>> i'm not familiar with the request in total or how we supported it. i'm sure the staff answered the questions as they were asked, and let me just for the record clear up i did -- that is not a policy change. this is a request that we run our 40,000 trucks a day on schedule and your intuition is right. would you think that the mail would move faster and it did, a good portion of it moved faster, all right, and we've also -- at this was sitting there looking at a report that -- that talked somewhere between $1 billion and $3 billion worth of costs wasted on our truck trips being out of schedule. it was an easy request that i spoke with every senior executive in the organization -- >> my time is limited, and i'll dm i'm concerned why we didn't receive any of this information,

and i have to just say mr. dejoy we sent our letter two days after you received this briefing and this document. the it must have been fresh on your mind. there's absolutely no excuse for concealing it and withholding this information from the committee or from your testimony before the senate when you were expressly asked questions about the information in the document, and, unfortunately, this committee received it from someone else, so mr. dejoy, you're withholding information from us, concealing documents and downplaying the damage that you're 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.

now i know many of our members plan to ask about how you intend to fix the problems, the problems you created and reverse those horrible trend lines so we will get to those questions next. with that i now recognize the distinguished ranking member for five minutes for his questions. the he's saying that virginia fox will be the first to respond. virginia fox from the great state of north carolina. >> thank you, madam chairman. madam chairman, i do note that you're going over time a great deal but postmaster general, dejoy, thank you very much for being with us today. some claim the expedited sort pilot and your changes are deliberative efforts to slow down mail and hurt postal

service employees. is that true? >> no, ma'am. >> are you banning employees from charging overtime, or are you trying to limit unplanned overtime to ensure the postal service's viability? >> at this time no, ma'am, and at no time since i've 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 the efficiency of operations? >> well, besides costing substantial amounts of money, you know, for the postal service in terms of billions of dollars, it is also -- it also does not

keep the systems, delivery system in balance which also results in delays in mail and 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 hinder the postal service's ability to stay financially viable? >> absolutely. >> you know, my husband and i have experienced some very, very inefficient services on the part of the post office in the last few weeks and i'm 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 they 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. mr. dejoy, as we're all aware the postal service is not a government agency that receives appropriations. the 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 self-sufficient? >> i do. and what will it take to make the usps self-sufficient? >> legislation with regard to our health care and medicaid integration and our pension reform, flexibility from the

prc. we're in the 14th year of a ten-year analysis. the postal service itself there,'s a library of oig reports identifying flawed practices and billions and billions and billions of dollars of costs and waste that nobody seems to pay attention to, and then in our postal service, our management team itself delivering, you know, helping fix ourselves both in terms of service and -- and cost, and we have a plan now to do that, and part of it includes running our trucks on time. >> and these oig reports have come from democrat presidents and republican administrations both, is that correct? >> yes, ma'am. >> thank you. if you have no operational flexibility, can you possibly make the postal service self-sufficient? >> i think we have a very, very good shot. we have some new revenue ideas for the postal service also. we have it -- we're beginning to finalize the plan.

i need to brief the board, but i'm very, very excited about the management team under our new organizational struck. i'm excited about the dead capital gains taxes of the 650,000 men and women, and i think we can embark upon from a little help from this congress -- we're about to embark upon some exciting future for the postal service. i believe in the six-day delivery. i believe the carriers, the 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 to really enhance that relationship and help our growth. i want to thank you for your expertise for becoming

postmaster general for the united states. you have the exact background and commitment that we need to make the post office work the way the post office out to work. >> thank you. i now recognize congresswoman norton, congresswoman norton by web "x." >> thank you very much, madam chair. the this hearing is very necessary to clarify matters that were left open when we talk the vote already on this bill. mr. dejoy, in your testimony you suggested that the coronavirus was having, and i'm quoting, a significant -- a significant issue in employee availability in many, many parts of the

