Pelosi weighs bringing House back early to address Postal Service crisis
By: HEATHER CAYGLE, JOHN BRESNAHAN and SARAH FERRIS (POLITICO)
Democrats are suddenly concerned about the US Postal Service? The political duplicity of the Democratic controlled House knows no bounds.
Just to be clear, Democrats are not concerned about the lapse in unemployment funding, the loss of small businesses, school openings, continued problems with access to testing, or spread of the virus. Democrats are not concerned about police reforms or needs to address systemic racism. These issues do not warrant cutting short House politician's vacations.
Democrats top concern is mail-in voting. Democrats haven't been talking about strengthening the Postal Service, either. Democrats haven't been talking about addressing recurring, persistent problems with Postal Service funding. Democrats are only concerned about exploiting the Postal Service for some sort of political advantage.
Why isn't Amazon, FedEx, or UPS being used to handle mail-in voting? Can't the Democrat's beloved private sector contractors do the job? Democrats have questioned the need for the US Postal Service in the past.
The only thing that has happened has been Trump engaging in Pelosi politics. Pelosi has been hoisted by her own petard. Democrats don't care dinkum doo about the Postal Service; they only care about winning elections by any means possible. Trump has threatened junk-mail voting that Democrats are depending upon to win. If Democratic chances for winning the election hinge upon junk-mail delivery by a Federal service Democrats do not support then the claims that junk-mail voting will provide a free, fair, and open election ring hollow.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic leaders are considering cutting short the August recess and bringing the chamber back into session to deal with the unfolding crisis at the U.S. Postal Service, according to Democratic sources.
The House could return to vote with the next two weeks, the Democratic sources suggested. The chamber is currently in recess, with no votes scheduled until the week of Sept. 14.
Pelosi and other top Democrats, including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), discussed the possibility of returning early during an emergency leadership call Saturday afternoon.
Democrats are looking to address organizational issues at the Postal Service in the coming weeks, not to provide additional funding at this time, according to sources familiar with the discussion.
One option would be to vote on a modified version of a bill introduced by House Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) earlier this week that would prohibit USPS from implementing a planned organizational overhaul that critics maintain would handicap mail-in voting.
Other top Democrats also floated addressing other issues, including expired federal unemployment benefits and voting rights. But Democratic sources said the immediate focus — at least for now — is preserving the Postal Service ahead of the election.
On Friday, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) issued a scathing statement accusing President Donald Trump and Republicans of waging an "all-out assault on the Postal Service and its role in ensuring the integrity of the 2020 election." Their statement came after Trump said he opposes a federal infusion of funds to save the flailing postal service because he doesn't support mail-in voting.
"The President made plain that he will manipulate the operations of the Post Office to deny eligible voters the ballot in pursuit of his own re-election," Pelosi and Schumer said. "The President's own words confirm: he needs to cheat to win."
Trump has suggested that he's opposed to giving more money to the Postal Service because of the expected wave of millions of mail-in ballots in November due to the coronavirus pandemic.
He has also offered strong praise for Louis DeJoy, a businessman and Trump donor who was recently appointed postmaster general. Democrats have suggested DeJoy is revamping the Postal Service's operations to aid Trump's reelection campaign.
"The Post Office is a catastrophe," Trump said during a press conference Saturday at his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J. "And obviously if you're going to do these millions of ballots out of nowhere, [DeJoy is] going to obviously need funding. But the Democrats aren't willing to provide other things and therefore they're not going to get the funding for that."
Frustration has been growing in both parties over the lack of response to the U.S. economic situation while Congress remains in recess. On Friday, roughly a half-dozen House members spoke by phone with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to discuss ways to break the impasse.
The group, dubbed the Problem Solvers Caucus, included members of both parties, including swing district Democrats like Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.).
But congressional leaders have failed to reach a wide-ranging coronavirus deal despite weeks of back and forth negotiations between the White House and Democratic leaders. Both chambers have recessed for the traditional August recess.
House Democrats included $25 billion for the USPS in their coronavirus bill in May, along with an additional $3.6 billion in election security funding. The White House and Democratic leaders tentatively agreed to as much as $10 billion for the Postal Service in their negotiations, but that was contingent on the rest of the agreement being nailed down, which wasn't anywhere near happening.
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Nancy Pelosi is considering recalling the House from their privileged vacations to engage in junk-mail vote fraud. And Democrat's will probably want a bulk mail discount, to boot.
It is ridiculous to try to set up a mail in system from scratch in the few weeks remaining. Too many problems and glitches are likely to occur. In some cases accurate counting could take weeks. Boxes of ballots could keep showing up and showing up out of nowhere. Remember the Al Franken debacle?
"Remember the Al Franken debacle?" This is the second time you have made this statement, please elaborate, with a link, just wth you are talking about? I recall that was a tight election that went to a recount. what debacle?
When in doubt throw money at it. That will fix a broken system like the USPS.
3.6 billion? Good money, but no f'ing plan on how to use it. More money down the political slush fund tubes.