here. In all of our districts we are hearing from constituents about significant delays in the delivery of mail, medicines, food, and other supplies. These delays are especially concerning and potentially lifethreatening during the Coronavirus Crisis. These are not isolated complaints. They are widespread. Our offices have been receiving thousands of calls and emails about the detrimental effects these delays are having on our veterans, seniors, Small Businesses, and families across the country. When we asked postal leaders about these delays they downplayed them. They dismissed them as temporary. They discounted them as a minor, unintended consequences of reforms being put in place. But then we saw National Headlines describing these delays in much more detail. I have a document here that headlines from almost every state in the country talking about these delays. For example, in my home state of new york i quote, mail is delayed i do six days in new york city, Postal Workers Union says, end quote. In kentucky Ranking Member conyers home state, Postal Service costcutting is frustrating kentuckians and raising election concerns, end quote. In california found state of our vice chairman mr. Gomez, quote, rotting food, dead animals and chaos at postal facilities amid cutbacks, end quote. This list goes on and on. Last friday when mr. Dejoy was confronted in the senate with these widespread reports, he said he felt bad about what he called a dip in service. But then after his testimony in the senate, we obtained an internal Postal Service document entitled pmg breathing. This is a presentation prepared directly for the postmaster general. It is dated almost two weeks ago, august 12. According to this document, these delays are not just a dip. This document warns the postmaster general a significant and widespread drops across the board. In firstclass marketing periodicals and other categorie categories. This document shows that these delays are not a myth or a Conspiracy Theory, as some of my colleagues have argued. These deep declines did not start in april or may when the coronavirus hit us, but in july when mr. Dejoy came on board and begin making these changes. Our entire country is experiencing these delays as a result of his actions, such as his decision to restrict the number of trips from processing plants to delivery units. Perhaps mr. Dejoy thought his sweeping changes would not cause any delays. In my opinion, that would be incompetent at best. Or perhaps this was intentional. Maybe mr. Dejoy was warned that his changes would cause delays, vitae disregarded those warnings. That would be extremely reckless in the middle of a Global Pandemic with less than three months before an important election. Or perhaps there is a far simpler explanation. Perhaps mr. Dejoy is just doing exactly what President Trump said he wanted on National Television, using the blocking of funds to justify sweeping changes to hobble mail in voting. All of these options are bad, but when you install someone as postmaster general after he donates millions of dollars to your campaign, when he rushes to make changes without conducting adequate analysis and when he withholds Key Information from congress and doesnt level with us when people begin to ask, why did the world is going on . Given all of this, its not surprising that the Postal Service Inspector General has already open and investigation into mr. Dejoys controversial changes. We will be asking mr. Dejoy some hard questions today. Well also be asking mr. Duncan as chairman of the board about his own role in choosing mr. Dejoy as postmaster general, about his own role in vetting mr. Dejoy for conflict of interest, including mr. Dejoys ownership of stock in major Postal Service competitors and mr. Duncans own role in allowing these delays to happen under his watch. Whatever the cause of these massive delays, the American People want to go back to the way things were. They dont want these changes. They want then reversed. They dont want anyone messing with the post office, and they certainly dont want it politicized. They want to have confidence that their mail, their medicine, their ballots will be delivered on time. I look for doing from our witnesses, and i know recognize that distinguished Ranking Member comer for an Opening Statement. Well, thank you chairwoman maloney. I appreciate you calling this hearing today on the United States Postal Service, even though it would have been nice to do so before we actually vote on the bill saturday. We all agreed the Postal Service needs to be reformed to better serve the American People. We all want the Postal Service to be as efficient and effective as path to ensure americans receive the prescriptions on time, Small Businesses thrive in mail in ballots are delivered in a timely fashion. But meaningful reform is going to take bipartisanship. Something weve seen very little of in the last few days. Democrats fabricated of faceless baseless Conspiracy Theory about the Postal Service and hastily passed a a bill saturdy but before hearing from you, mr. The bill had no Prior Committee action to that the bill. No hearings, no markup. Because of this rush to process the bill was significantly amended by the democrats before it went to the rules committee. It then proceeded to the house e floor under processor prevented any amendments to the bill. There was no republican input, not at any step in the process. Just this morning we have learned that the u. S. Postal service opposes the bill that you all past saturday. They read the bill and realized that and makes it harder and more expensive to deliver the mail. At least this legislation is consistent with the obama biden years at the Postal Service. More delays, or financial losses. This chain of events should democrats are not serious about meaningful reform. The president does not support the bill. The Postal Service does not support the bill, and the senate will likely not take up the bill. This is a political stunt. During saturdays debate chairwoman maloney unveiled a 60 page powerpoint text she just received overnight from an apparent whistleblower. Madam chair, i dont need to remind you that your and adam schiff record with whistleblowers is less than stellar. The ashman played no role in the creation of your bill which was unveiled the day before. The deck contains delivery performance data updated since the u. S. Postal service is thirdquarter report. It shows the delays in july and august. Im very interested to from mr. Dejoy today about what he is learned about the causes of these delays. How much of an effect is the ongoing pandemic and increasing employee sick leave having on u. S. Postal Services Delivery performance. How does that compare to any temporary growing pains to make the Postal Service more efficient and selfsufficient. I say im interested to hear mr. Dejoys responses because they do not know the answers. I dont leave the chairwoman does either. This is one of repeatedly said, madam chair, that this committee is doing things backwards. When we make policy its our job to understand why something is happening, how would you find out why. You would have a hearing on the topic with the postmaster general. When would you have this hearing . Certainly before you pass a bill. Returning to today let me say that postal issue something i have long heard about a great deal in my rural districts. For example, i remember when the Obama Biden Administration a mail facility in paducah was close resulting letters that once took a day to get from point a to point b now taking three to four days. I also heard about the Postal Service from my grandmother who spent her entire career 27 years as the world mail carrier. My heart and so please got to our Postal Service families who have lost loved ones during this pandemic. As her grandson and the congress and rep sending the First District of kentucky and has a ranking of us can do what is service return to being a viable institution. But im disappointed at the hysterical frenzy whipped up around this issue by my colleagues on the left and the friends in the media. Lets look at the most often repeated claims again. As a Postal Service need to bail out an order to survive november . No. Mail on has declined but Package Delivery has shot through the roof increasing usps revenue by 1. 5 billion. It is nearly 15 billion cash on hand and can operate until at least august of 2021. Next question come as a postmaster general sabotaging election for removing blue postal boxes in mail sorting machines . No. The Postal Service is more than adequate capacity to handle the vote by mail. If everybody in the u. S. Requested via mail that still is less than one days average volume. That blue boxes and male sores were both components of longstanding programs in response to significant reduction in mail volume. 33 reduction over the past years. For reference under president obama proximally 12,000 blue mailboxes were removed and we didnt hear one word from the other side we needed that. A mail sores on track to be removed because they were sitting idle fix simply taking up for space or more productive activities. Is the Postal Service telling us there will be able to deliver ballots on time . No. What the Postal Service is doing and has for years has tried to dont take in account with the Postal Service can and cannot do. Usps can treat ballots as firstclass mail or better than first class mail but they cannot break the laws of time and space. The letters the democrats characterized as threats and propaganda are good faith efforts to prevent weeks of uncertainty and confusion such as what happened very recently with chairwoman maloney. The charges about over time, those came from an effort to reduce millions of dollars in overtime in extra truck trips the Postal Service spends every year. If overtime extra truck trips are normal or normal everyday part of your Business Operations that means something is wrong and you better fix it. On friday before the Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing, mr. Dejoy acknowledge the recent dip in service. He took responsibility for this performance labs. The logical step is to understand why this happened and come up with a plan. Even though your bill would prevent that, madam chair, i hope that today helps in the process. I yield back. I think the gentleman for his statement and i ask unanimous consent to place in the record the Service Performance measurement postmaster general briefings, an official report from the post office, data, research, facts. And in this report the facts speak for themselves and they show that under the first two months of the postmaster generals work, the service fail anywhere from six to 10 in all the major categories. My bill merely funds the post office and returns it back to the way it was so that the services didnt get the mail out to the people during a pandemic and before a very important election. After the pandemic we can revisit and have other statements and work go forward, lets not dismantle the services to the American People, the patterns, the seniors. People deserve to get their mail in a timely way, and most districts are having people calling frantically, where is my mail . Where is my medications . So the facts speak for themselves. Im placings into the record. I now recognize the distinguished chairman of the subcommittee on Government Operations who has been a great deal of work in this area, mr. Connolly, for an Opening Statement. Thank you, madam chair, and thank you for your leadership. I i was proud to cosponsor your bill that passed the house with 26 republicans showing the courage to address an emergency with respect to the most esteemed institution of government in america. We have an obligation, constitutionally, to ensure that something that is been part of the American Fabric since 1775 has a future. The Postal Service is not only fighting for its economic survival. Its fighting to maintain 120 years of professional, professional service rid of rotten systems that serve elected officials and not those who rely on the mail every day. We are here today to say the Postal Service. Rev in front of us and newly appointed postmaster general and chairman of the board of governors selected him for that post. We have pmg who six weeks into the complex and aweinspiring new job in the midst of a Global Pandemic and just weeks before a consequential National Election where the Postal Service will play an unprecedented role decides to announce a sweeping reorganization that he admits could slow down mail and will undoubtedly infuse uncertainty and confusion throughout the Postal Service and into our neighborhoods all across america. He announces these and other abysmally unsupported changes without engaging staff, unions, trade organizations, mailers, a recipients or congress. In fact, congress was told mr. Dejoy did not yet feel prepared to respond to any questions we might have for him. Yet he felt confident enough to freeze over time, delay mail delivery, and announced sweeping reorganizations. And mr. Duncan, congratulations of being a rubberstamp. The Postal Service board of governors is required by law to represent the public interest, not the president , not a Political Party or not even the postmaster general. Today the Postal Service employees 650,000 650,000 peop. Its the foundation for more than 1. 