Mail, Committee Members asked witnesses about mr. Dejoys ownership of a company that contracted its services to the usps. The chair would ask without objection that ms. Debbie wassermanschultz i got it right here. Ms. Cooper and representative mary gay scanlon beor waived on the committee. Without objection, it is so ordered. I want to welcome everyone to s our hearings on recent developments regarding the Postal Service and i now recognize myself for an Opening Statement and i will recognize the Ranking Member for his Opening Statement. I have agreed is the chairwoman on . Does the chairwoman wish to have an Opening Statement . Ill recognize here with your permission after myself. O our colleague ms. Lawrence is going to issue have an Opening Statement. I will recognize if somebodyv on your side wants to have additional okay. That would be fine. The cr you justow let me know. Okay. Theit s Postal Service is the crowned jewel of our federal government. It emplo serves every household business every day. It employs 630,000 brave individuals who live in every single congressional district. According to pew research, 91 of americans have a favorable view of the Postal Service. Oth leaps and bounds above that of any other federal entity. During the coronavirus pandemic, the Postal Services value to this nation is greater than ever. The Postal Service is a formal s component our response framework serving as a linchpin as our nations response to the pandemic. A june 2020 harris poll found that the Postal Service ranged as the single most essential company to americans during the pandemic. Because its a constant in your lives. It outranks companies that manufacture ppe. The Postal Service will also play a critical, unprecedented in the sense of expanded role in our democracy. Protecting ballo the health of who cast their ballots by mail. We know postal workers can handle the volume of that ion election mail. Is the question is whether those at the helm are taking steps to t hinder that capacitybe and slowt down in ways that hurt the prospects of a Fair Election bue benefit one candidates reelection campaign. Its essential that the Postal Service leadership demonstrate nonpartisanship and not cronyism or t favoritism. Serving everyone in our country is the responsibility to bestow upon only the most qualified and honorable of leaders. Its a job for those who are ready and willing to listen to the millions of stakeholders, mail recipients and so many others to connect the United States as Benjamin Franklin foresaw and serve as the thread that unites our societys many fabrics. Unfortunately, thats not what is happening. Instead, we have a board of governors who inserted a political ally of the president into the search process at the 11th hour. Circumventing proper venting and background checks. We have a crony at the helm of our nations Postal Service, a man with conflicts of interest. We have a postmaster general who would benefit financially if the post office sprints towards privatization. He who would benefit if mailin ballots are delayed or undelivered. That would be unacceptable under any circumstance. Its catastrophic, however, during a Global Pandemic on the precipice of one of the most consequential National Elections in our lifetimes. This hearing seeks to give the public an update on what we know about the background and qualifications of the postmaster general selected by the board of governors. In fact, one might say that this is the homework that board of governors should have done but failed to do. Using publicly available resources, well piece together the troubling past of mr. Dejoy. Well examine his actions related to Campaign Elections while he was at the helm of new breed logistics. Well explore his companies that benefit from contracts with the Postal Service, companies that would also benefit if usps pursued the president s plan for privatization. We will discuss why these actions and those Connections Matter and why they should have rendered him, in my view, ineligible for consideration for this position. Mr. Dejoys first day of work was june 15th. Today marks the start of his 13th week of federal service and yet his record is characterized by tumult, controversy, plummeting service, betrayal of customers in need of medicines and supplies but the trucks are on time with the mail often left behind. So theres that. We learned at our last hearing that mr. Dejoy has known for weeks that his socalled operational changes that just so happened to coincide with the election starting slowed down the mail by 10 . Thats according to their own inside sources as the chairwoman of this committee made public at our last hearing. For two weeks, he withheld from congress and the public the data and analysis that demonstrated how his leadership undermined the actual mission of the Postal Service to deliver the mail. Days later, details of mr. Dejoys personal lack of ethics have come to light. He reportedly forged his own brothers signature to take greater control over his familys company. Mr. Dejoy reportedly and illegally used the Family Company as a personal Political Action committee coercing his staff, reportedly, to donate to preferred republican candidates and then reimbursing those employees with bonuses