country. if that's the case, sir, i want to know why you would be reducing overtime. isn't overtime even more necessary to postal employees during this national emergency, during this pandemic with so many people at home and given what you already testified to about the significant issue in employee availability across the country? >> thank you. >> why wouldn't overtime be necessary to make up for all of that? >> thank you, ma'am. since i've been here we've spent $700 million in overtime. the overtime rate before my arrival was at 13% within the organization. it's still at 13%. as i said in my opening statement, this is a continued misinformation regarding what i did since i got here. i never put a limitation on

overtime. >> well, that's very important testimony, mr. dejoy, because in some states we're seeing ten times the normal volume of mail and i would like to ask about additional resources two weeks before the election is expanded allowance of overtime, is that one of the items under consideration when you have already announced you will bring, quote, additional resources to bear in two weeks before the election? does that include expanded overtime, and wouldn't it have to? yes, ma'am, it does. the 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 inspection checks, route rounds in each postal processing

facility. >> that's very important for the record, that expanded overtime will be allowed in the two weeks before the election. my next question is on a p & g postal service document that we have received. this is what was said and why my questions were necessary. i'm quoting now the document entitled pmg expectations and plan. overtime will be eliminated. there you see it before you. again, we're paying too much for overtime, and it is not cost-effective and soon will be taken off the table. more to come on this. we asked your general counsel and he claimed that that came from a mid-level manager and should not be treated as an

official statement of post office policy so i ask you would a postal manager send this document without some kind of word from you or from the top of the agency and can you explain who this was? >> thank you. i've purposefully not tried to find out who that was, but there are many ways that people interpret -- >> you tried not to find out who that was. >> that's right. that was not a directive from me. there is -- there's 50,000 managers within the organization. this is one of the reasons i changed the organization quickly after the rollout of the truck schedule. >> are you looking at whoever it was in jumping ahead of you and sent that to all your employees?

>> and will you give that name when you find it to the chair as well. in a statement on august 18th you said that overtime will be approved as needed. i want to understand as needed. can postal managers and employees continue approving and using overtime as they did before your ten tour 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 provide it to us, please? >> i'm sorry, i didn't hear the question. >> i asked have you issued any internal guidance to that effect that the employs continue to

approve and use overtime. >> i never issued a guidance against that effect. >> we're asking -- are you intending to issue any guidance to the effect? >> yes. i've told the executive team, the operations team, they -- they know there is no -- there is no different process -- >> madam chair. >> than prior to my arrival. >> the gentle woman's time is completed. >> madam chair, can i just ask that he provide us or provide you any written guidance on overtime. >> time. >> i make that request on behalf of the committee. i now recognize gong congosar. >> can you hear me? >> yes, we can. >> okay. thank you. there you are. >> okay. mr. dejoy. thank you very much for coming today, and i want to clear up

some obvious political misinformation that the majority is actually putting out, so -- and then i also want to say thank you very much for the acknowledgement in the dip in services but we'll get to that. on saturday on the house floor my colleagues said the post office is on the verge of the collapse but that's not true. you have over $10 billion cash on hand and access to a $10 billion line of credit which makes you fiscally viable through august of 2021. is that true, mr. dejoy? >> yes, but i would say that only in washington, d.c. would that be a good position to be in when i have $135 billion in liabilities and $2.5 billion a month, biweekly payroll and a whole burn of others but, yes, we can get through -- through the election and with the loan should we -- should we take it. i don't know how we would pay it back, but should we take it, we should be fine through mid-'2

is. >> now isn't it true that you're actually generating more revenue at this time of the year than you also did last year and you're pros sessioning more -- successfully processing an uptick in mass mail and government items such as the stimulus checks and the cennus question, is that true? >> we're seeing more revenue mostly due to package increase. mail products are down 15% or so on average, but package volume is up substantially, but package volume is very costly for us to handle in and overcapacity method. >> do you believe with the money on hand -- you said that the mail volume is down by is a% and the hard work of the over 6 up,000 postal workers that can you handle the slight election increases that you'll possibly see? >> i will be very, very clear