7 trillion mailing industry that employs another 7. 5 million people. But at the turn of the last century the u. S. Post office was nothing more than 77,000 patronage positions rife with gross incompetence and often investment. It was Rural America that use its political voice at the time to professionalize the post office. Instead of traveling miles to the closest general store to pick up mail from a political hack, rural residents lobbied congress and mass for rural free delivery and innovation that brought mail delivery to even the most distant of homes and businesses. The massive grassroots lobby effort brought those with acumen and expertise into the post office and refocus political leaders of what they were elected to do, serve the people, not their political parties. As as a nation the people transm the Postal Service the post office come into the Postal Service. This History Lesson resonates today. Yet another reckoning for this country and the Postal Service come here again the people of the nation have stood up loudly and consistently to condemn attempts to turn a crown jewel of our federal government i for the most trusted agency among the hundreds that serve this nation come into a spoil systems honeypot. We cannot and must not let that happen. During this pandemic the Postal Service is a lifeline to the delivery of lifesaving prescription medication, medical equipment, food in pantry staples, stimulus checks to pay rent and utility bills, census forms and even simply coupons to help struggling families stay out of poverty. What leader would think that even the possibility of slowing down mail in a time such as this is a good idea . What leader we take steps to freeze over time for a workforce literally risking its life every day to deliver mail to the people of this nation . 40,000 postal workers have contracted covid19 or been quarantined because of it. 40,000. As a few pmg, mr. Dejoy has recklessly cut hours and delay delivery times in the pursuit of unsupported operational efficiency. Hes never once asked congress to help despite a a team of members ready to provide financial and other support. The chairwoman and i along with a collection of hundreds of members have been fighting to provide the Postal Service with 75 million in support. To pay overtime and hazard cause come to dedicate a workforce come to invest any modernized and green postal fleet that doesnt explode, to pay for Information Technology investments that can streamline communications from come trucks and planes that are running late. Mr. Dejoy and mr. Duncan afield to work with congress to get this an active. Thus far the passage of Service Airline industry has received 25 billion in revenue stabilization. The Postal Service not a dime. On august 18 that bmg announced he would put a hold on some of these sweeping operational changes but his announcement did not come into reversing the Customer Service and capacity already made. They did not include an agenda to support mail that devastates a commitment to helping the Postal Service to fill aa stork role in the upcoming election. And lastly the pmg is still not advocating for additional funding for the Postal Service, despite the fact that the republicancontrolled trump appointed board of governors unanimously called for that package. Not a democratic idea, a republican dominated board unanimously. The reason operational and organizational changes mr. Dejoy has made may dash asa chairwoman just showed. Those are not our data. Thats yours, mr. Postmaster general. These delays of real impacts on real lives with real consequences. Most devastatingly, the damage to the Postal Service is credibility. In the very brief time, congratulations, mr. Dejoy. And esteemed institution that now is in doubt into American Publics mind. I applaud my colleagues in the house for passing diddley for delivery america ag bill because he didnt act now. We need to reverse this, reassure the American Public that they will get their mail on time and that their ballots will get there in time and be counted. This is about the future of our democratic institutions. This is the future about the most important election in my lifetime. Thats whats at stake today. I yield back. Madam chair . Yes . First i would like to make a point that you didnt notify our committee that mr. Connolly as ranking or as chairman of the subcommittee would be delivering an opening remark thats another example of this rush process, but i would like to ask that our Ranking Member mr. Connolly, subcommittee also be allowed to deliver opening remarks. Absolutely. The staff told me they reached out to you and your staff. Its general at the subcommittee that has the jurisdiction should speak on both sides. I have in my notes that mr. Hice will become who is now the Ranking Member on the subcommittee of Government Operations will also be giving an Opening Statement, and i was told that they did reach out. In future i will personally call you my self to make sure it gets to you. I was told by staff they talk to your staff, that theyd reached out to you. If that did not get to you, then i apologize. I will personally call you every time but it is usually the standard that we make an Opening Statement and the subcommittee with the jurisdiction makes an Opening Statement. I agree and i appreciate the chairwoman doing that. That is again important while we need to be prepared and not rush things like we have this postal reform bill. Madam chairwoman . Yes, mr. Connolly. If i can come to good defense. It is been your practice as chairwoman that when it is the jurisdiction of the a subcommittee of always led the subcommittee chair and the regular to have Opening Statements and thats practice, its not something you sprung on us today. I can think about lees four examples mac examples. Mr. Raskin is one, mr. Rouda, and the Ranking Member smith its actually the practice of the committee to do just that. Madam chair, fi maker i agree that it is practice. We just were not notified and it wasnt on the agenda item that we received, but we appreciate that and mr. Hice, its my understanding, is prepared to deliver an impromptu Opening Statement. Okay. First of ottawa to thank mr. Connolly for pointing that out and also point out the double standard that businesses such as airlines and others are receiving federal aid in the heroes package, in the covert release package, but the Vital Services from our post offers that so many people depend on, a lifeline to americans across america, they deserve to be funded, too. I now recognize the distinguished subcommittee chairman mr. Hice for Government Operations. Opening statement, and your recognize, mr. Hice. Thank you, madam chair. I appreciate that, and yes, we were not notified of this but it happy to take a few moments. Again, here we are having a hearing after a vote. I think this is absolutely disgusting. Certainly we had many votes without bothering to have a hearing, but i dont want i dont ever recall having a vote to socalled fix something and then have the hearing afterwards. This is unprecedented, and ben to me i believe is an example of political malpractice on the side of the democrats. We are here to talk about the Postal Service, and madam chair, im glad you brought up the heroes act because in itself, in the heroes act i believe is the unveiling of what the democrats are really trying to do. And that is themselves to fraudulently influence the upcoming election. In the heroes act is a requirement for universal mail in ballots. In the heroes act is a requirement that states cannot be involved in requiring voter id. And so were going to have tens of billions of ballots sent out all across the country to many people who perhaps are deceased, to people who have moved, to people who knows who they are, and states are not going to get to that any voter id at the democrats have their way and then we will have the ballot harvesting take place. This is what is at stake and i agree with chairman connolly thing this is a most important this is what is at stake, and if the democrats have their weight in this election it will be filled with fraud. It would be filled with confusion or it will be filled with lawsuits because thats what is in the he was asked to produce. If the democrats has away, and thankfully that bill is not going anywhere any further than the bill that was passed saturday before the hearing. Then we can talk about delays. At the usps. Well, we havent even had hearings on usps since i believe it was april of 2019, and now all of a sudden we are called in for an emergency over this whole thing. We had a briefing in april of this year, not a hearing. It was a briefing, and the purpose of that briefing was to discuss the delays the Postal Service do to covid19. And yes, there had been delays, and yes, there are thousands of usps workers who are not showing up for work due to covid19. Are we surprised that the related delays . Of course not. We had a briefing to discuss that just a couple of months ago. The postmaster general has nothing to do with covid19, have nothing to do with thousands of his workers not showing up. We also have cities that are rioting. Of course there are delays in many of those cities, the minneapolis or portland or chicago or l. A. Or wherever it may be. The fact of the matter is the bailout the past on saturday in the house of representatives is pointless. It refuses the opportunity to any reforms. And so we have a Postal Service right now that has 14 14 biln cash on hand, another 10 million available to to them with the treasury, and they cant even get access to the ten because they have too much money cash. And yet we pass a bill for another 25 billion, and in that bill we disallow them from making any changes. It doesnt matter how much money we keep throwing at the Postal Service if we dont allow for reform to take place, which is what is desperately needed. So with that i do look forward to this hearing going forward. I fully anticipate a lot of political theater on my friends on the opposite side of the aisle. I do anticipate i continued attempt to portray a conspiracy that does not exist when, in fact, it is their own party that i believe are fully committed based upon the heroes act and other comments to influence this upcoming election using fraudulent methods. And with that, madam chair, i will yield a back and appreciate you giving me the opportunity to speak. I now recognize mark to introduce our first witness who is constituent of congressman walters. Thank you, madam chair and Ranking Member comer. It is my privilege to introduce mr. Louis dejoy, the postmaster general of the United States. Mr. Dejoy has earned the respect of both charitable and business community. Since its creation in 2005 the Family Foundation has positively impacted thousands of people, duke university, the Health Center for student chilled, Police Foundation just name a few. I was present when mr. Dejoy was inducted into the hall of fame for the triad Junior Achievement business leaders, the Worlds Largest organization educating k12 students on Financial Literacy and entrepreneurship are just this past week i received in the mail that family contribution of the sponsorship of Family Services of the piedmont which serves 18,000 18,000 children and adults to many of those battling Domestic Violence issues that may be the most impressive act by this family is the one established for students from title i schools. The Scholars Program at elon university. Ive had the opportunity to meet some of the student who come from some of her most impoverished areas. Its that something lewis lost. Its just something he does. Throughout his professional career, louis dejoy has garnered a reputation as a genius in the logistical elevation and supply chain field as the ceo of new breed logistics he took a broken Trucking Company from new york to North Carolina and transformed into a prominent u. S. Provider and contract logistics creating close to 9000 jobs. Maybe thats why he was unanimously appointed to the position by the ups usps bipartisan board of governors. Mr. Dejoy has been on the job about two months but he hes bn playing for implement the Reforms Congress has passed. For example, back in 2006 it wasnt mr. Dejoy to pass the enhancement act. It was congress. The leading sponge on the still come hes the one with the biggest picture in the room, much of this committee henry waxman. Today, mr. Dejoy will be viciously attacked with prepackaged questions and false accusation. One member suggesting impeachment. Thats original. How sad is it when they cancel culture reached the halls of congress . The man before the screening date is not for the democrats of bill and i seem to be. He is here today because he supported President Trump. With this congress that makes you a target. Over the past month, they have enjoyed protest outside his home with hundreds of people blocking the streets and frightening their neighbors. Sadly in this day and age an Industry Leader with a passion for service can be persecuted in the court of Public Opinion for his apparent political affiliation. As the circus