House passes bill bolstering US Postal Service with $35bn in extra funds
The Democrat-led House of Representatives has passed legislation preventing US Postal Service cutbacks at least through to January.
The Democrat-led House of Representatives has passed legislation preventing US Postal Service cutbacks at least through to January and providing it with $US25bn ($34.9bn) in additional funding, reflecting Democrats’ concerns that delivery delays affecting basic mail service would spill over into an election being held during the coronavirus pandemic.
In a rare Saturday session, the bill passed 257-150, with the support of 231 Democrats and 26 Republicans. It was opposed by 149 Republicans and one independent.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi brought the measure to the floor over the objections of house republican leaders. They say she is promoting conspiracy theories that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump donor appointed in May, is cutting costs at the struggling service to hinder voting by mail, which the President has criticised.
Republicans say it is routine to decommission mail-sorting equipment and remove mail boxes the postal service deems underused. They also say the service has the money and capacity to handle the heavy volume of mail-in ballots expected. They note that Mr DeJoy has agreed to suspend operational changes until after the election, which is less than three months away.
The house bill faces opposition in the GOP-controlled Senate. Congressional leaders had been discussing funding for the UPS as part of a broader coronavirus relief package, but those negotiations collapsed earlier this month. Ms Pelosi said she brought the UPS bill up separately to address the public alarm over changes implemented by Mr DeJoy.
“It makes absolutely no sense to implement these dramatic changes in the middle of a pandemic less than three months before the November elections,” house oversight committee chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, the bill’s lead sponsor, said on the house floor on Saturday (Sunday AEST). “The American people do not want anyone messing with the post office. They certainly do not want it to be politicised. They just want their mail.”
Complaints about delays have spilled over into concerns about the election, in which mail-in voting is expected to hit historic highs because of the pandemic.
“Representatives of the Post Office have repeatedly stated that they DO NOT NEED MONEY, and will not make changes,” Mr Trump tweeted. “This is all another HOAX by the Democrats to give 25 Billion unneeded dollars for political purposes, without talking about the Universal Mail-In Ballot Scam that they are trying to pull off in violation of everything that our Country stands for.”
Mr DeJoy, who has declined to reverse some changes he has made, including removing mail boxes and taking mail-sorting machines out of service — cuts that Democrats would reverse in their legislation. The bill also would require all ballots to be treated as first-class mail.
Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said he would not bring up a separate UPS funding bill without a broader deal on coronavirus relief. “Senate Republicans are committed to making sure the postal service remains well equipped to fulfil its important duties. But the President has already made it clear he will not sign the Speaker’s partisan stunt into law,” he said. “The Senate will absolutely not pass stand-alone legislation for the Postal Service while American families continue to go without more relief.”
Many of the Republicans who voted for the bill face competitive re-elections and want to show support for the UPS.
The bill’s passage was a unifying exercise for the House Democrat caucus. Democrats are torn over Ms Pelosi’s strategy for enacting a large new coronavirus-aid package, which has become more urgent for jobless Americans after a $US600-a-week unemployment supplement expired last month.
The Wall Street Journal
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