>> watch and listen to the radio show. chris christie is one of our guests. bye everybody. >> sandra: any moment now postmaster general louis dejoy set to testify. it is the first of two hearings on his decision to make changes to the postal service before election day. earlier this week he said he would stop all changes between now and the election but democrats still accusing the administration of trying to slow the delivery of mail-in ballots. the white house is denying that. we'll take you there live when that hearing begins. we begin with dueling messages on the future of this country.

biden pledged to be a light over darkness and trump argues a biden presidency would stop the economy dead in its tracks. >> trace: i'm trace gallagher. joe biden closing the convention to choose hope over fear, love over hate and accusing president trump of failing to protect the country. the president held a rally in biden's hometown scranton, pennsylvania. saying the democratic nominee was all talk, no action. >> i'll be an ally of the light, not the darkness. it is time for us, we the people, to come together and make no mistake, united we can and will overcome this season of darkness in america. >> they're coming to get you. this is where they're coming from. and me, we, we're the wall

between the american dream and total insanity and the destruction of the greatest country in the history of the world. >> we'll choose hope over fear, fact over fiction, fairness over privilege. i'm a proud democrat and i'll be proud to carry the banner of our party into the general election. >> prtrented recovery. he wants to impose a permanent lockdown combined with a socialist takeover of the u.s. economy. >> trace: bret baier is standing by. first to peter doocy live in wilmington, delaware. what part of record did last night's program focus on the most? >> his ability, trace, to empathize with people who are having a tough time by drawing upon his own painful life experiences and he tried to draw a sharp contrast with president trump.

>> for love is more powerful than hate. hope is more powerful than fear and light is more powerful than dark. this is our moment, this is our mission. may history be able to say that the end of this chapter of american darkness began here tonight. >> but president trump alleges joe biden doesn't have it in him and in 47 years joe did none of the things of which he now speaks. he will never change, just words. biden's argument last night focused heavily on different words he would use than trump to address covid-19. >> the president keeps telling us the virus is going to disappear. he keeps waiting for a miracle. well, i have news for him, no miracle is coming. >> biden listed the global pandemic of one of four big problems he would try to

address, pandemic, economic downturn, climate change and social justice issues. >> trace: we know that younger democrats have been lukewarm on joe biden. what did he do to try to win them over? >> he made a direct appeal to young people inspired to take to the streets over the last couple of months to protest police -- for police reform after george the floyd died in police custody. >> i'll never forget it when i leaned down to speak to her she looked in my eyes and she said and i quote, daddy changed the world. daddy changed the world. her words went deep into my heart. >> hundreds of biden supporters honked their horns in the parking lot where they watched on a big screen in their cars. it was biden's largest in-person event in months and

the first drivein dnc in history. trace. >> trace: peter doocy live in wilmington. thank you. >> sandra: thank you. for more on this let's bring in bret baier. great to see you this morning. kick things off one day after we heard the big speech from joe biden. what is the reaction to that speech last night? >> good morning. i think he hit his marks. i had seen joe biden speak a lot of different places and i followed him all throughout new hampshire, i went to iowa caucus events and he didn't speak like that. and this was the best i had seen him speak in recent months. he delivered it with energy. he delivered it with passion. and he delivered it in a way that was the dismount that the democrats really wanted. now, you can argue and i've heard it online and other places he is just reading a speech. well yes, but presidents read speeches, too. it was how it was delivered and

how it wrapped up this week. the democrats didn't have any issues. there was no fight over the platform. there was no booing of mayor bloomberg which would have happened in some big hall. they controlled the message. whether the message actually reflects the party and what it would do as it was governing is a different question. for them this week turned out pretty well. >> sandra: more from joe biden last night trying to take the positive route. here is his message. >> we can choose a path becoming more angry, less hopeful, more divided. a path of shadow and suspicion or we can choose a different path and together take this chance to heal, to reform, to unite. a path of hope and light. this is a life changing election. character is on the ballot, compassion is on the ballot. >> sandra: it's something, bret, that i hear every night on your show. democrats making the case for

compassion, empathy and it's a character hit on president trump. did he effectively draw that contrast last night, bret, for voters? >> well, i think so in the speech. i think there are deficiencies in the week. the democrats did not talk about any of the violence in any of the big cities. they talked about the protests but they didn't talk about any of the concern about safety and security, law and order. they didn't talk about the challenge from china, which is arguably our biggest geopolitical foe right now and that will come up next week. it will be a focus in the rnc. so in that sense there are things that they left on the table. >> sandra: all right, bret. real quickly we had the vice president on fox news channel earlier this morning with his reaction, final thoughts on this. listen. >> the whole of the democratic national convention was a very,