tat 650,000 men and women, we're working with our union leadership, our management team and our employees, we will be able to handle all election mail for the 2020 election. >> i want to go back to the slowdown related to the pandemic. the president of phoenix postal union said it was suffering from the pandemic workforce strains that no processing machines were removed during your tenure and the united states postal process, over $700,000 in the recent primary election. let me ask you a question, mr. dejoy. have you had slowdowns or impediments like in seattle and portland and new york city and chicago because of the rioting and the anarchy that's going on? >> well, sir, i mean, any kind of rioting does produce delays

with any public service. i don't have a specific measurement on that, but i will say that as the coronavirus cases throughout the country have expanded, it has had an impact on our employee availability and in the urban areas that are hot spots, you know, the averages don't play out what the real picture is like in areas like philadelphia where employee availability is significantly below our normal run rates and what it has been in the pandemic. we actually started to peak in terms of employee availability issues in -- in the july time frame. >> now, i want to go back to. have you caused any policy changes to the postal service such as the eliminating of overtime, prohibiting trips and removing sorting machines, is that true? >> the extra trips, and they

weren't prohibit. it's true on everything else but the extra trips. my direction was we need to work on getting our trucks on schedule and mitigating our extra trips. we still run 700, 800 extra trips a day and we still have thousands of truck trips that run late so it wasn't a flat directive. it was work to our plan. that was my directive and come up with a plan to work to our plan so the management team put a plan together and executed on the plan, but everything else i had nothing to do with. it was a long-standing plan on collection boxes and sorting machines and postal hours. that was way -- that was ongoing really in the areas that were taking care of that. >> another quick question. is the pony express still available today? >> i've been here 70 days, sir, i'm searching for the good.

i haven't seen that yet, no, so i think it's gone. >> technology has its changes and any transfer of a new ideas -- >> i'm sorry. >> a transition where you're trying to make changes always goose smoothly, doesn't it? >> the gentleman's time is expired but may answer his question. >> transitions don't 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 it -- it's not, so the -- you know, the impact -- there are a lot of things that are impacting our service. this is one of them on the front end, and -- and we -- we should have cleared it up quicker, and a i think we have the focus on

it now and it will recover, you know, quite rapidly going forward. >> thank you. [ inaudible ] >> thank you, madam, chair, for conducting this hearing. mr. 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 and medications on time, and it's heartbreaking. the postal service delivers hundreds of millions of prescriptions and drug shipments each year. that is millions of shipments

per day, six days a week. [ inaudible ] >> we're having a technical problem right now with mr. clay. we can't hear you. it's breaking up. should we go to someone else and come back? >> mr. clay, we're going to try to correct -- there's a problem. we can't hear you. >> this is literally -- >> we're going to hold your testimony -- >> should we go for it or not? >> this problem has been aggravated during the coronavirus crisis because -- >> madam chair, for the sake of

time, let's -- >> okay. >> mr. clay, we're going to hold up on you and go to mr. lynch and then go to a republican and come back to you. we have technical difficulties. mr. lynch, congressman lynch, you are now recognized. >> thank you, madam chair. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. dejoy for attending. mr. dejoy, you've been the postmaster general of the united states for a couple of months right now? >> 70 days. >> 70 days. >> okay. >> so i've been a member of this committee for 20 years and since my mom and two of my sisters, a bunch of my aunts, cousins, my in laws all worked at the post office, some of them are retired, some of them are still there, as a member of coming you might say i've been compelled to take a keen interest on matters affect being the postal service. i'm also a former president of the iron workers union in boston so you can get a sense of my perspective as blue collar, you

know, common sense, get your work done sort of perspective. so mr. dejoy, is the postmaster of the united states a america for the last 70 days, did you know that the postal service has never allowed itself to be in a situation that it's in today? throughout the postal service history, there's been a tradition of reliable delivery from the very ding, article i, section 8, clause 7 of the united states constitution. going back to ben franklin, the first postmaster general, the pony expression as i mentioned before. i was watching a ken burns special last week and he had these heart wrenching letters that were back and forth from soldiers during the civil war, so each in a moment when the country was at war with itself the mail was delivered. during the first world war and the spanish flew influenza of 1918 through the great depression, billions of people out of work and a thousand bank