unfolds today remember that louis dejoy is a Community Minded philanthropist, and industryleading businessman and most important and main with a good heart doing his best to serve his country. Mr. Dejoy, i want to commend you for being here today. Many of your accusers did next in the same courtesy but unlike the senator from delaware lets hope they at least know how to mute themselves. Thank you, madam chair. Ideal for back. Thank you. Our second witness is Robert Duncan who is the chairman of the Postal Service is board of governors. He was appointed to the board of governors by President Trump in august 2018 and his term expires in december 2025. Please stand and raise your right hands. [witnesses were sworn in] let the record show that the witnesses affirmed this in affirmative. Without objection your written statements will be part of the record. That, mr. Dejoy, you are now recognized for your testimony. [inaudible] good morning, chairwoman maloney, Ranking Member comer, and members of the committee. I am proud to be with you today a map of the 630,000 dedicated women and men of the United States Postal Service. On june 15 i became americas 75th postmaster general. Since that time for a variety of reasons there is been a great deal of attention to the Postal Service our elected officials, the media and the American People. I want to begin by sharing this committee and the American Public that the Postal Service is fully capable and committed to delivering the nations how lets security and on time. This sacred duty is my number one priority nations balance. To be clear, we will do everything we can to handle and deliver election mail in a manner consistent with the proven processes and procedures that we have relied upon for years. Nevertheless, i encourage all americans who choose to vote by mail to request their ballots early and to vote early as a commonsense best practice. As part of this conversation there are many inaccuracies about my actions that i wish to again correct. First, i did not direct the removal of blue collection boxes or the removal of Mail Processing equipment. Second, i did not direct a i ct back on our site any of our post offices. And finally i did not direct the elimination or any cutback in overtime. I i did, however, suspended thee practices to remove any misperceptions about our commitment to delivering the nations election mail. Any further assertions by the media or elected officials is furthering a false narrative to the American People. And let me describe the actions i have taken in 70 days since my appointment. I came to the Postal Service with that decades of experiencn solving large and complex logistical problems. I plan to use this expense to help lead the operating change required for the Postal Service to grow and evolve in the path of sustainability. On the day of my swearing in the Postal Service Inspector General issued an astonishing report about the schedule delays and Postal Service transportation and substantial costs associated with our weaknesses in the fundamental operating principle. Upon review i directed the Postal Service Operations Team to develop and execute on a plan to improve our adherence to the transportation schedule of our over 40,000 trips a day. We have accomplished this goal. As an ontime departures are approaching 90 and wasteful extra chips are down by over 70 . While we have had temporary service declined which should not have happened, we are fixing this. In fact, last week service improved across all major mail impacts category and ion laser focus on improving service for the American Public. The second of two changes i made as postmaster general is installing a new organizational reporting structure to better align, and resources to still greater accountability for performance and to focus the organization on service and growth. These two changes creating our new ontime Transportation Network designing and engage functional Organization Structure will be the catalyst for significant improvements in costs, performance and growth that i planned for this vital american institution. Madam chair, the men and women of the Postal Service have demonstrated extraordinary commitment to our mission of service about the covid19 pandemic. And every community in america we continue to work to keep our employees and customers safe as we fulfill our essential role in delivering the medications, and if it checks and Financial Statements the public depends upon. Since the beginning of the pandemic theres been a public outpouring of support for our postal employees as they performed their essential Service Throughout the nation. This is a well deserved testament to their dedication. Chairwoman maloney, Ranking Member comer, i hope we can agree that the financial state of the Postal Service is unacceptable and needs to be fixed. I look forward to working with you and this committee and our stakeholders twist with the Financial Health of the United States Postal Service and to improve the way we serve the American Public. This concludes my remarks and i welcome any questions that you and the kidney may have. Thank you. Thank you very much for your testimony the committee may have. We will recognize chairman duncan. You are recognized for your testimony and he will be appearing remote. Chairman duncan, you are now recognized. Thank you. Chairwoman maloney, Ranking Member comer, members of the committee thank you for allowing me to speak today. My name is mike duncan and for the past two years ive had the honor of serving as the chairman of the United States postal board of governors. Throughout my life i look for ways to help and strengthen and support institutions that are important to american communities. Thats what i spent five years on the Tennessee Valley authority board, i served on i served on numerous boards and commissions. When i accepted this position i did so because of my admiration of the United States Postal Service and its Public Service mission i spent my life in rural appalachia at an unborn the Postal Service is tech communities like mine. Also note the poster provides important jobs to more than 630,000 americans which at one time include my own grandfather who delivered mail my horseback in east tennessee. Since i joined the board ive made it a point to get on the road to visit postal facilities come to meet workers and speak directly with our customers, Union Members can union leaders. These conversations have only deepen my understanding for end of the imports of the Postal Service. Serving on the board of governors of this institution is a significant responsibility. The governors by statute represent the public interest. That means i will always member of the special role in our nation. It means i can never forget the challenges that are putting us at risk. These. These charges should, so surprise to members of this body. On two occasions i i sent you a Postal Services and report progress. In each of those communications i wrote that quote the Postal Service business is broken up only produce widening losses in the coming years absent change. Last fall postmaster general notified the board of her impending retirement. In response the board recognize that we would be faced with the most important decision we would make as governors. The selection of a new postmaster general. The board agreed the Postal Service would benefit from a transformational leader, one that could help us build upon the apparent confront its longstanding challenges. Postal service is an amazing institution and we can do make it better but we are unable to fix our broken Business Model or control our own without regulatory commission. What we can do is increase our efficiency and cut down on unnecessary expenses. We can also focus on marketability and modernization while reducing some expenses. This is as usual is not an option. Its for these reasons that after an organized thorough search process the board selected lose a joy to serve as her 75th postmaster general. Hes the fifth postmaster joe since 1971 to join institution from the private sector but we believe the private sector experience that he has will be an asset, unified ways to include the Postal Service. In addition mr. Dejoy has decades of experience in improving and managing sophisticated change. The fortune 100 companies, he has a a major contractor use Postal Service for more than 25 years, has deep knowledge about the i know it can be strengthened. Like the postmaster general the board has confidence in the Postal Service ability to perform for the American People in this election season. Five years from now the United States will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the american Postal Service. Throughout our nations history this institution has delivered for the American People. Now we have a sacred responsibility to preserve, defend and strengthen this organization for generations to come. Thank you for your time. I appreciate the opportunity and look forward to questions. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. I now recognize myself for questioning. Mr. Dejoy, weve all been flooded with concerns and complaints from our constituents about the delay in the mail. And in the vote on my bill delivering or america on saturday, 26 republicans voted with us and they expressed the same concerns. People depend on their mail for their medications, for business, for keeping in touch with their families. Its critically important, and we have seen headlines across this nation from many, many states, headlines, major news from other states about the delay in the mail. Its been said its a Major Institution in our country. People depend on it. And over the weekend we update this internal document, and it is dated less than two weeks ago on august 12, and its entitled Service Performance measurement for the pmg postmaster general briefing. Now, your office already confirmed to my office that this document is authentic. So lets go through a little bit of it now. This document clearly shows major degradations across the board, beginning in july when you started your changes. Here is the document for firstclass mail, and overall it is down an astonishing 8. 1 from the baseline before your changes for the past two months, beginning in july. Now, the second one, the next slide is the marketing mail, and that is down a stunning 8. 42 . Now, the next and its on the wall where you can see it better next periodicals, and that is down almost 10 , down 9. 57 . So mr. Dejoy, you and your aides have repeatedly downplayed these delays. You just downplayed it in your testimony. But this is just a disaster for the people who need their mail. Dont you agree . [inaudible] would you turn on your mic . We cant hear you. Thank you. We are very concerned with the deterioration and service, and a working very diligently. In fact, we are seeing a big recovery this week, and that fact report on the i requested that report put together. Oddly enough we didnt have measurement briefings at the executive level like this before my arrival where the whole executive team was involved a look at what the underlying circumstances were and where focus on fixing it. Weve seen, starting to a nice recovery and we will have it back my goal is to get it to a higher we were not beating metrics before. With this change, this fundamental change, we have a real good shot at getting to the stated metrics that we are supposedly governed by. Well, you just testified that you been on the job 70 days. So this is essentially your report card for that period of time. If any other ceo at this kind of plummeting record in his first two months on the job, i cant imagine why he would be kept on. Thats an unfair accusation. May i continue . When you testified on friday, senators ask you over and over about the status of these delays. They also asked you to produce analysis about the negative impacts of your changes. It wouldve been easy to mention to the senators that this document existed. You couldve said, as a matter fact, senator, i just received a detailed briefing and, unfortunately, the data shows major delays in nearly all categories. But you didnt do that. You dismissed is nationwide delays as, quote, and dip, and she refused to turn over any analysis. So my question is, why didnt you disclose this document and any analysis to the senate when you had it and they were asking for it . They asked me for it on friday. They asked before and analysis on my decision. I did of the delays. The delays. I watched. Why all these delays . Theres a lot of reasons for delays just beside the action i took to run your trucks on time. There were other reason for delays in the nation. Well, i would say running trucks on time would probably increase delivery what for some reason it back it up five to six days into district that i represent, so reported. But mr. Dejoy, on august 14 this committee sent you a ten page letter along with pictures of Ranking Members of the other committees, and we asked you to produce all communications. According from the letter, all communications, evaluations, assessments or reports regarding mail left behind or delayed as a result of these new policies that you instituted, end quote. We asked for this document by friday, and on