at salary. If true, dejoys actions should have been of great concern to the board of governors and could be prosecuted for criminal activity. But were not done. Over the weekend, the Postal Service sent every home in america to request a mailin ballot, sending misinformation in nine states that send out such ballots. This debacle could have been avoided if mr. Dejoy had accepted proofreading of that message before he sent it out. And we see reports emerging that when mr. Dejoy was the ceo of his company, they may have received as much as 53 million in overpayments for services rendered. The dossier released today by ms. Lisa graves, one of our witnesses, shows that mr. Dejoy continues to hold investments, assets or other interest in entities that benefit when the Postal Service contracts out its operations. Moreover, mr. Dejoy improperly mixes his friendships with his nonpartisan position as png. What should scare every american is that mr. Dejoy in his official capacity continues to conceal his secret coordination with Trump Campaign associates about which hes already provided misleading information and testimony for the congress. The chairwoman and i have repeatedly asked t repeatedly asked the postmaster general clarify what mr. Dejoys investments are and restore trust in the Postal Service. Theyve not given the committee the documents we have requested and that we require. On september 2nd, maloney issued a subpoena compelling mr. Jdejo to provide a list of documents with Trump Campaign affiliates and individuals. Today is the deadline for the board of governors to provide the committee documents and information to shed light on the way mr. Dejoy was selected for this position. While the board of governors might be, quote, tickled pink, unquote, with mr. Dejoys performance, the American People are not. Perhaps they need to be reminded that their job is to serve the country not any particular president. I look forward to hearing from our expert Witnesses Today in continuing this critical discussion and the committees ongoing investigation. And with that, i recognize my friend, the distinguished Ranking Member for his opening remarks. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Just the mere notion that this hearing is a postal update is Utter Nonsense by the chairmans own admission just moments ago the issues that will be discussed in the hearing today shows this hearing for what it is, an absolute farce. Not a single one of the witnesses who are here are supposed to be having a postal update. Not a single one of the witnesses work for the usps currently. The fact is in relation to the Postal Service update, because of better than expected revenue during this pandemic, because of packages, the Postal Service has reported that it has enough money to be totally solvent through at least august of next year. 11 months from now. 11 months, there is no immediate need for a 25 billion bailout. However, as gao reported in may and as we have all known now for decades, the us pss model is not sustainable because of such things as declining mail volumes, increased compensation costs and rising unfunded liabilities. 25 billion bail out money cannot fix these type of problems. All it does is push the problems down the road a little bit further for us to have to deal with it later. We have a 11 months as of right now, 11 months to come together to work in a partisan fashion to bring real reforms to the Postal Service just like mr. Chairman you did with my predecessor mark meadows. But instead of having a serious discussion about proposals for a postal reform bill, we are using this valuable time to delve into conspiracy theories about the koch family and opine into mr. Dejoys financial interests. Assembling a group of people like we are doing here today regardless of their experience to speculate with no more facts or information than what is presented in the Washington Post is absolutely a waste of time. This is, in my opinion, close to a Kangaroo Court as anything ive seen. Given the reckless apathy towards facts and truth, its clear that this socalled hearing is nothing more than a further attempt at political assassination. What we do know at this point is that the usps Ethics Office cleared mr. Dejoy to retain certain assets and to the best of anyones knowledge here, he has complied with the conditions around that ruling. For his part, postmaster general has confirmed in our full Committee Hearing that the oig is conducting an investigation and he said that he welcomed the results of that report. Furthermore, the president himself has said that hes open to a Campaign Finance investigation of the postmaster general and said if he did something wrong, if it could be proven, if theres evidence of wrongdoing, he should lose his job. And despite all of the cooperation between those two, the democrats try to paint them as partners. It sounds like at least the two of them, the postmaster and the Current Administration are willing to at least collect the facts and evidence before rushing to judgment. Something certainly that this committee so far has not done. Just for example, when the entire house was forced to vote on a postal bailout bill before we even had a hearing, before we even had the opportunity to question