failures. the mail was delivered on time. each during the second world war with the threat of nazi u-boats, international mail was delivered on time. just so happens i was elected on 9/11, the day of the terrorist attacks on our nation, a god awful day and in the days after 9/11 we had direct anthrax attacks on the united states postal service. we lost two brave postal workers down at the brentwood facility here in d.c. from anthrax inhalation, but for the good of the country the postal unions continued to send their members into the post office to do their job to keep the country running, so two weeks ago after you had been postmaster tore just a few weeks that all changed. in the middle of a pandemic that's killed is 70,000 americans and at a time when the cdc is advising people not to gather and limit outside contact the postal services started to remove 67 is high-speed mail

sort mag sheens across the country. you stopped the apwu from sorting the mail and stopped national letter carriers and mail happenedlers from working overtime to deliver the mail and for the first time in 240 years in the history of the united states postal service you sent out a letter embarrassingly in july to 46 states that said the post office can't guarantee that we can deliver the mail in time for the elections in november, and we have reports from across the country as you acknowledge service has been delayed and the mail is piling up. you have ended a once proud tradition. now as a member of the oversight committee we have a chief investigative committee in the congress. we conduct oversight on every matter name packets the american people, foreign and domestic. there are members on this committee who have been to iraq and afghanistan a couple dozen times. they have been toienen, is somalia, gaza, you name, it they literally go to the ends of the earth to investigate matters that affect the american people

especially when it involves our sons and doubters in uniform. in this moment it is our postal workers who happen to be our men and women in uniform. they are on front lines of this pandemic. throughout this pandemic they have risked their own health and safety to deliver or tried to deliver mail, medicines and mail-in ballots to every american home and business six days a week. as a member of this august committee i'm supposed to ask you a question. in my heart i'm tempted to ask after 240 years of patriotic service delivering the mail how can one person screw this up in just a few weeks? now i understand you bring prif sector expertise. i guess we couldn't 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, like he said. he's 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 -- not the alternative facts

based on what you have actually done, one can only reach as a fact finder, we can only reach two 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 can gather is that you're doing this on purpose and that you're deliberately dismantling this once proud tradition. >> the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman may answer his question. >> my last question is this. >> thank you. >> what the heck are you doing? what the heck are you doing? >> the gentleman's time has expired. >> thank you, sir. >> the witness may answer. >> first of all, i would like to agree with you on the heroic efforts of our 650,000 employees across the nation and the history of the postal service for their 250-year history of serving the american public. >> will you put the machines back? >> i'm very proud to be at the

organization. the -- >> will you -- will you put the high-speed machines back? >> no, i will not. >> i will not. >> there you go. >> there i go what. >> those machines. >> madam chair. >> let the witness answer the question. >> he has gone over time. >> order, order, 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 the -- adhering to the truck schedule is inaccurate and more miss information for the american public. >> you took them out. >> madam chair! bad am chair! >> mr. jordan is now recognized. congress monjordan, is he here? >> i believe that's not the order. >> it's palmer. congressman palmer. i'm getting different signs up here. >> why don't we go back to the old way that you write it down pause it keeps changing. okay. congressman palminger is now

recognized. >> i thank the chairman, and i just want to point out "the washington post" article from august 26, 2015, almost five years to the day, that there was a decline in first class letter delivery of 18% to 44% and a 38% decline in the performance over 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 of 2015, there were 494 million pieces of mail that did not arrive on time, a 48% increase in delayed mail delivery, and i'm sure that that was intended to impact the 2012 election, yet this committee didn't see fit to look into that. >> mr. dejoy, will these be yes

and no. is there any way the post offices can know that ballots they are delivering to households are to eligible voters, is there any way to know that? >> no, sir. >> i bring that up because there's an analysis released in 2019 and a recent u.s. census bureau five-year american community survey, there were 378 counties nationwide that have more voter registrations than citizens living there who are old enough to vote. these are counties where the registration exceeds 100%, and in iowa there are hat heat 18,658 extra voters under the national voter registration act of 1993, judicial watch sense notice of violation letters to five states, california, pennsylvania, north carolina, virginia and colorado. real clear politics reported that los angeles county had an estimated 1.6 million ineligible