friday night you did produce some documents to us, but you did not produce this one. So my question is, why did you leave this important internal document from the postal professionals that was delivered to you and briefed to you two days before the Senate Hearing . Why did you leave it out . Im not familiar with the request in total, how we supported it. Im sure the staff answered the questions as they were asked. And let me just for the record cleared up, i did not, that is not a policy change. That is a request that we run our or a thousand trucks a day on schedule. Your intuition is right. You would think the mail with move faster edit did a good portion it moved faster. It must have been fresh on your mind. Theres absolutely no excuse for concealing and withholding this information from the committee or your testimony when you are asked questions about the information in the document and unfortunately, this Committee Received it from someone else so mister dejoy, your withholding information from us, concealing documents and downplaying the damage youre causing so let me close with this. This committee expects a full and complete production of all the documents we requested no later than this coming wednesday. And if you continue to withhold information or otherwise fail to comply, you can expect a subpoena. I know many of our members plan to ask about how you intend to fix the problems. The problems you created and reverse these horrible trendlines so we will get to thosequestions next. With that i now recognize the distinguished Ranking Member for his questions. Hes saying virginia fox will be thefirst to respond. Genia fox from the great state of North Carolina thank you madame chairwoman. I do note that youre going over time a great deal but postmaster general dejoy, thank you very much forbeing with us today. Some claim the afternoon sort pilot and your changes are an effort to slow down mail and hurt Postal Serviceemployees. Is that true . No maam. Are you banning employees from charging overtime or trying to limit unplanned overtime to insure the Postal Services viability . At this time no maam and no time since ive been here. Thank you. Postmaster general dejoy, as a logistics expert and i believe representative walker outlined your expertise very well, what does the consistent use of unplanned overtime and the need for extra trips mean in terms of theefficiency of operations . Besides costing substantial amounts of money for the Postal Service in terms of billions of dollars, it also does not keep the Delivery System in balance which also results in delays in mail and in equilibrium in our production process across the whole network. Can more efficient on Time Operations result in better delivery performance . Absolutely. And does unplanned overtime intothe Postal Services ability to stay financially viable . Absolutely. My husband and i have experienced some very inefficient services on behalf of the post office in the past fewweeks. Im not going to go into those details but i want to applaud your approach to accountability and what we know from our colleagues on the other side of the aisle is a run away from accountability in every case in the federal government or in allied Services Like the post office so let me applaud you for pushing on accountability. Mister dejoy, as were all Aware Service is not a Government Agency that receives creations. In fact, it is law. The postal reorganization act of 1970 created the u. S. Postal service as an independent and self sustaining entity. Postmaster general dejoy, do you believe it is your duty to uphold this law and ensure that the usps is selfsufficient . I do. And what will it take to make the uspsselfsufficient . Legislation with regard to our healthcare, medical grade integration and our pension reform. Flexibility from the prc. Having decisions from the. In our 14th year of a 10year analysis. The Postal Service itself is a library oig reports identifying flawed practices and billions and billions of dollars of costs and waste at this committee, no one seems to Pay Attention to and Postal Service, our Management Team itself delivering, helping fix ourselves both in terms of service and cost and we have a plan now to do that and part of it includes running our truckson time. And these oig reports have come from democrat president s and republican administrationsboth , is that correct . Yes maam. If you have no Operational Flexibility can you possibly make the Postal Service selfsufficient . I think we have a good shot, we have new revenue ideas for the Postal Service also. We are beginning to finalize the plan but im very very excited about the Management Team, our new ordinance organizational structure. Im excited about the dedication, the 650,000 men and women and we can embark upon with a little help from this congress, were about to embark upon some significant exciting future affordable services. I believe insixday delivery. I think our postal carriers relationship with the American People is the most important ingredient in giving us the Approval Rating that we have and we have plans to really enhance that relationship and to help our growth. Again, i want to thank you for bringing your expertise to become the postmaster general of the United States. You have the exact background that we need and the commitment we need to make the post office work the way americans wantit to work. Thank you madame chairwoman and Ranking Member. I yelled back. I now recognize congresswoman norton. Congresswoman norton by webx. Thank you very much madame chair. This hearing is very necessary to clarify matters that were left open when we took the vote already on the bill. As mister dejoy, in your testimony you suggested that the coronavirus was having and im quoting, a significant issue in employee availability in many parts of the country. If thats the case sir, i want to know why youve been reducing overtime. His overtime even more necessary to postal employees during this national emergency, during this pandemic with so many people at home given what youve already testified about a significant issue in employee availability across the country and why would not more overtime be necessary to make up for allof that . Since ive been here weve spent hundred Million Dollars in overtime. Overtime rate before my arrival was 13 percent and it still at 13 percent and as i said in my Opening Statement this is a continued misinformation regarding what i did inside gotten there. I neverput a limitation on overtime. Thats very important testimony mister dejoy was in some states we are seeing 10 times the normal volume of mail and id like to ask about Additional Resources two weeks before the election. His expanded allowance of overtime and one of the items under consideration when you have already announced you will bring quote, Additional Resources to bear two weeks before the election. Does that include expanded overtime . Yes maam it does. 650,000 men and women of the Postal Service are very committed to having a successful election and our role in the election. Overtime, extra truck trips, postal inspectiontrips , rounds in each postal. Thats very important for the record that expanded overtime will be allowed to weeksbefore the election. My next question is on a png Postal Service document weve received. Im quoting now, the adoption ran titled png plans, overtime will be eliminated. There you see it before you. Again, we are paying too much for overtime and it is not costeffective and soon will be taken off the table. More to come on this. We asked the general counsel and he claimed that came from a midlevel manager and should not be treated as an official statement of Postal Office policy so i ask you what a postal manager extend this document without some kind of word from you or from the top of the agency and can you explain who this was and give us an idea. Iq, i have purposely not trying to find out who that was but there are many ways that people interpret. Youre trying not to find outwho that was . That was not a directive from me. Theres 50,000 managers within the organization and this is one of the reasons i changed the organization quickly after the rollout of the truck schedule. There was very very confusing. Ive been looking for whoever it was who jumped ahead of you and issuing that to all your managers. Absolutely. Would you give that name when you find it to the chair as well. And in the statement on august 18, you stated overtime has and will continue to be approved as needed and i want to understand as needed, what that means and postal manager , that employees continue approving and using overtime as they did before your tenure began or are there any changes since you took office . Same as prior to me being here. Have you issued any internal guidance to that effect and would you provided to us please. I didnt hear the question. Have you issued any internal guidance to that effect, the employees continue to approve and use overtime. I never issued a guidance against that effect. Are you intending to issue any guidance to the effect. I saw the executive team, the Operations Team. They know there is no different process than prior to my arrival. The gentlewomans time is completed. Can i just ask that you provide you any written guidance on overtime . Id like to make that request on behalf of the committee. I now recognize congressman gossar. Can you hear me. Yes we can. There you are. Mister dejoy thanks very much for coming today and i want to clear up some obvious political disinformation that the majority is putting out and then i want to say thank you very much for acknowledgment of the Different Services that we will get to that in a few minutes. On saturday on the house floor my colleagues said the post office is on the verge of collapse but thats not true. You have 10 billion cash on hand and access to a 10 billion dollar line of credit which makes you sleep viable through 2021, is that true . Yes but i would say only in washington dc would that be a good position to be in when i have 135 billion in liabilities and 2 and a half billion dollar a month, a week by week weekly payroll and a whole bunch of others but yes, we can get through the election the loans we take it. I dont know how we would pay it back but should we take it we should be fine for, through mid21. So isnt it true that youre generating more revenue at this time of the year than you did last year and processing more an uptick in mass mail government items such as a stimulus trip check and i sent this question about. We are seeing more revenue due to package increase, mail products are down 15 percent or so onaverage. Package volume is up substantially. Package volume is very costly for us to handle in overcapacity methods. Do you believe with the money on hand successfully seeing that the mail volume is down by 16 percent and the hard work of over 600,000 postal workers that you can handle the election increases that you will possibly see . I feel like i will be very clear that the 650,000 men and women are working with our Leadership Team and our employees, we will be able to handle all election mail for the 2020 election. I want to go back to this related to the pandemic. I want to highlight at the phoenix Postal Workers Union stated we are suffering from these pandemic workforce frames that no processing machines have been removed during your tenure and the United States Postal Service process over 700,000 in our recent primary election. Let me ask you a question mister dejoy. Have you noticed slowdowns like in seattle and portland or chicago because of the writing and the anarchy thats going on . Sir, any kind of rioting does produce delays with any type of Public Service so i dont have a specific measurement on that but i will say this, that as the coronavirus cases throughout the country have expanded it has had an impact on our employee availability and the urban areas that are hotspots. That averages dont play out what the real picture is like in areas like philadelphia employee availability is significantly below normal route run rates and would have been in a pandemic. We actually started to be in terms of employee availability issues in the july timeframe. Any policy changes to the Postal Service such as best elimination of overtime for extra trips and removing sortingmachines, is that true . As for the extra trips and they were prohibited, its true on Everything Else but the extra trips. My direction was need to work on getting our trucks on schedule and mitigating our extra trips. We still run seven, 800 extra trips a day and we still have thousands of trucks trips that run late and it wasnt a flat directive, it worked to our plan. That was my directive. I had come through a plan to work with our plan so the Management Team executed on the plan and Everything Else, i had nothing to do with. It was a longstanding plan on collection boxes and sorting machines and postal hours. That was, that was ongoing really in the areas that were taking care of. Another quick question, is the pony express bill available today . Ive been here the days sir, i havent seen that yet so i think its gone. Technology changes and any transfer of a new idea, it doesnt always go smoothly, does it mister dejoy . A transition where youre trying to make changes always goessmoothly, doesnt it . Your time is expired but you may answer his question. Transitions dont always go smoothly. You should have a Recovery Process. Our Recovery Process is taking too long. This should have been resolved in a few days and its not. So the impact, theres a lot of reasons, there are a lot of things impacting our service. This is one of them on the front end and we should have cleared it up quicker and i think we have a focus on it now and it will recover quite rapidly going forward. Chair now recognizes mister clay. Iq for conducting this hearing. Thank you madam chair for conducting this hearing. Mister dejoy, one of the most damaging results of your actions is the reports we have heard over and over again from people and families across the country who are not getting their mail or medications on time and its heartbreaking. The Postal Service delivers hundreds of millions of prescriptions, drug shipments each year. That is millions of shipments per day, six days a week. A vital medicines delivery. [inaudible] we are having a technical problem right now with mister clay. We cant hear you, its breaking up. Should we go to someone else . Okay. Mister clay, were going to try to correct this. Theres a problem, we cant hear you. Were going to hold your testimony. Should we go for it or not . This probably got aggravated during the Coronavirus Crisis because. [inaudible] for the sake of time. Mister clay were going to hold off on you and go to mister lynch and then go to a republican and come back to you. We have technical difficulties. Congressman lynch, you are now recognize. Thank you madam chair and thank you mister dejoy for attending. After dejoy, youve been postmaster general of the United States for a couple of months. 