very negative view of america. biden has been in washington for 47 years and the speech he gave last night was just more of the same talk that we've heard from him and other liberal democrat politicians for the decades. >> sandra: final thoughts as we're now 74 days out. hard to believe. >> it is hard to believe. it's the race to the finish line. i think that this is their most effective argument, the rnc and president trump and vice president pence and that is 47 years he didn't get it done. why do you believe that he can get it done now? i think the president yesterday in scranton, pennsylvania or nearby on substance of why these policy issues would be bad for pennsylvania is much more effective than sleepy joe and he is not going to be able to remember his speech because the low bar biden got over last

night. the substance, it will be interesting to see. >> sandra: thank you, we'll see you later tonight at 6:00 p.m. eastern time special report. thank you. >> our message is very simple. united states will never allow the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism to freely buy and sell planes, tanks, missiles and other kinds of conventional weapons. >> sandra: that's mike pompeo on u.s. efforts to block iran from getting nuclear weapons as key u.s. allies, they say the us lacks legal authority. here is secretary of state mike pompeo. thank you for being here. you are fresh off your trip to new york. that was your message to the u.n. security council on the world stage yesterday. how was it received?

>> well, i think that freedom loving people around the world know the iran has been engaged to terror activity around the world for four decades and not to be allowed. october 18th, the foolish deal struck by the biden administration to buy and sell weapons system. we won't let that happen. we have the capacity to stop it. you'll use every dip la mott i can tool in our arsenal to prevent it from happening. >> sandra: what was the rejection of our demands by our allies. what does that mean for us on the world stage as far as isolation? >> disappointing because privately every world leader, every one of my counterparts tells me america is doing the right thing. no one has come to me and advocated for allowing iran to have these weapons systems. to tell the world publicly at

the united nations this is the right thing. it is incomprehensible to me to side with the russians and chinese at this important moment in time at the u.n. is dangerous for the world. have faith. the american people and president trump will do the right thing. if we have to stand alone and lead we'll make sure that iran doesn't have the hundreds of billions of dollars to be able to sell weapons and become an arms dealer around the world. >> sandra: retired four star general jack keane was on our network a short time ago and in his words iran has doubled down on their bad behavior. in the letter that you delivered to the security council at the u.n. yesterday you wrote that tehran has repeatedly violated the arms embargo by proliferateing weapons throughout the middle east region. what is the threat that iran

poses not just regionly but around the world today? >> a couple of simple examples. a country that engaged in significant cyberattacks. allowed to buy and sell tools connected to their cyber capabilities. it threatens the entire world. don't forget there are passengers traveling on a commercial airline that the iranians shot down flying into their airport killing hundreds of people, people from canada and across the world. the dangers of iran are not confined the risks they present to the middle east or for the dozens of efforts to conduct terror operations inside europe in the last 10 years. they're a danger to the world and have been for four decades and ought not to be permitted to buy a weapon. >> sandra: as far as consequences for those countries that are not on board russia and china indicating they would ignore the u.s. snapback, what will the consequences be? are you considering further

sanctions on them? >> sandra, it reminds me of when president trump made the decision with respect to the silly nuclear deal. he said we won't comply with it anymore and we put sanctions in place. people said to us that will never work. american sanctions will never impact iran. we've demonstrated over these 3 1/2 years that's false. we've decimated the amount of money that iran has. when u.s. sanctions come back into play russia and china can talk a good game today but the united states will use every tool in its arsenal the make sure the chinese and russia are incapable of delivering weapons and we'll make sure there is no money as well. american efforts will work. i'm confident when that day comes the world will be alongside of us just as they have been in complying with our sanctions over these last two

years. >> sandra: mr. secretary of state, we appreciate you coming on this morning. hope we can have you back soon. hearing is underway on capitol hill. we'll go there to the postmaster general. please come back. >> trace: live look on capitol hill. the postmaster general louis dejoy being sworn in here appearing before the senate homeland security committee and the allegation from democrats is that louis dejoy on behalf of the president trying to slow down the delivery of mail by cutting some different departments in the postal service and what they mean is by cutting -- let's listen in to this. >> also to operate in a financially sustainable manner. congress established the postal service to fulfill a public service mission to provide reliable and universal postal services to the american public

in an efficient and financial stable manner. our mandate is at fundamental risk. changes must be made to assure our sustainability for decades ahead. our business model established by the congress requires us to pay our bills through our own efforts. i view it as my personal obligation to put the organization in the position to fulfill that mandate. with action from the congress and our regulator and significant effort by the postal service, we can achieve this goal. this year the postal service will likely report a loss of more than $9 billion. without change, our losses will only increase in the years to come. it is vital that congress enact reform legislation that addresses our unaffordable retirement payments. most importantly congress must