voters and 38 states have counties where the voter registration is over 100% including montgomery county maryland which represented my distinguished friend mr. raskin. the same article cited a 2012 pew study that four 24 million voter recommending administrations are no longer valid or significantly inaccurate. pew's total included 1.2 million dead people and another 2.75 million registered in at least two states. new york, for instance, in this most recent primary that impacted your race, madam chairman, had 84,000 ballots, almost a fifth of all -- over a fifth of all the ballots i think cast, 12,000 in your race, that were disqualified, so my question to you mr. dejoy is there any way to be sure that more ballots than a household should be eligible to receive are not being delivered? >> i'm sorry, say that again. >> is there any what i for the postal service to determine

whether or not a household is getting more ballots than they should be? >> we're focused on delivering the mail. >> so the answer is no, there's no what i to know that. >> and so, and if there was a way to know that i'm sure the postal inspectors would get involved. >> once it called you -- >> madam chairman. i reserve my time. the. >> what's going on? >> i think the chinese have hacked in or something. >> okay. >> ma'am, the clock is still running. >> madam chair, can his time be restored? >> we'll give you add cut time what are the problem? >> we'll give you extra time. we'll keep going? >> you have extra time. we have technical problems. >> thank you, madam chairman,

and i do appreciate your indulgence. the census bureau reports that 11% of americans move each other and 78% of the national voter registration act passed by the democrats in 1993 signed by president clinton and voted for by mr. coop ker and mr. clay and madam chairman maloney requires states to perform voter registration maintenance. it's the responsibility to make sure that states ensure thought voter rolls are accurate, that they have removed deceased people and it's noted that the obama/biden action did not bring a single section 8 enforcement action during their entire term. that makes the post office task of only delivering ballots to eligible voters more difficult. my point is that you've been accused of trying to impact an election when the fact of the matter is for those people who have never had a real job out in business, what you've been trying to do sim prove the performance of the post office

so that what happened in 2015 does not continue to happen, and it's going -- and the accusations are that -- that you're trying to throw the election when the fact. matter is the fact that at federal government has not done its part, particularly during the obama/bide ebb administration to make sure that the voter rolls are accurate has made your job more difficult. it's really not your job, is it, one way or the other. >> no, sir. >> can we count on the post office and the delivery personnel around the area to not deliver stacks of ballots to an address where the delivery person knows that there's nobody there and, an abandoned house, abandoned housing complex, a business? would that -- that would be report, wouldn't it? >> we deliver mail to the address specified. >> and if dozens or hundred of mail-in ballots are dumped into

plus mailboxes instead of left in regular mailboxes for pickup or drop off at the post office would it make sense to report to the postal ballot that those ballots are legitimate? >> there are processes that the postal inspectors deploy. i'm not fully aware what have they are but right now there are processes that the inspectors deploy to identify any fraudulent type of activity within the mail system. >> well, we need to make sure that this election is not tainted by fraudulent mail-in ballots, and i'm -- madam chairman, i'll going to do something that i rarely do. when mr. gosar mentioned the burned out -- it the riots in portland and other places, 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 burned out post office in minneapolis, okay. there was mail in that post

office that was lost. there may have been prescription drugs that were lost. there may have been social security checks in that office that were lost. it is a fact that note only is the mail delivery delayed when you have anarchists laying siege all across the country it endangers pestal workers, delivery people. it may have endangered people's lives who were not able to get their medicine because it burned up in the minneapolis post office. that's not funny, and i hope that the democrats in this committee and in this congress will take seriously what's happening in american cities. i yield back. >> the gentleman yields back. we're still having difficulty connecting with congressman clay. i now recognize mr. cooper, congressman cooper. >> mr. d voy, we are's what your reforms have done.