70 days. Ive been a member of this committee for about 20 years and since my mom and two of my sisters, a bunch of my aunts and cousins and inlaws work for the Postal Service, some of them are retired, some of them are still there and as a member of congress you might say ive been compelled to take a keen interest on matters affecting the Postal Service. Im also the president of the iron Workers Union in boston so you can get a sense of my perspective. Its bluecollar, common sense. Get your work done sort of perspective. So mister dejoy as master general of the United States for the last 70 days, did you know the Postal Service is never allowed itself to be in the situation that its in today . Throughout the Postal Service history theres been a tradition of Reliable Delivery from the beginning. Article 1, section 8 of the United States constitution going back to ben franklin, our first master general. The pony express as i mentioned before. I was watching a can burn special last week and he had these wrenching letters that were back and forth from soldiers during the civil war so even at a moment when the country was at war with itself, the mail was delivered. During the First World War when the spanish fluinfluenza of 1918 , through the great depression, millions of people out of work and 1000 bank failures, the mail was delivered on time. Even during the Second World War with the threat of not the uboats international wet mail was delivered on time. I was elected on 9 11, the date of the terrorist attacks on our nation. Some people forget and the days after 9 11 we had direct anthrax attacks on the u. S. Postal service. We lost two brave postal workers. From amtraks inhalation. But for the good of the country of postal unions continue to send their members into the post office to do their jobs to keep the country running. Two weeks ago after youd been postmaster general that all changed. In the middle of a pandemic that killed our hundred 70,000 americans and on the eve of a National Election at a time when the cdc is advising people not to gather and limit outside contact the Postal Service darted removing 671 ice the mail sorting machines across the country. To stop the apwu from sorting the mail and stop mail handlers from working overtime to deliver the mail for the first time in 240 years in our history of the United States Postal Service you sent out a letter embarrassingly in july 2 46 states that said the post office cant currency we can deliver the mail in time or the elections in november and we have reports from across the country as you acknowledged service has been delayed the mail is piling up. You have ended a once proud tradition. As a member of the Oversight Committee we have a chief Investigative Committee in the congress. We conduct oversight on every matter that impacts the American People foreign and domestic. Members on this committee that have been to iraq and afghanistan. It into yemen, somalia, you name it. They go to the ends of the earth to investigate matters that affect the American People especially when it involves our sons and daughters inuniform. It is our postal workers happen to be our men and women in uniform. They are on the front lines of this pandemic. Wrist their own health and safety to deliver mail, medicine and mail in balance to every home and business six days a week. As a member of this honest committee im supposed to ask you a question. In my heart im tempted to ask after 240 years of Patriotic Service how can one person screw this up just a few weeks . I understand you bring privatesector expertise. I guess we couldnt find a government worker who could screw it up this fast. It would take them a while. The president is running this post office like a business. Hes running it into the ground as he has declared bankruptcy a few times on his own businesses and in an effort to apply the facts, the real facts, not the alternative facts, based on what you have actually done one can only reach as a factfinder we can only reach 2 conclusions. One, either through gross incompetence you have ended the 240 year history of delivering the mail reliably on time or the second conclusion that we could gather his youre doing this on purpose and that youre deliberately dismantling this once proud tradition. To the gentleman time has expired. My last question is this, what the heck are youdoing . The gentlemans time has expired. First of all, id like to agree with you on the heroic efforts of our 650,000 employees across the nation and the history of the Postal Service, the 250 year history of serving the American Public. Im very proud to leave the lead the organization. I will not. There you go. [overlapping conversation] order, the gentleman may answer the question without being interrupted. The question is will you put the machines back . The answer is no and every accusation you made other than adhering to the truck jewels inaccurate and more misinformation for the American Public. You wont put themachines back so. Madam chair. Mister jordan is now recognized. Congressman jordan is here. I believe thats not the order. Its congressman palmer. Im getting differentsigns appear. Punishment palmer is now recognized. I want to point out a Washington Post article from august 2015 almost 5 years to the day that there was a decline in first class letter delivery of 1844 percent and a 38 percent to climb in a performanceover the same time in 2014. This was during the Obama Biden Administration. The United States Postal Office in 2012 started closing dozens of mail sorting facilities from january to june 2015 number 494 million pieces of mail that did not arrive on time, a 48 percent increase in delayed mail delivery and im sure that was intended to impact the 2012 election. Yet this committee didnt see fit to look into that. Mister dejoy, these will be yes and no for the most part. Is there any way the post office can know whether or not they are delivering to households or to eligible voters . Is there any way for the post office to know that . No sir. Theres an analysis released in 2019 and a recent Us Census Bureau five your community survey, there were 378 counties nationwide that have more Voter Registrations and citizens living there are old enough to vote. These are counties where the registration exceeds 100 percent and i in an iowa there are 650 extra voters. Under the National Voter registration act of 1993, Judicial Watch sent notice of violation letters to 19 large counties in five states, pennsylvania, colorado and real clear politics reported Los Angeles County at an estimated 1. 6 million in eligible voters 38 states counties where the Voter Registration is over 100 percent. Including Montgomery County maryland with which represented my distinguished friend mister raskin. The same article cited up you study that found thereare 24 million Voter Registrations no longer valid or inaccurate. This total includes 1. 8 million dead people and another 2. 75 million who were arrested in two states area of new york for instance and this most recent primary that impacted your race madam chairman at 84,000 ballots, almost a fifth of, over a fifth of all the ballots cast. 12,000 in your race that were disqualified so my question to you mister dejoy, is there any way to be sure more balance and a household should beeligible to receive are not being delivered . Say that again. Is there any way for the Postal Service to determine whether a household is getting more ballots than they should be . Were focused on delivering. The answer is no, theres no way to know that. And if there was some way to know that im sure the postal inspectors would get involved. Madam chairman, may i conserve my time. Whats going on . I think the chinese have hacked in or something. What is that noise . The clock is still running. And his time be restored . Have we resolved this, do you think . There trying to deal with technical, we will give you extra time. We have technical problems. I do appreciate your indulgence, thank you. The Census Bureau reports 11 percent of americans moving to section 8 of the Voter Registration act passed by the democrats in 1993 signed by president clinton and voted for by Mister Cooper and mister clay and madam chairman pallone requires to perform Voter Registration maintenance and is the responsibility of the federal government to ensure governments make sure their voter rolls are accurate and that they removed inactive voters and it should be noted that the Obama Biden Administration did not bring a single section 8 enforcement action and their entire term. That makes the post office task of only delivering ballots to eligible voters were difficult. My point is that youve been accused of trying to impact an election when the fact of the matter is for those people that have never had a real job in business, what youve been trying to do is improve the performance of the post office so that what happened in 2015 does not continue to happen. And its, the accusations are that youre trying to throw the election. When the fact of the matter is the fact that the federal government has not done its part particularly during the Obama Biden Administration to ensure the voter rolls are accurate and make your job more difficult. Its really not your job, is it one way or the other. No sir. And we count on the post office and delivery people do not deliver balance . Stacks of ballots to an address where the delivery person knows that theres nobody there. An abandoned house, abandoned apartment complex . That would be reported, wouldnt it . We deliver mail to the address specified. And if dozens or hundreds of mail and balance were dumped into blue mailboxes instead of left in the regular mail box or dropped off at the post office, would it make sense to report to the postal inspectors measure that those ballots are legitimate . There are processes postal inspectors deployed, im not fully aware of what they are but there are processes postal inspectors deployed to identify any fraudulent type of activity within the mail system. We need to make sure this election is not painted by fraudulent mail and balance and madam chairman im going to do something i rarely do. When mister gossar mentioned the riots in portland and seattle and other places around the country there was a chuckle from one of the democrats on this committee and i take offense at that. This is a picture of the burnt out post office in minneapolis. Okay . There was mail in the post office that was lost. There may have been Prescription Drugs that were lost there may have been so security checks that were lost. It is a fact that not only was the mail delivery delayed when you have anarchists laying siege to cities, it endangers postal workers. Delivery people. It may have endangered peoples lives were not able to get their medicine it burned up in the minneapolis postoffice. Thats not funny. And i hope that the democrats in this committee and in this congress will take seriously happening in american cities. I yielded back. The gentleman yells back and were having difficulty connecting with congressman clay and i nowrecognize congressman cooper. Mister dejoy, heres what your socalled reforms have done to my district in 70 days. A lady named delano rosa paid five dollars july 22 to send a certified letter to the National Tennessee total security office. The distance is 20 miles. The letter took 12 days to arrive. Just this morning excellent reporting from the National Channel 5 tv, cruise nashvilles mail trucks are being forced to leave on schedule even when completely empty. Imagine it, the threefoot trucks forced to travel hundreds of miles completely empty due to your socalled reforms. Here are the truck records. Thats not efficiency. Thats insanity. For anyone thinking of voting absentee the effect of your policies is to unilaterally move up election day from november 3 to Something Like october 27. And if you force moreempty trucks on the highway , you will be able to singlehandedly up election day even earlier. According to npr already 550,000 primary ballots, absentee ballots were rejected in just 30 states. And one of the main reasons was late delivery. How dare you disenfranchise the many voters when you told a senate Committee Just last week you had a sacred duty to protect election mail. You know that its a felony or Postal Service officer or employee to delay delivery of mail. A postal employee can be fined or imprisoned for up to five years for delaying the mail but somehow you can delay all the mail and get away with it. They can be prosecuted but you cant . Even if your actions are 1 million times worse. Mister dejoy, do you have a duty to obey us law every other american . I do sir. Previous postmasters general have been punished for much smaller conflicts of interest. In 1997 the 70th postmaster general Marvin Runyon had to pay 25,000, 27,000 of a 350,000 conflict of interest. If youre 30 million flick of interest, 100 times larger than mister runyons were treated like your predecessors, you would have to pay a 2. 