athrough postal service to integrate our retiree health benefits program with medicare which is a common sense practice followed by all businesses that still offer retiree healthcare. it also must match our -- no action has been taken. i urge congress to enact these reforms. i also urge congress to enact legislation to provide the postal service for financial relief to allow for the pandemic on our financial condition. postal regulatory commission began a mandated review of our pricing system four years ago. it has been three years since the commission concluded that our current system is not working. we need to establish for rational regulatory system for

our mail products. congress and prc fulfilled their obligation to the american public concerning the postal service i am certain that much of our $80 billion losses since 2007 would have been avoided. and that our operation financial performance would not now be in such jeopardy. the postal service must also do its part. the realities of our marketplace, generate more revenue and control our costs. i believe we can chart a path for our business that accomplishes these goals. in my 67 days as postmaster general, i have also had the chance to observe the many hidden strengths of the organization and appreciate our critical mission of service to the american public. despite our deep longstanding financial problems there is an incredible strong base to build upon and tremendous desire of the public for the postal service to succeed. as we head into the election season i want to assure this

committee and the american public that the postal service is fully capable and committed to delivering the nation's election mail securely and on time. this sacred duty is my number one priority between now and election day. mr. chairman, women and men of the postal service have demonstrated extraordinary commitment for our mission throughout the covid-19 pandemic. in every community in america we continue to work to keep our employees and customers safe as we fulfill our essential role of delivering medications, benefit checks, and financial statements the public depends upon. since the beginning of the pandemic there has been a public outpouring of support for postal employees as they perform their essential service throughout the nation. this is a well deserved testament to their dedication. mr. chairman, ranking member peters, i look forward to working with you and this committee and our stakeholders to restore the financial health

of the united states postal service and to improve the way we serve the american public. this concludes my remarks and i welcome any questions that you and the committee may have. >> thank you for that opening statement, mr. postmaster general. i just want to go through and give you a chance to respond to some of these false narratives. first of all, let's talk about that election notice sent out by i believe the postal services general counsel, one notice before you became postmaster general, one notice after you assumed your duties. talk about what that notice was about and from my standpoint how important it was that the postal service does inform election officials of what you desire so they can factor that into their deadlines. >> thank you for the opportunity to speak this. first i would like to emphasize that there has been no changes in any policies with regard to

election mail for the 2020 election. as you stated, this letter was sent out before my arrival simply to help educate state election boards and eventually the american people, there was a plan put together to eventually make it a broader statement so the american people had awareness on how to -- how to successfully vote. this letter very similar letter was sent out in the 2016 election by the former deputy postmaster general. we recognize that during this pandemic when i arrived there was great concern about the increase in volume so we further emphasized the interaction. we had over 50,000 contacts before my arrival with state election boards to help them

understand the mail processing procedures of the postal service. since my arrival, we have -- we've established and expanded a task information. we have put up a website or are putting up a website within a day and we are diligently working to insure the american public and insure a successful election. >> in my opening statement i remarked 150 million -- ballots would represent 6% of weekly volume. you said in terms of what is actually expected in terms of mail-in ballots about 2%. can you talk about and assure the american public and this committee that the postal system has more than enough capacity to handle the number of ballots? it's really a matter of election officials understanding what delivery capabilities are? >> yes, sir. we have more -- we deliver 433

million pieces of mail a day. so 150 million ballots, 160 million ballots over the course of a week is a very small amount. adequate capacity. plus mail volume is down 13 or 14% this year. plus as i identified earlier in the week, we will have additional resources on stand by. if everyone complies with the mail process that we've been identifying there will be absolutely no issue. and there is slack in the system and additional processes that we would deploy in and around the election that will carry a good part of any deviations to get through. we're perfectly -- the postal service stands ready. our board of directors stand ready with the expansion of the

task force that i identified earlier in the week. yesterday we made the decision to establish a board -- bipartisan board committee to stand over the postal -- interact with us as we move forward. we're very, very comfortable we will achieve this mission, sir. >> trace: something else blown way out of the proportion is retirement of some of the blue boxes. can you speak to how it's a normal procedure that we have literally -- because first class mail is down over the decades almost cut in half, i think. i don't have the numbers off top of my head. any time you have a business with volume declining you'll take out different capacities. can you address the issue of the normal retirement? what the history of that has been not only the blue boxes but some of your sorting machines? >> yes, sir, thank you for the opportunity to speak about that. over -- today there is about