a lady named elaine paid $5 to send a certified letter to the nashville, tennessee security office. of the distance is 20 miles. the letter took 12 days to arrive. just this morning excellent reporting from nashville's channel 5 tv proves that nashville's mail trucks are being forced to leave on schedule even when completely empty. imagine it, 53-foot trucks forced to travel hundreds of miles completely empty due to your so-called reforms. here are the truck records. that's not efficiency. that's insanity. for anyone thinking of voting absentee the effect of your policies is to unilaterally move up election day from november 3rd to something like october 27th, and if you force more empty trucks on the highway you will be able to single-handedly

move 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 so many voters when you told the senate committee just last week that you had a sacred duty to protect election mail. you know that it's a felony for a postal service officer or employee to delay delivery of mail. a postal employee can be fine 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 can't? even if your actions are a million times worse. mr. dejoy, do you have a duty to obey u.s. law like every other american? >> i do, sir. >> well, previous postmasters

general have been punished for much smaller conflicts of interests than yours. in 1997 the 70th postmaster general marvin runyon from tennessee had to pay $27,000 because of a $350,000 conflict of interest. if your $0 million conflict of interest, 100 times larger than mr. runyon's, were treated like your predecessors you would have to pay a $2 opinion 7 million fine and probably be ousted from being postmaster general. so mr. dejoy, are you above the law that applies to other postmasters general? >> i don't agree with the premise. i'm in full compliance with all ethical requirements that i need to have and there's no ig investigation and i welcome the result of that report. >> mr. dejoy, as a mega donor for the trump campaign, you were

picked along with michael cohen and elliott brody, two men who have already pled guilty to felonies, to be the three deputy finance chairman of the republican national committee. did you pay back your several top executives for contributing to trump's campaign by bonusing or rewarding them? >> that's an outrageous claim, sir, and i resent it. >> i'm just asking a question. >> the answer is no. >> so you did not bonus or reward any of your executives? >> no, no. >> anyone that you solicited for contribution to the trump campaign? >> no, sir. >> not in whole or in part? >> to be -- actually, during the trump campaign, i wasn't even working at my company anymore. >> well, we want to make sure that campaign contributions are legal so all your campaign contributions -- >> i'm fully aware of legal campaign contributions and i

resent the assertion, sir. what are you accusing me of? >> i'm asking you a question. >> do your mail delays fit trump's campaign goals of hurting the post office as stated in his tweets? >> i'm not -- i'm not answering these types of questions. i'm here to represent the postal service. it has nothing to do with -- all my actions have to do with improvements in postal service. am i the only one in this room that understands that we have a $10 billion a year loss, am i only one in this room that i've read the oi reports that i've stacked up >> mr. dejoy, is your backup plan to be pardoned like roger stone? >> pitiful. you have two seconds to answer the question. >> i have no comment on that. it's not worth my time. >> the gentlemen's time has

expired. >> the gentleman from florida, mr. stuebe, is recognized for my minutes. >> thank you, madam chair. >> thank you, first of all. >> as a veteran who served in iraq in support of iraqi freedom, to compare post al workers to our members in iraq or afghanistan quite frankly to me is offensive. the last time i checked the postal service drivers weren't getting their vehicles blown up by ieds or being shot at and delivering mail so trying to compare our military service members who sacrifice on the battlefields across this world to our postal service members it is frankly offensive as a person who has served. it's unfortunate that there are democrats on this committee that have 100% politicized the postal service to try to stoke fear with the american people, but we shouldn't be surprised. it's a familiar theme for democrats over the last two years. a subcommittee chairman of this

committee when asked on national television, and i quote, are you saying, say it directly, is this an attempt by the president do you believe 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 don't care about the facts, so here we go again, seems like just yesterday we were hearing how the trump campaign concluded and conspired with russia to interfere with the last election, and when the facts actually came out, there was no evidence that that ever occurred. this is absolutely a concocted narrative by the democrats to stoke fear in the american people just like the russia conclusion hoax. financial issues have plagued the postal service for decades and is vastly in need of reform. mr. dejoy just stated that $10 billion loss a year. businesses couldn't operate that year, but the democrats don't want real reform. if they did they would have

