A bipartisan Senate panel has launched an investigation into the controversial U.S. Postal Service policy changes implemented by Trump’s Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has announced Sunday.
“A three-member subcommittee of the US Postal Service’s Board of Governors has been tasked with investigating the USPS’ policy changes ahead of the November election,” Schumer told CNN.
According to Schummer, “the subcommittee, which consists of two Democrat appointees to the board and one Republican, is expected to issue a public report within two weeks outlining how the USPS will ensure the timeliness of election mail and other critical services.”
Last week, DeJoy told lawmakers that he would suspend policy changes at the USPS until after the November election. But Democrats are not buying it.
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“Frankly, no one really believes him,” Schumer said Sunday.
Since taking over the USPS in June, DeJoy has come under fire for dramatic cost-cutting measures ahead of a November election that is expected to see widespread use of mail-in ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Schumer made it clear that the USPS Board of Governors has the power to overrule DeJoy, and that the two-week window for the report was to “give us enough time to put the correct actions in place so that the elections will be held fairly.”
“We cannot have the specter of a disrupted election — an election that doesn’t count all votes — hovering over the election season,” Schumer said, according to CNN.
“The whole targeting of the post office right before the election had a real odor of political involvement and trying to jeopardize and jaundice our elections. And the fact that so many swing states were involved in the targeting is all the more reason to believe that and worry about it.”
Schumer also said that, in addition to the report, “the Board of Governors subcommittee is expected to brief lawmakers weekly.”