140,000 collection boxes out in the united states. over the last 10 years, averages about 3500 a year, so 35,000 of them have been removed. it is a data-driven method. i haven't reviewed it but every year they look at the utilization of post boxes and where they place new post boxes and where communities grow. so 35,000 over 10 years. since my arrival we moved 700 post collection boxes, of which i had no idea that that was a process. that that was a process. when i found out about it, we talked about it and looked at what the -- what the excitement it was creating so i decided to

stop it. and we'll pick it up after the election. this is a normal process that has been around since -- it's been around 50 years. in the last 10 years we have pulled back about 35,000. on the machines, the machines we're speaking about again mail volume is dropping. this is a process that i was unaware about. it has been around for a couple of years now. we evaluate our machine capacity. these machines run 35% utilization. the mail volume is dropping very rapidly especially during the covid crisis and package volume is growing. when i spoke with the team when this, too, got a lot of air play, we really are moving these machines out to make room to process packages.

we still have hundreds of these machines everywhere and still not any kind of drain on capacity. i repeat, both the collection boxes and this machine pulldown i was made aware when everybody else was made aware. it was not a critical issue. it was within the postal service. this has been going on in every election year and every year for that matter. >> this isn't some -- the operational changes you were trying to make trying to curb in the excess cost. $4 billion overtime. about making sure that the system is used to its time deadlines and what effect that has on mail delivery. >> thank you, senator. when i arrived -- when i was

ordered to be in the position i spent the first three weeks even before i joined here really studying the organization. trying to get an understanding of what was driving this. how decisions were made and what the network looked like and how the mail moved through the process. i spent hundreds and hundreds of hours before i arrived and when i got here working with the management team. one of the first things -- the first big change i got upon is how do i get the organization, the management team, the structure to align with in my analysis i felt that we had 600,000 people according to one person and other executives doing -- important but not integrated into the operation. so i worked with the management team both collectively and

individually to look at our functional lines and we together we reorganized the organization to move forward on process improvements, improving service and garnering new business with revenue and costs. that was the one big change i worked on when i got here. the other change the day i was sworn in i received a report from the oig that spoke about the things that you were talking about. late deliveries, late dispatch, extra trips and all the time and costs associated around it that approximated $4 billion. this was before we had the note. we were facing -- i had $14 billion in cash and 12 1/2 billion of payments to make in the next nine months and no help in sight. we didn't have -- we had no help in sight.

so i needed to look at a positive impact on cost savings that did not -- that improved the business. the transportation schedule. we run about 40,000 trips a day and the 12% of those trips were late and we were running another 5,000 trips a day in extra trips. fedex, ups, everybody runs their trucks on time. that's what glues the whole network together. a collection and delivery process. that was not my schedule that was the postal service's schedule connected to all the delivery points, 161 million delivery points that we deliver to each day. that had to be on time to get our carriers out on time to make the deliveries on time to get back during the day instead of the night. that was the -- transportation network is the glue that keeps everything together. i worked with the team, many,

operating people involved with the team. we had all the area vice presidents involved with this change and i submitted in my report this chart here which shows how we went from 88% on time to 97% on time delivery. all that mail that was sitting on docks got advanced. our late trips dropped from 5 -- 3500 a day to 600 a day. within a week we made that change. unfortunately, some mail did not -- our production processing within the plants was not fully aligned with this established schedule so we had some delays in the mail and our recovery process in this has been a few days. it has amounted to be a few weeks.

the change that i made was one to our transportation schedule. i believe we'll get at least $a billion savings of that going forward. the key connectivity to improving our service. once we get all the mail on those trucks 97 to 98% of the mail we move around the country will be getting to destination point on time. that was not the case. it was substantially less than that prior to my arrival. those are the two changes, committee, that i've made since i've been here. >> thank you. i think you should be commended for this type of initiative. not condemned. senator peters. >> thank you, mr. chairman and mr. dejoy, thank you for being here today. i just want to start off before asking some questions just making it very clear the men and women who work at the postal service who check in every day to do their jobs do

it with professionalism and integrity and passion to move the mail as quickly and efficiently as possible. i think of the postal workers, mail handlers, letter carriers, they are doing a great job. they are clearly essential workers each and every day. but as we've been going through this issue and i've talked to many of those folks across my state they have grown increasingly frustrated with some of the recent policies come in place which is nothing they've seen in the past and they believe the mail has been piling up in ways that it shouldn't. and it needs to be addressed. these are management changes. these are policy changes. not the men and women on the front lines doing this work every day. so my question or postmaster general dejoy you've heard me in my opening comments talking about the fact i've received over 7500 complaints from folks all across michigan but really across the country. folks have sent in their concerns to me. earlier in my opening statement i shared some stories of

hardships from folks both beth and mary, their challenges in michigan. i think i heard this in the last answer. you acknowledge that some of the changes that were put in place have delayed the mail and with the delay in mail people can sometimes be hurt. is that true? >> first of all, i do recognize the quality capability of the american postal worker. that's one of the reasons that i'm here is to help, as well as with regard to the postal service's key role in serving the american public. yes, sir, i do recognize that some of these -- there has been two changes. the organizational change i don't believe has any impact on what we've done. the transportation change --