worked with our opinions today, they would have worked with republicans in crafting a bill, would have worked with our counterparts in the senate and worked with the administration to actually come up with reform that would actually pass. this is a political stunt to further 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 presidential election year primary since 1992. that was 18 years. about 2.3 million mail-in ballots were cast which made up about 59% of all ballots cast. initial reports indicate that there were minimal issues with the additional ballots handled by the postal service. there were no issues in my nine counties with absentee ballots in this district that i'm aware of. mr. dejoy, would it be fair to say that the postal service successfully delivered during florida's primary last week? >> yes, sir. >> the 2.3 million mail-in paltz

that were cast in florida are a significant amount for one state. one of the factors that led to the postal service being able to deliver the substantial increase and mail-in ballots on time? >> the -- when it comes to ballots, the postal service prior to my arrival and the heightened awareness of this particular election throws everything it has to add -- at moving ballots through the system. the ballots are usually identified with special markings and every employee is very much -- and manager is very much focused on making sure that ballots move quickly through the process, sometimes in advance of first class mail, so those -- those particular processes were deployed and will be deployed as we come into the 2020 election. >> and florida has, am i correct in stating, that florida has a reasonable time frame for postal

service to return the ballots as opposed to some states that just allow ballots to be requested at the last minute, therefore, delaying their ability for the postal service to get those ballots to the precincts in time. >> thank you, sir, and 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 the 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, but it would be more helpful if we had reasonable -- reasonable standards from the election boards that comply with our processes to enable us 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? >> no, we do not, sir. >> are there any lessons that other states can learn from the way that florida handles our ballots in an sentbsentee votin? >> i'm not particularly familiar with florida, but our general counsel has put out letters with regards to each state's election guidelines. we have a website that's just been posted on normal process. in general, i will say, on behalf of 650,000 postal workers, get your ballot early and please vote early and that is just common -- you know, common sense, but if florida had a -- florida had a good process, so i'm sure their electoral board procedures were -- were good. we can't do this all by

ourselves. we would appreciate every state's help in reviewing their standards and taking the advice of the postal service general counsel and what's on our website. >> thank you. the gentleman's time has expired. we now recognize mr. clay. if we're still having connection problems, we're going to mr. connolly. mr. clay. >> hi. madam chair, i hope you can hear me now. >> yes, we can. >> all right. let me -- and thank you for conducting this hearing. mr. dejoy, let me start with a question. before you implemented your changes, did you conduct any analysis of the effect your changes would have on delaying prescription drug shipments, the delivery of those shipments to your customers? did you analyze that before you implemented these changes?

>> sir, we have a plan and wasn't 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. i'm not the coo. i'm the ceo of the organization. but i receive commitment that we would be able to roll forward with the plan on -- to committing to our existing schedule. >> okay. mr. dejoy, let me say this. prioritizing on time truck departures means letter carriers leave without all of their packages, including letters on board. a critical medicines like

refrigerated insulin is reportedly sitting in sorting facilities days longer than expected. did you examine the affect of your changes like insulin that requires special storage? >> sir, at no time did i say don't 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 hows of trucks a day that leave late, within -- within, you know, a certain time frame. so the whole -- 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 impacted anybody. >> what act the impact, mr. dejoy, what about the impact of

letting -- having the insulin sit on the floor somewhere and it may spoil or whatever? at least we know it will be delayed. did you all give that any consideration? >> we're 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. >> mr. 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 we'll seek to do so. >> okay. and while you're at it, mr. dejoy, do you have any information on the number of

prescription drug 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? can you give us -- >> i don't know. i'm not aware of what we have on specific types of shipment. i'm sure we have some. i will go back at it but again i want to remind you that the changes is misleading and what i ask is that the team find a way to run the trucks on the schedule which is intended -- the intention is to put the mail on the trucks when we ran them on schedule. >> thank you, mr. clay. we now recognize -- >> madame chairwoman? >> yes. >> i ask unanimous consent.