7 Million Dollars fine and probably be ousted from being postmaster general. So mister dejoy are you above the law that applies toother postmasters general . I dont agree with the premise. Im in full compliance of all ethical requirements that i need to have and theres no ig investigation and i welcome the results of that report. Mister dejoy as a mega donor for the Trump Campaign you are picked along with Michael Cohen and elliott brody, two men whove already pled guilty to felonies to be the three deputy finance chairman of thenational committee. If you pay back several of your top executives for contributing to Trumps Campaign by bonus and or rewardingthem . And outrageous claims are and i resent it. Im just asking a question. The answer is no. You do not bonus or reward any of your executives, anyone you solicited for a contribution to the Trump Campaign. No sir. Not in whole or in part. Actually during the Trump Campaign i wasnt evenworking at my company anymore. We want to make sure that Campaign Contributions are legal so. Im fully aware of legal, Campaign Contributions. What are you accusing me of . Im asking you a question, do your mail delays help Trumps Campaign goal of hurting the Postal Service as stated in his tweets. Im here to represent the Postal Service and it has nothing to do with, on the action have to do with improvement of the Postal Service. Am i the only one in this room that understands that we have a 10 billion a year loss . Will you get this committee your communications with mark meadows, with treasury secretary gossar . Mister dejoy, is your backup plan to be pardoned like roger stone . [laughter] pitiful. You have to seconds to answer the question. I have no comment. My time has expired. The gentleman from florida is recognized for fiveminutes. Congressman steube. Thank you madam chair. First of all i served in iraq in support of Operation Iraqi freedom and to compare postal workers to our servicemembers in iraq or afghanistan to me is offensive read last time i checked the drivers were getting their vehicles blown up or being shot at as they drove around so to compare our military servicemembers who sacrificed on the battlefield across this world to our Postal Service members is frankly offensive as a person that has served and its unfortunate there are democrats that have 100 percent politicized the Postal Service to try to stoke fear on the American People but we shouldnt be surprised. Its a familiar theme or democrats over the last two years. A subcommittee chairman of this committee when asked on National Television and i quote , are you saying directly is this an attempt by the president to interfere in the election the answer was absolutely. There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that President Trump is using the Postal Service to interfere with the election. None in fact, quite the opposite. But democrats dont care about the facts so here we go again just yesterday we were hearing how the Trump Campaign inspired with russia to interfere with the last election and when the facts cannot was no evidence that ever occurred. This is absolutely a concocted narrative by the democrats to stoke fear in the American People like the rush of collusionhoax. Issues have plagued the Postal Service for decades and its vastly in need of reform. Mister dejoy dated the 10 billion loss a year, businesses couldnt operate that way but the democrats dont want real reform and if they were they would have worked with our witness and with republicans in crafting a bill. It would have worked with our counterparts in the senate and the administration to come up with reforms that would actually pass. This is a political stunt for the democrats newest interference hoax. I represent nine counties in florida and just last week we held our primary elections. Florida saw the largest turnout in a president ial Election Year primary 1992, that was 18 years. Avoid about 2. 3 billion mailin ballots were cast made up 59 percent of all ballots cast. Reports indicate there were minimal issues with ballots handled by the Postal Service and no issues in my nine counties with absentee ballots in this district that im aware of. Mister dejoy would it be fair to say the Postal Service successfully delivered during floridas primary . Yes, sir. The 2. 3 million mailin ballots cast in florida are a significant amount for one state. What are the factors that led to the Postal Service able to deliver the substantial increase and mailin ballots on time. When it comes about the Postal Service prior to my arrival and the heightened awareness of this particular election throws everything it has at moving ballots through the system. All ballots are usually identified with special markings and every employee is and manager is very much focused on making sure that ballots move quickly through the process. Sometimes in advance of firstclass mail so those particular processes were deployed and will be deployed as we come into the 20 20 election. And florida has am i correct in stating lorna had a reasonable timeframe for the Postal Service to return the ballots as opposed to some state that allow ballots to be requested at the last minute delaying their ability to get those ballots to the precinct in time. Thank you. That is a big part of the effort of the Postal Service. Prior to my arrival and since my arrival and the purpose of sending out letters to all the states with regard to what, we just want to make everybody aware of what is it that will really work. We can put all these additional processes on what it would be or helpful if we had reasonable standards from the election boards that comply with our processes to enable our best to do it more efficiently and effectively. So to clarify, do you need any additional funding to be able to successfully deliver ballots in florida this november . Know we do not sir. Are there any lessons other states can learn from the way florida handles our balance in absentee voting . Im not particularly familiar with florida but our general counsel and we have put out letters with regard to each States Election guidelines. We have a website thats just been posted on the normal process and in general, i will say on behalf of the 650,000 postal workers, get your ballots early and please vote early and that is just common sense. But if florida had a, florida had a good process, im sure their electoral board procedures were good. We cant do this all by ourselves so we appreciate every state help in reviewing their standards and taking the advice of the Postal Service general counsel and whats on our website. The gentlemans time has expired and we now recognize the interplay. If theyre still having an action robbins we will go to mister connelly. Hello madam chair, i hope youcan hear me now. Yes we can. Thank you for conducting this hearing. Mister dejoy let me start with a question read before you implemented your changes, did you conduct any analysis of the effect your changes would have on delaying description, Prescription Drug shipments, the delivery ofthose shipments to your customers . Did you analyze that for you implementedthese changes . Her, we have a whole operating organization that i asked to put together a plan and it wasnt a change. It was comply with your schedules and when we could comply with our schedules, i reviewed this with every regional area vp. On a discussion that they were ready and they rolled it out. Im not the coo, im the ceo of the organization but i received commitments that we would be able to roll forward with the plan to committing to our existing schedule. Mister dejoy let me say this. Prioritizing on time truck departures means letter carriers leave without all their packages. Including letters on board. Critical medicines like refrigerated insulin is reportedly sitting in sorting facility days longer than expected. Did you examine the effect of your changes on medicine like insulin that requires special storage . Served, no time did i say dont put the mail on the trucks when they left on time. This was not a hard direct everything must leave on time. We still have thousands of trucks the day leave late within a certain timeframe and there are still hundreds of extra trips so the intention was to put the mail on the trucks and have the trucks leave on time. That should not have been impacted. How about the impact or dejoy, what about the impact of missing that insulin and having it sit on the floor somewhere and it may spoil or whatever. At least we know it will be delayed. Did you all get that any consideration . Are concerned about the impact that each individual across the country and we are working extremely hard to bring the Service Levels back to where they were and to exceed that. And we will be there shortly. Mister dejoy we would like a copy of any and all analysis you conducted before you implemented your changes. Will you provide them to this committee . I will go back to the office and see what the operating team has on that and will seek to do so. And while youre at it misterdejoy , you have any information on the number of Prescription Drugs shipments that the Postal Service has delivered late since you began implementing these changes and will you provide that information to the committee by the end of the week . Im not aware of what we have on specific types of shipment. Im sure we have some and i will take a look at it but i want to remind you that the changes are misleading and what i ask is that the team right away to run the trucks on a schedule which is intended, the intention was we put the mail on thetrucks. Thank you mister clay. Madam chairwoman, can i ask unanimous consent. Mister lynch asked me to enter into the record a set of data from the american Postal Workers Union with respect to mail volume and the reduction in advanced systems delivery, barcode disorders, automatic sorting machine, and flat sequencing systems in its Mail Processingfacility. Without objection. Mister norman from South Carolina is now recognized. Mister norman. You chairwoman maloney. Mister dejoy, i want to apologize, youre getting a parading up here read congressman lynch owing into a fiveminute dialogue would not give you time to answer your questions, was yelling over you and its typical of how this earring has gone and whats amazing to me is this bill had to be rushed out this past saturday. You know that 67 members and not even take the time to show up . If your workers at the post office dont show up what happens . They dont get a paycheck the mail doesnt get delivery. Its an insult to what the democrat democrats are trying to do. Its a false narrative that has not worked for them. The molar report, the impeachment, none of its working now. Theyre going fishing for this and i apologize to you. Let me get yes, sir no answers. Are you and the Postal Service actively removing mailboxes that at the behest of President Trump to undermine the election or as president obama said, kneecap the Postal Service. Was the u. S. Postal Service Going to be insolvent if you did not receive the 25 billion included in their bill . Is the United States Postal Service equipped to handle voting by mail for the november election . Are you unlocking blue boxes to stopthe mail . Anything with blue boxes is stopped. With congressman farmer showed pictures of the burnout mailboxes and the cities on fire of portland, chicago, minneapolis, sacramento, new york. That slow the post Office Delivery down . Theres certain actions and procedures that we have for situations for public unrest that we deploy. A variety of Different Things up to and including getting our collection boxes out of there when it happens but i