>> let me i don't mean to cut you off. i want you to elaborate a little bit further. there have been delays. you will recognize that. it's clear what we're saying. mail has been delayed. i spent over a month asking you to provide documentation in my oversight function how you made these decisions, what sort of data was put in place and how that information impacted some of the changes you have. your staff has repeatedly not answered those questions and so certainly that transparency i think is unacceptable. what i have uncovered from what little data is made public by the postal service is on-time mail delivery. i have my chart as well here to from the eastern division. what you give to your business customers and if you look at this line here it's probably hard to see. there is a red line of which you can see dipping dramatically. there is a flat line along the

top of the chart and then it drops around july 11th you start seeing a drop. july 18th it falls dramatically. that's a pretty big drop in on time mail delivery that we're seeing. i've asked three times since july 17th for records relating to the service changes and how what i'm hearing from our letter carriers and postal workers and seeing in the chart that you post on your website a significant drop of mail deliveries and yet i don't get an answer. will you commit to giving me these documents which have to be readily available to the postal service by this sunday? can we get those documents to get a sense of what went into these decisions and what you are seeing in terms of mail delivery? >> i will meet with our staff and get what documents with regard to this change. but the change, senator, was to adhere to the transportation schedule. that was the change. >> you have all that documented and i would love to see the documents how that was done.

the data supporting that. >> and if i can add two things. certainly there was a slowdown in the mail when our production did not meet the schedule. but also senator our employees are going -- experiencing the covid pandemic also and we have a significant issue with employee availability in many, many parts of the country that is also leading to delays in delivering the mail. >> let me turn to your recent announcement that you made this week that you are suspending some of the changes that you had made over the last month. i believe the statement is fairly vague and raises some additional questions. but so i want to be clear. these will be yes or no so we know exactly what was intended by that. are you suspending your policy eliminating extra trips, yes or no? >> no. first of all, the policy was

not to eliminate extra trips but to mitigate extra trips. >> we're being told you are limiting overtime and this could possibly add to back logs. are you limiting overtime or is that being suspended right now and people work overtime if necessary to move the mail out efficiently every single day? >> we never eliminated overtime. >> it has been curtailed significantly is what i understand. >> it has not been curtailed by me or the leadership team. >> it has been limited. >> since i've been here we spent $700 million on overtime. overtime runs 13% rate before i got here and runs at a 13% rate now. i did not -- >> the policy you can submit that to me i can appreciate it. will you commit there will be no post office closures or suspensions before november 3. >> that was not a directive i gave. that was around before i got here.

there is a process to that. when i found out about it and it had the reaction that we did, i have suspended that until after the election. >> we've heard about the sorters. you addressed that earlier. will you be bringing back any mail sorting machines that have been removed since you became postmaster general. >> there is no intention to do that. they are not needed, sir. >> you will not bring back any processors. >> they are not needed, sir. >> okay. i have questions about independence and transparency. prior to implementing the changes you put forth in the postal system did you discuss those changes or their potential impact on the november election with the president or anyone at the white house? you are under oath. >> i have never spoken to the president about the postal service other than to congratulate me when i accepted the position. >> did you speak or discuss any of these changes with secretary

mnuchin? >> during the discussion in negotiating the note i told him i'm working on a plan but i never discussed the changes that i made. i said i was working on a plan to improve service and gain cost efficiencies. no great detail other than that was about it. >> prior to implementing the changes did you discuss these changes or their impact on the election with any trump campaign officials? >> no, sir. sir, these changes our total analysis going forward. i'm one new person in the organization. with a whole structure around me. executive team around me involved in these decisions, okay? having any -- moving forward trying to have any negative impact on the election is an outrageous claim. >> did you ever discuss any of

this with mark meadows, any of these changes that you've done? >> no. >> never had discuss. >> i haven't discussed nition to mark meadows. i haven't spoken the mark meadows up until maybe last week first time i spoke to him. >> so finally you'll give us your word today under oath that you have not taken any action whatsoever in your capacity as postmaster general for any political reason or at the suggestion of any administration officials. >> sir, i will tell you my first election mail meeting i instructed the organization, the whole team around us and out in the field whatever efforts we will have double them. i was greatly concerned about all of the political noise that we were hearing and we have had -- i have had weekly reviews on this since before all the excitement came out. we are very committed, the

board is committed, the postal workers, and the union leadership is committed to having a successful election and the insinuation is quite frankly outrageous. >> one final thing is as we get into the election now there has been concern that i'm hearing from state and local governments about first class mail. you are not going to mandate that states send out any ballots using either the more expensive first class mail and will you continue the processes and procedures to allow election mail to move as expeditiously as possible and treated like first class? >> yes, sir. we will deploy processes and procedures that advance any election mail in many cases ahead of first class mail. >> you won't charge local governments for first class mail and they can continue the process they've done in the past. >> i don't get to charge anybody but no, we aren't going to change any rates.