mr. lynch asked me to enter boo the record a set of data from the american postal workers' union with respect to mail volume and the reduction in systems delivery bar code sorters, flat sorting machines 100s and flat sequencing systems in its mail processing facilities. >> without objection. >> i thank the chair. >> thank you. mr. norman from south carolina is now recognized. mr. norman. >> thank you, chairwoman maloney. mr. dejoy, i just want to apologize to you. you're getting a berating up here. congressman lynch going into a five-minute dialogue would not give you time to answer your questions, yelling over you. it's typical of how this hearing has gone and what's amazing to me is this bill had to be rushed out this past saturday. do you know that 67 members did

not even take the time to show up? if your workers at the post office don't show up, what happens? they don't get a paycheck and the mail doesn't get delivered. it is an insult to what the democrats are trying to do. a false narrative that has not worked for them since this president was elected. the mueller report. the impeachment. none of it is working. now they go fishing for this. apologize to you. let me get some yes or no answers. are you and the postal service aboutive abo actively removing mailboxes at the request of president trump? >> no, sir. >> was the u.s. postal service going to be insolvent before the election if you did not receive the $25 billion the democrats insisted including in their bill? >> no, sir. >> is the united states postal service equipped to handle voting by mail for the november election? >> yes, sir.

>> are you unlocking blue boxes the stop the mail? >> anything with blue boxes is stopped, no so -- >> would the -- congressman palmer showed pictures of the mailed out mailboxes and the cities on fire, portland, chicago, minneapolis, sacramento, new york. would that kind of slow the post office delivery down? >> there are certain actions and procedures for situations, for public unrest that we deploy, a variety of different things up and including getting collection boxes out of but yes it would slow down the mail. >> slow it down and the safety of the deliverying, the person delivering the mail is an issue now, isn't it? >> i'm sorry? >> the welfare of the person delivering mail and the burned out cities would kind of be a

problem, wouldn't it? >> absolutely. our letter carriers have, you know, hazardous jobs in many cases. >> were you consulted on this all-important bill that we had to take up this past saturday to add your expertise? >> i -- i don't know if our -- i think our legislative affairs people had some interaction to comment on it. >> you made a good statement. you are not the coo, not the chief operating officer but the ceo. you have been on the job 70 days and to be accused of everything you have been accused ask not right, unfair. i'm glad the american people get a front row seat to what you have to endure. i yield back. >> my, my, my. you're right. you have been in the job 70 days and you've caused this much

ruckus. that's called accountability and why he is here today and passed a bill. if he wasn't consulted it is because he was the inspiration of the bill. dubious distinction. nonetheless. mr. dejoy, when did you take office? you were announced in may but when did you take over the job postmaster general, what day? >> june 15th. >> june 15th. and, you've seen this data on or around that time is when we see a roughly 8% decline in service in the postal service which most people would say correlates to the organizational and operational efficiencies you undertook. do you think that's a fair characterization? >> i think there's a lot of

different issues going on within the country that impact mail delay including the actions that we took with regard to transportation. i don't think -- i think the organizational change was made because of the poor -- was accelerated because of -- >> i understand. >> i think that was strengthened the recovery. >> we live in a context, don't we? >> that is true. >> worst pandemic in 100 years. 176,000 americans dead. 40,000 postal employees who have gotten the virus or quarantined because of it and sadly a few dozen dead. and we're on the eve of a massive shift to voting by mail, 76% of all americans live in a state that can mail by vote and want to vote by mail and intend to vote by mail and along comes

this. >> yeah. >> now, let's stipulate your motives were pure, came at this like a normal private sector ceo and want to save some money and make us work better. you wouldn't think that you might take into consideration the context and if you didn't as a good ceo when you saw unintended consequences which your testimony would have us believe, unintended, you take measures quickly to ameliorate, namely scaring the public half to death and anecdotal data in fact it affected the delivery of mail as the new postmaster general, you don't want to be seen as the guy who actually damaged the 244 reputation of the post service and scared voters into believing the ballots won't get on time because of your service,