dont know all of everything that goes in but it would slow down themail. It would slow it down and the safety of the person delivering the mail is pretty much an issue now isnt it . The welfare of the person delivering the mail and the burnedout cities would kind of be a problem , wouldnt it . Absolutely, our letter carriers in many cases. Where you consulted on this important bill we have to take off this past saturday to add your expertise . I dont know, i think our legislative Affairs People had some interaction to comment on. Youre not the chief operating officer and ceo, youve been on the job 70 days and to be accused of everything youve been accused of is simply not right. Its unfair. Im glad the American People are getting a front row seat to what yourehaving to endure. Highyield back. Mister connolly is now recognized. My, my. Youre right. On the job 70 days and youve caused this much right ruckus. Thats called accountability and thats why hes here today. Thats why we passed thebill. If he wasnt consulted its because of the inspiration of the bill. A dubious distinction nonetheless. Mister dejoy, when did you take office, when you take over the job as postmaster general. June 15. June 15. Using this data you seen an eight percent decline in service in the Postal Service which most people would say correlates to the reorganization and operational efficiencies you undertook. Do you think thats a fair characterization . I think theres a lot of different issues going on within the country that would impact male delay including the actions that we took with regard to transportation. I think the organizational change was made the cause of the, was accelerated because of the poor role. I think that will strengthen the recovery. We all live in a context dont we mister dejoy. Youre in the context of the worst pandemic in 100 years, 176,000 americans dead, 146,000 employees who have gotten the virus or quarantines the cause of it and sadly a few dozen dead. And on the eve of a massive shift to voting by mail, 76 percent of all americans voting by mail, 70 percent want to vote by mail, 50 to 60 percent intend to vote by mail and along comes this. Stipulate that your motives are pure, that you came at this a normal privatesector ceo and you see some problems, you want to create some efficiencies and save moneyand make us work better. When you think though that you might take into consideration the context and if you didnt, as a good ceo and you thought, when you saw unintended consequences, youd have us believe these were unintended you would take measures quickly to ameliorate the unintended consequences. I understand that the context and we will look in terms of the context it was the summertime, mail volume was down significantly. So it was not, were getting ready for the peak season and the election is three months away. It was a good time to start to try and roll this out. Again the request was just run your trucks on time, put a plan to run your trucks on time. The impact, let me just, the impact is probably about, for that, because if the mail gets processed and the truck leaves, that mail will move on the next truck for the next day. Okay. Long story of the 90s so forth were not, in fact, forgive me for interrupting but i have limited time. Thats why have to interrupt you. You made a statement before the senate the of the day, you had no contact with the Trump Campaign during her tenure. Is that correct . I have know, ive had no contact with the Trump Campaign. I have spoken to the president. I is spoken to Steven Mnuchin. I have spoken to other people but i have not, ive had no contact about the poll, not spoken to anybody about the postal. Did you not tell the board of governors in this month in august you have had contact with the Trump Campaign to ask for them to stop their attacks on the Postal Service and voting by mail . I have put word around to different people that this is not helpful to speedy so you did have contact with the Trump Campaign . For good purpose. Im trying to think where, when you say the Trump Campaign, i have not spoken to Trump Campaign leadership in that regard. Ive spoken to people that are friends of mine that are associated with the campaign, just. One of whom was Steven Mnuchin . Steven mnuchin, secretary treasurer. I know dick. I never told steve to talk to the president to not do something. Thank you mr. Dejoy. The time of the gentleman has expired but you may answer his question. What was the question . Im sorry. The question was what conversations did you have with the secretary treasurer mr. Mnuchin about the Postal Service, your hiring and the consequences that seem to have unfolded with these operational the conversation i had with the secretary were when they came your we had this note that was kind of stuck in the mud and i worked with him to get the note done. It was really, you know, im going to try and control costs and grow revenue, very high level thing, and lets try get the deal done. That was really it. Thank you. Mr. Jordan is now recognized. Thank you, madam chair. Mr. Dejoy, wasnt the Postal Service is false that took six weeks after the june 23 chairwoman maloney is primary election for to be declared the winner . Was not your fault . Im not i know took a long time. Im asking that wasnt your fault, was it . Was at the polls or voltages you are still counting ballots for weeks after the primary election last month . No, sir. How about the democrats i will caucus . Was at the post offices fault we did not who one i dont know if we still figured out who won the Iowa Democratic caucus. Is that the post offices fault . No, sir. I want to be clear. You got 14 billion cash, 10 million line of credit, right . Yes, sir. Genji out the sorting machines and removing and changing out mail collection boxes is nothing different than happened before, right . Every postmaster general every year we do this sort of things, is that right . Yes, sir. So theres no different. In fact, was the number, 20112016, 12,000 mail collection boxes that were removed, changed out by the obamabiden Administration Come right . It was a lot. It was a lot. And you didnt order reduction over time. Why do these guys off the gate . I dont, i dont, they have their own concerns. I assume they are legitimate with them and speedy you assume their legitimate. Mr. Dejoy, they that people protesting at your house last night. They been doing it for weeks. Some of these people are called for you to resign. They passed a bill before the even talk to you, before the even had a hearing. They are not in any bipartisan solution as evidenced by the fact the chairwoman we needed contact the white house chief of staff who had a bill that he worked on the previous gem, the late chairman come exam of operas and built to address concerns at the post office. Why are they after you . First of all you were appointed by the board of governors, right . I was appointed by unanimous the point of my bipartisan unanimous about, bipartisan, democrats that you with right guy for the job come right . Yes, sir. So why are the out to get you . I i have no idea. You have a lot of support of their amongst employees and people in america though. I receive it every day. Got an amazing record in business. Got amazing history of community service. You help kids with their education, serve your community conserver country of these people are out to get you. None of the facts at the wall street journal said this is one giant conspiracy from the democrats. Im just, i want to know what, what, what could be the reason . What could be, mr. Dejoy . We know its not based on the facts. What could it be . You might it be politics . Might it be . Might be the election coming up . Might it be the fact that they actually want to wait and count votes after election day . May be due what six weeks after the election. Maybe you want to be counted but six weeks after the election, the president ial election, the biggest election were going to have. Maybe you want to be counting posts six weeks after like they did in the chairwoman sprays or four weeks at selected individually or maybe you want to wait forever like they did in the democratic ill caucus. By that be the reason, chaos and confusion with all through those elections maybe thats what they want. Could that be the reason, mr. Dejoy . I dont know what motivates people to a different opinions of me. They have called you on kinds of names today already. Purchasing outside your house. They with her last night banging pots and pans outside your house, disrupting her neighbors and you. When the facts as you testified are not anything close to what they been saying for the last three weeks come with this is saturday on the house floor. This is can we know at this is about. We all know what this is about. This is about these guys wanting chaos and confusion because they come i think you know this. They know a lecture President Trump is going to win. They know i election day the vote count election at President Trump is going to win and want to keep counting six weeks, four weeks, i will caucus come whatever, i dont know when they. I still dont know it was bernie biden or whoever was running thin. Thats what they want. They are willing to go after a guy like you to assert a country served his Community Helps kids with their education amazing record in business they willing to go if you can you been on the job 70 days and everything you testified is nothing to this been done by same thing by other postmaster general and get their come after you because thats a much the want to get this president. Its disgusting and we all know whats going on. The fact you know, you wont say it. I think that should you purchase will but ill say because its the truth and the American People understand it and see right right to it. I yield back. The gentleman could morning. Before becoming postmaster of lee youll probably resigned from being the finance chair for the Republican National convention, greg . I did. I say you operably resign because even in your written testimony you said we should keep the nonpartisan tradition of the usps, and in this case occupy highlevel political post at the same time you would be occupy highlevel usps post would create at the least appearance problems if not more, right . Yes, sir. I also think i couldnt hold both positions. Yes, sir. Mr. Duncan, are you on the line . Mr. Duncan . Yes, congressman. Yes, sir. As chairman of the board you are one of the highest ranking officials at the usps, correct . As chairman of the board i am a member of a parttime board that is senate conference. You are the chair of the board, highestranking official at the usps. Id like to point out that you are also on the board of two republican super pacs come namely the Senate Leadership fund and american crossroads, correct . Yes, sir. And i just went to the usps website and i looked at your bio and and i would be remiss if i didnt point out on your official government bio at the usps website you said as rnc chairman he, name of you, raise an unprecedented 428 million and crew the donor base to 1. Milligan, record at the time this is on your official government usps bio. Mr. Duncan, i have a couple of the questions for you. In your written testimony you mentioned that a outside Research Firm called Russell Reynolds associates was contracted to find the quoteunquote best person for the job come best person for the java postmaster general, correct . Correct. You further noted in your testimony that Russell Reynolds reviewed 212 candidates, and a narrowed the search to 53 after they reviewed those peoples bios and backgrounds and they vetted them, correct . Yes, sir. Interestingly, according to David Williams the former vice chairman of the board, former Inspector General for 13 years at the usps, as well as a published report over the weekend, mr. Dejoy, was not among the 53 presented to the board. Either one, Russell Reynolds considered mr. Dejoy, and decided there were 53 better candidates than him, or mr. Dejoy, was not considered by Russell Reynolds at all before proceeding to 53 finalists. Which was it, mr. Duncan . We were still in a process of developing the pool before we had our first round interviews at that point. I understand. You talk about the firstrate interviews, the route of 14 but you dont dispute obviously in your answer that mr. Dejoy, did not make the initial cut out 53 finalists presented to the board, but he was inserted into the round of 14 not by merit but by his connections. It would be the same as the ncaa team not making the rounds of 64 had been swooping in to the route of the sweet 16, and thats what happened here. So let me ask you this question. Mr. Williams repeatedly asked the board to do a background check on mr. Dejoy, by Postal Inspection Service. Do you know what the Postal Inspection Service is . Yes, sir. And you and the board refused to do the background check, and that was not shared with the board before they voted. Now let me turn to my final set of questions here. Mr. Duncan, you were once quoted in the republican fundraising letter saying quote, the obama biden democrats and the liberal special interest allies are trying to steal the election victories from republicans. I assume you still believe that about joe biden and the democrats . I have no knowledge of that. Its in the cnn article that quotes you directly right here. Do we have another article from the Las Vegas Sun. It says, again, you wrote in a letter democrats will soon be trying to pad their total at ballot boxes across the country with votes from voters who do not exist. Do you still believe that to be the case, mr. Duncan . What is is the dates of thee letters . This article is from the Las Vegas Sun from 2008. Used to believe this, the sentiment . I dont believe anyone at this point, the nominee of the major party is trying to steal the election. Thank you. That would be in contravention of what the president said in a tweet august 20. They are trying to steal this election, the democrats. The time of the gentleman has expired but the gentleman may answer. There were lots of false premises and its about making the cut. The process work that we had lots of people who had input including members of congress, minnesota administration. I think i put in a half a dozen different names. We ran into a period of time after the holidays when covid started that we were not moving as fast as possible, got together and talk about we need to make sure we have as many candidates as possible because you get a better quote, the better choice at the time. It during that time that mr. Dejoys or availability became known to me. I submitted that meant as i had many others. The time of the gentleman has expired mr. Massie, you are now recognized. Mr. Massie, you are now recognized we could then go to mr. Higgins. Mr. Hice. Okay. We had some difficulty. Were going to go to mr. Roy and come back to mr. Massie. Mr. Weissberg can you hear me . We can hear you but were not seeing you. Now we see you. Okay, excellent. Appreciate it. Thanks for the indulgence. 