>> right. thank you for your time and indulgence for the extra time, mr. chairman. >> thanks, senator peters. we did allow seven minute rounds. we went a little over. we'll give seven minutes for other members. senator foreman. >> thank you, chairman and thank you to senator peters for holding the hearing. it is timely. all of us want to see our postal service work and work well. let me just give a shout-out to david janice our letter carrier and all the postal workers. i do think particularly during this pandemic they are more appreciated than ever. the men and women who you lead, mr. dejoy, please pass along to them our thanks. i like having this hearing now because i think there has been a lot of misinformation out there and i like getting to the

facts. one of the facts i've learned this morning is that you started 67 days ago and much of what we've been talking about in the media at least including the blue boxes and the sorting machines, that happened before you got there and it was part of a plan under the former postmaster general that came up through the ranks, not a political person at all. anyway, that's helpful to know that's what's going on and helpful to know you were appointed by the postal board of governors and that's a bipartisan group. we confirm those people. it was a unanimous selection based on your being a logistics expert and just hearing you this morning i can tell you've got a passion for the logistic side of things. i also know that the long-term financial picture for the post office, postal service is not pretty and that's been true for a long, long time. and that's not really something

that a postmaster general can do much about. it requires legislation. senator collins and senator feinstein has a bill right now that provides for some reforms and additional funding. everybody knows it is in trouble and we need to deal with this issue. i'll ask you some tough questions and others will, really a lot of this comes back onto congress and not doing its job in terms of the longer term financial picture. the immediate issue is to be sure that these elections work well. and i appreciate the fact that you said this morning that that's going to be your top priority between now and the election. every one of us on this panel i hope want to be sure that we have the ability to have an election that is well run where people have their votes counted and many will be using the postal service. let me start by asking you a general question. do you support absentee voting and voting by mail generally? >> i voted by mail for a number

of years. postal service will deliver every ballot and process every ballot in time that it receives. >> i appreciate that. so you do support voting by mail? >> i do. i think the american public should be able to vote by mail and postal service will support it. i guess that's yes. >> the states are going to decide this, not the congress or not the post office, and many states will do it. in ohio we've had absentee voting. you don't have to give a reason and it works quite well. i vote every year by absentee because i don't know where the heck i'm going to be in washington or ohio based on our schedule so it has worked well and we also are going to have in ohio a lot of other ways for people to vote and make sure

it's easy to vote in ohio and hard to cheat in ohio. that's the important thing. there has been a lot of news coverage about the postal service sending letters to 46 states including ohio and d.c. to let them know they can't guarantee all ballots cast by mail will arrive on time. is this due to a lack of funding which is what many are saying or due to state laws on voting and the time to turn around? >> senator, this was not a change from anything that we have done in previous years. it was just more detail and more emphasis put on it mostly because -- partly because of the expected rise in vote by mail and also the pandemic. and what the team set out to do is make the election boards and then eventually the american

public -- what our processes were and therefore to guarantee if you follow the process no extra efforts on our part to get your ballot in which mitigated the risk of it potentially not getting there. >> i think that's important to note this is something that has been a problem for years including previous elections. you sent out warnings in previous elections. i think the post office has to coordinate better with state election systems. i think state election systems have to coordinate better with the post office. in ohio as an example, you know, the time frame between when you can cast your ballots and when it is postmarked and you can get a ballot as late as saturday before the election, and to get that to the post office and back to you and date stamp before monday is very hard to do logistically. i think that's one of the things your letter pointed out to the state systems be sure and leave adequate time. is that accurate? >> yes, it was not my letter.