postmaster general and analyze data on what was causing the reported slowdowns or when the democrats claim that the removal of collection boxes and sending letters to state about their election deadlines was an assault on the postal it was without admitting the same actions that postmaster generals in the past have done. Same actions that they have taken time and again. Today were having a hearing two days before the Postal Service is due to start producing documents from the democrat subpoena which asked for documents regarding the postmaster generals investments, recusals and communications with the Ethics Office. But let me just add this, in the documents that have already been received from the Postal Service, there is evidence of the democrats disingenuous narrative about the usps. The documents show in black and white evidence countering two of the democrats favorite topics on this issue, the postal boxes and mailsorting machines. Interestingly, more of these were removed just prior to the 2016 election than have been removed this year. And yet strangely, i dont recall any talk about it then. As a result the hearing today will not be based on fact. It will be based on conjecture and supposition in the hopes of one day that we will resume genuine postal reform. Ive invited mr. Mike plunkett, this is a National Association of businesses and organizations that rely on the use of mail for communications and commerce. I look forward to hearing from him as well as our other witnesses who are here today and hopefully we will be able to move forward with genuine efforts for postal reform rather than these type of hearings that are nothing more than a Kangaroo Court to score political points. With that, mr. Chairman, i yield back. I thank the gentleman. I would note for the record what was characterized as characteristic assassination was an indepth investigation done by the Washington Post and Media Outlets confirm the findings of the investigation that members of new breed staff when mr. Dejoy was the krae wce pressured to make donations. I appreciate the chairmans remarks with that, but the fact is, this hearing is supposed to be about postal updates, not about potential investigations or Kangaroo Courttype of investigations we appreciate the gentlemans point. But leadership of the Postal Service is directly related to issues about performance at the Postal Service. Thats what leadership is about. Before i call on ms. Lawrence and mr. Keller for Opening Statements, i recognize the chairwoman of the full committee for my comments she may wish to make. Good morning. I would like to thank you for holding this important hearing and being such a Strong Partner in our investigation to hold the Postal Service and its leadership accountable to the American People. I would like to welcome our witnesses. We look forward to learning from you and working with you to ensure that the Public Interest is protected and i thank you for being here. Ever since the board of governors announced the selection of mr. Dejoy as postmaster general, questions have been raised about the process for selecting him and possible conflicts of interest, given his many financial interests and Postal Service contractors. During our full Committee Hearing on august 24th, 2020, multiple Committee Members questioned mr. Dejoy and Board Chairman dunkin about his Selection Process and whether it was influenced by the fact that both mr. Dejoy and mr. Dunkin are longtime mega donors for the Republican Party. When directly asked by congressman cooper whether mr. Dejoy had ever paid back any of his executives for contributing to republican campaigns by providing bonuses or rewarding them, mr. Dejoy responded in no uncertain terms, thats an outrageous claim, sir. And i resent it, end quote. Yet less than two weeks later, a headline appeared in the Washington Post which stated, and i quote, louis dejoys rise as gop fund raiser was powered by contributions from Company Workers who were later reimbursed, former employees say, end quote. If true, these allegations are not only incredibly unethical, they are illegal. And to compound these possible crimes, mr. Dejoy would have lied to congress as well. The United StatesPostal Service is one of our nations most trusted institutions. It dates back to the very founding of our country as mentioned in our constitution and consistently receives the highest rating of federal agencies from the public. Every day it provides millions of people with access to critical mail, medications, and especially in this unique election mailin ballots. But how long can we expect the faith of the American People to last if the Postal Service is tainted by partisan leadership and alleged criminal activity . These are just a few of the reasons why i have introduced the nonpartisan postmaster general act which will prevent Postal Service leadership from participating in any political activity and will prevent anyone who has held a political position in the last four years from being hired as postmaster general or deputy postmaster general. This is critical timesensitive legislation that the full committee will consider this week. Again, i thank chairman conley for holding this important hearing and the witnesses for being here today a