2027488000 at a couple of questions for me. When you nominated by the president of the United States or selected by unanimous bipartisan board . I was selected by unanimous bipartisan board. Thank you. I minute ago my colleague mr. Connolly lamented your done quote 70 days of damage, yet mr. Connolly if im not mistaken has been on this committee for 11 years, chair or rank of the government operation committees for seven years and given that the Oversight Committee held a hearing in april of 2019 about the Financial Condition of the usps, why do they we are having a hearing today 71 days before election and 48 hours after we voted on legislation before we have a hearing . Why do you think we were havia hearing today . I do not know, but i will say that i am surprised at the lack of attention to the Financial Condition of the Postal Service over the last ten years. You were saying the Financial Condition of the Postal Service is nothing new, that this is something that we have no has been coming for a long time that the Postal Service has lost money for what at least 13 consecutive years . I think ten years. Okay. Mr. Dejoy, does the United States Postal Service deliver 8 billion pieces of mail a month, give or take . Yes, sir. Does it have about 14 billion dash on had to manage the affairs of the Postal Service for right now, is that right . Yes, sir. Is every single american if every single american voted by mail, which wont happen we all know that, it would be less than about 2 of the total mail delivered in a given month, right . In other words, is the usps perfectly capable of handling any bill that will be attached to our election in november . We are ready to handle the election mail. Mr. Dejoy, do you believe that this hearing today so far this morning or at any point today will cover any of the following the ppp extension to ensure Small Businesses can survive while governments are keeping businesses shut down, the thousands of wrestlers come the thousands of live music venues in the thousands of hotels, the thousands of barbershops across the country that are struggling to survive . Is anything in this hearing going to discuss any of that to the best seven out . No, sir. Are you aware of this Democratic Congress holding up any legislation to do with these issues this month rather than going home i get Holding Congress back on saturday to have a hearing im sorry come have a vote before we even had a hearing on saturday . Are you aware that was that the only thing we have been voting on in august . I havent been following the agent of congress that much. Ive had my own issues to deal with. I appreciate that. There hasnt been that much to follow so i appreciate that. Are we discussing, for example, Human Trafficking . Will that be discussed today . I been asking for hearing on the scorch of Human Trafficking what we can do to stop that . Ive been asking for hearing on the over year. Were not having that hearing today, are we . Were having a hearing on this topic, right . I think we will be sticking to post service matters. Thats right. Mr. Dejoy, i i appreciate you being here in front of the committee. I think the fact of the matter is pretty clear. This is a political exercise. This is a show hearing. I have already seen a social media some of the typical, come technology. The fact of the matter is we are jamming through this for theater or doing a hearing on the monday after a vote on saturday that has no prior of becoming law and this is exactly what the america people are sick of. They want the Postal Service to operate and georgia to work on try to make it operate. We should have you feelings abt the health and defense financial steps of the Postal Service. We should work on legislation to improve it. There are bipartisan efforts to do that. We should roll our stays up and do that work. I would say the same thing about the ppp. I whispered to work with dean phillips in june to pass Bipartisan Legislation to help Small Businesses. Why are we not doing that right now . Why are we not doing that today . That is our job. There are people who are struggling who cant make a check, cant pay the mortgage and wanting whether the revenue in order to survive for business they built up, for people of work for them for years. Also we should be working on and i would just posit this is a waste the time for the United States congress, the American People are sick of it and we should be aligned also serves to go back to doing its job. We should be focusing on doing ours. With that i would just back. I think the gentleman for yielding and his comets, just as a point of information, the Democratic Congress did pass the heroes act on may 15. They did find all kinds of help to people fund that a city a Mitch Mcconnell stressed as well as this bill. So he has a choice, standalone or move the heroes act. I now recognize mr. Raskin. You are recognize. Thank you, madam chair. Ive got diabetic constituents are waiting for insulin. Ive got constituents with cancer waiting for chemo drugs to come in, but this headline really took the cake for me. Rats reported feeding on packages of rotted fruit and beat as postmaster generals cutbacks unleash chaos at californias mail centers. This is from not some haven of liberal fake news, Business Insider magazine. Mr. Postmaster general, why do you celebrate ontime departure of postal vehicles if the deterioration service that you regret has cause caused letterd packages left stacking up in the mail centers . Should we be celebrating vehicles going out on time if they dont the people packages and letters on them and their Prescription Drugs . We are concerned with every late delivery and every package build up, and there are a lot of contributing factors to why, you know, and let me finish. The process is an integral part of delivering the mail, to costeffectively. Why would we, if the alternative is to run trucks late and run extra trips, extra trips were empty also. Thousands of the anti are giving because ive limited time. President trump called the post office a joke. Is it a joke . Postal service is not a joke. Mr. Dejoy, if i i wanted to become a letter carrier or a meal handler, a postal clerk would you hire me without a background check . We have a process that i do believe includes background checks, so no. Its compel come right . Of you we has to take a background check except they didnt have one for you. Thats not true. I had background checks. See quickly, fbi background checks, everything. So you would be willing to release the background check . No. Why would i release a background check . Thats interesting let me go to duncan about that. Mr. Duncan, would you be willing to allow Russell Reynolds to turn over the file from this process . Mr. Duncan . Let me come back to you, mr. Dejoy. The former chairman of the postal come vicechairman of the poster board of governors, mr. Williams was also the Inspector General, also reported that you didnt come to the normal Russell Reynolds interview process. But you are apparently the product of different nominations by different political people, and the astonishing thing about what he said last week was that when you finally brought in for the first interview he basically interviewed a Selection Panel rather than then interviewing you to the point of one of the members joke they had better ask you least one question so that it could be said that it wasnt a real interview. Now, you also reported stating that you were not you were not sure you want to accept the job and you need to interview them about what it entailed. What gave you the confidence of the job was basically yours for the asking when you finally met the Selection Committee . I did not think the job was mine for the asking. I dont know what mr. Williams contention is of what his problem is with me. He was the Inspector General for 13 years of the Postal Service and the vice chair. These part of the report said been stacking up that this committee hasnt done what you make of the former chairman of the board of governors calling secretary mnuchin at home in the Selection Process absolutely unprecedented . I Steven Mnuchin had nothing to do with my selection, okay . I was called by russell speed is due to talk to secretary mnuchin speeders totally inaccurate and outrageous. Youve never talked about before to get jumping of talking about taking the jump . I talked about the jump after i received the offer. I did not accept the offer immediately. But you never spoke to them before about his soliciting your interest in the job or i did not solicit any interest. I kept my interest which is identified, i did not know i had an interest, either perfectly good life prior to this but i was interested in helping and i was called by Russell Reynolds out of the blue. One of the reasons we have background checks ill be very interested in your permission and mr. Duncans permission to see see a background check is we identified patterns of misconduct for potential conference of interest that are out there. I have no patterns of misconduct in my back and. Let me finish my speedy madam chair his overtime. Logistics has contracts with the Postal Service stretching back many years. [inaudible] okay. The question is, they identify problems with contract performance and billing practices in the contract file. Would you consent to releasing that contract file so everyone can see what i dont even know what youre speaking about. Are you not aware of xp l logistics . I am aware. So do you have 30 billion invested speedy speedy hes gone way over his time. Do you have 30 million invested. Was a significant speed is he doesnt have to answer. Which i had before with the Ethics Department of the Postal Service and i was given specific types of guidelines that it did to adhere to. Its a very, very small part of the Postal Service business. I have nothing to do with, and my, i comply with all applicae requirements and we had an investigation. I guess ill get to everything that youre interested in and well see what will happen. Mr. Raskin stein has expired. [inaudible] President Trump is on his way to look at storm damage in louisiana and texas caused by hurricane laura. This photo shows the president holding a rally in lake charles, louisiana the year ago near where the storm came ashore on thursday. He is visiting storm damage in areas in texas you the louisiana border. Near the louisiana border. Journal,s washington we take your calls live on the air of the news of the day. We discussed policy issues that impact you. Seang up sunday morning, trinity Discusses Campaign 2020. Then Foreign Policy analyst brandon weikert discusses the importance of american dominance in space. Watch cspans washington journal, live at 7 00 eastern on sunday morning. Join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages, and tweets. Sunday night, author and haroldcarol holzer ther on his president versus the press. Lack of patriotism during the revolution. All sorts of charges that were unimaginable think is the early washington. When he wrote his farewell address, he drafted a paragraph, later cut by his editor alexander hamilton, that made it clear one of the reasons he was not stay for a third term was he could not take the obligations implications of newspapers any longer. Holzerl holzer harold on q a. Next, the hill hosted a discussion with the republican mayors in miami and mesa, arizona about Affordable Housing issues