it was a letter from our general counsel pointing out all the different variations that we could experience and how fast we could process it, but yes, we get the ballots were sent out the day before the election. it is almost impossible to -- for us to -- for the voter to vote, for the ballot to get to the voter, for the voter to vote and get back in time for the election. so this was a very, very well thought-out effort to safeguard the election, not to get in the way -- safeguard the processing of ballots, not to get in the way of it. >> what advice would you give voters. an opportunity to speak to the voters of ohio and the country. would you advise them to wait until the last minute or leave at least a week? >> the general word around here is vote early. >> i think it's important to tell people. again, under ohio's law and a lot of other laws time frame is

really close. if you request an absentee ballot you have to be sure it can be delivered in time. i am concerned about the delays that we have seen in ohio and elsewhere. we have a number of veterans who contacted us and said they weren't able to get their medication and some heartbreaking stories. one is a 70-year-old vietnam vet has trouble breathing. inhaler refill was mailed through the postal service. due to delays he ran out of it while waiting for it to arrive. his insurance said we aren't going to pay for another refill to be filled because it's already been shipped and he can't afford to pay for another emergency refill pefrnlly. let me ask you about that. veteran and medications shipped through the mail. what can we do to correct that problem? are you focused on that issue? >> first of all, i am -- we are working here feverishly to get

the system running with stability and also to get more -- hire more workers to handle the delivery process. and we are all feel bad about the dip in our service the level has been. we serve 161 million people. we still deliver at 99.5% of the time. we have significant efforts to continue to improve on that process and everybody is working here feverishly to get that right. >> i hope you will. let's insure these medications are delivered in time and when production doesn't meet the transportation schedule as you

said earlier, that there are some efforts made to align those two. it's a lifeline for people. they are all over the country in our rural areas. i thank you for your service and for the answers you have given today. >> thanks. i want to remind committee members please keep your questioning as well as factor in the answer to try to keep a minimum of 7 minutes. is senator carper there? we'll move on to senator langford. >> i think senator carper is there. >> senator carper, i'm unmuting. i urged you to do this three

weeks ago. grateful that you have. thank you for finally returning my call. i called you for three weeks trying to get you return my call after you took office. thank you for returning my call and talking to us last week. you might be wondering why there are questions and skepticism. we get constituent reports every week. we've seen a steady upbeat and increase in concerns and complaints about postal service. not just my office it's house offices all over the country. frankly they coincided with the time you took office. this morning i had a message from joe manchin senator from west virginia earlier in charleston distribution center the equipment that has been taken out. these are five out of that place. it is not just a little, it is all over the country. maybe it's just a coincidence. i'm not so sure.

here is why we're skeptical. we have a president who doesn't want to have vote by mail and who would like to suppress the vote and a president who would like to see the postal service not do well. i worked for almost 20 years on this committee to make sure we have a vibrant, active, meaningful postal service. you come from greensboro, north carolina. just north -- south of where i grew up in virginia. we had voter suppression in this country almost from the get go even our first postmaster general benjamin franklin said we'll let everybody have freedom and right to choose their own votes. it hasn't been that way. women and blacks didn't get to vote. we still have voter suppression. the last congressional election in north carolina only half the people voted for democratic candidate for congress. you know how many democrats were elected out of 13 seats? 3. we have seen poll taxes, literacy tests all this stuff.

when i see what's going on with a president who wants to degrade the postal service and get rid of vote by mail we shouldn't be surprised we're alarmed when we say the degrading in service we've seen acrossing the country. not long ago we had overnight mail service and coast to coast mail delivered within three days and we don't have that anymore. people seem skeptical they have a right to be skeptical. i want to -- after the public uproar we've seen in my state and other states about the delays and failed to deliver the mails. you will make the changes until after the election. good. we'll need more information than that especially with report that came out last night you and your team are considering more extreme changes than those we've seen to date including changes that will slow down the mail even further, post office and plant

closings. massive service reductions to alaska, hawaii and puerto rico making mail more expense eve to u.s. citizens living there and changes that would nearly double the cost of voting by mail. price hikes on packages. while erasing your competitive advantage over fed yex and ups. we need to be worried about this and i am. i've asked a lot of yes and no questions and i would ask you just give me a simple yes or no answer. will you have an opportunity in responses for the record toex panned on those but i'll ask you for yes or no answers. are you considering the dramatic service changes that i just outlined that we just learned about in the last 48 hours? are you considering those dramatic service changes? yes or no. >> senator, there is a dram yat. >> i'm asking for a yes or no answer. >> dramatic changes to improve the services to the american

people, yes. >> yes or no mail collection and processing capacity the postal service has lost in recent weeks during your tenure? >> senator, as i said i did not direct that. i stopped it. it is not material to anything that we do and we're sticking with where we're at right now. >> recently the president was caught red-handed when he didn't want the postal service to have additional resources because he said it would be used to enable election mail. the president stated quote if we don't make a deal, a deal with congress, that means they don't get the money, right, meaning the postal service. that means they don't get universal mail-in voting. they just can't have it. no wonder we're skeptical. my understanding is you have had more than passing acquaint answer with this president and been a huge supporter

financially to the president and the convention in charlotte, north carolina you were heavily involved in leading the raising of money for that convention. no wonder we're a little skeptical about this when we have a president talking down the postal service and vote by mail. another yes or no and you can expand on the record on this. yes or no. >> political matters. >> will you support the american people first? will you? services that support the american people have fast, efficient and affordable mail-in service? will you remain independent of this administration? >> yes, i will remain independent. >> thank you very much. during our call earlier this week you said you support additional tax assistance for the postal service, so do we. it has $15 billion cash on hand and a dlsh 10 billion line of

credit that comes with conditions dictated by the administration, postal service has had massive declines in first class mail we know that. average 15 to 20% below mail volume. package volume is higher and has sustained it through the pandemic. my guess is those volumes will come down after the pandemic. all to say the postal service is $15 billion balance could quickly disappear and i believe the post office needs to get the $15 billion request to recover loss to covid. last yes or no question. do you support the federal appropriation of the postal service to cover its covid related losses yes or no. do you support the federal appropriations of the postal service to cover its covid-related losses? >> yes. covid-related losses i do support. >> thank you very much. mr. postmaster general, my

family has had heavy military involvement throughout our life. my mother is's youngest brother died in in 1944, gave his life for his country. my father is a veteran, i'm a veteran. we have generation after generation of americans who have been willing to risk their lives and lay down their lives so we have the right to vote. we have a lot of people who are sick and afraid of going out and voting this year because they don't want to stand in lines and this is a serious matter. i just want you to urge you to work with us not be a part of us and not -- work with us as we attack the needs to build the postal service that we can all be proud of. thanks very much. >> senator langford. >> thank you mr. dejoy for your service. from what i've heard so far today apparently the post office never had any issues or never any delays or any mail

that was late, never any financial problems, there was never any challenge to mail-in voting until 65 days ago when you arrived and apparently all chaos has broken off in the post office in the last two months. but before that there seemed to be no complaint about the post office ever. so i do want to thank you for your service. i want to thank the men and women that are around the country that do a remarkable job every day. those folks in the unions, those folks that are taking care of us and getting things out. getting medicine, taking care of first class mail and all those things. i appreciate your service. i appreciate the fact that you have stepped up to be able to help lead an organization that desperately needs some help. that congress has for two decades counted on post masters on where they aren't doing reforms appeared why we haven't found more efficiencies. you have stepped into the role and took the work from the inspector general and the work from the regulatory commission and have said let's start

implementing some of these things and now congress seems to be shifting from beating up on post masters for not doing work to now beating up on you for actually doing the work. so i do want to say thanks for stepping up and taking this on. i want to run through several questions. some haven't been addressed yet. there was a series of stories that came out and are trending on social media that you were locking up the post boxes in burbank to prevent people from voting. were you locking up the boxes in burbank to keep people from voting? >> senator, the stories that i have heard of my ability in the places i'm able to get to in the same day are just remarkable so no, i'm not locking up -- i had nothing to do with collection boxes. >> you mentioned earlier it has been 35,000 of the blue boxes that have been retired over the

past 10 years. so apparently any blue boxes that have been retired over the past 10 years are your responsibility over the last 65 days. you had mentioned before about some of the blue boxes being retired. are they still going to be retired between now and the election or will they be retired in the future? >> my commitment to the committee and leadership and the american people is we stopped. i have put the statement out we directed everybody to stop reducing postal hours and stop bringing back collection boxes, stop shutting down machines and that was basically what we did. from now until the election. >> will it pick up after the election? you brought up some of the sorting machines are older. some of the sorting machines are not needed anymore.

will that just stop forever? i'm trying to figure out will we still work on trying to build in efficiencies in the post office? it has been an issue for a long time to get us back in balance. >> right now the legislation is that we deliver to the 161 million addresses six days a week. that's the strength. postal service and i'm committed to that. that we be self-sustaining. those are the two pieces of legislation that i'm working towards. after the -- we are not self-sustaining. we have a $10 billion shortfall and will continue to have. over the next 10 years we'll have a $200 billion shortfall. we need to and our management team and board -- there is a path that we are planning, okay, with the help of some legislation, with some cost

impacts, with some new revenue strategies and that will help -- and some pricing freedom from the prc, we believe we have a plan to do that. but one thing that's not in the plan is not doing anything after the election. this ambitious plan. we have $10 billion to bridge. now the plan has not been finalized. we have hundreds of initiatives we look at like take the alaska bypass plan discussion. that's an item on the table. that is an unfunded mandate. it costs us $500 million a year. and i'm not -- what i asked for is all the unfunded mandates. that's a way for us to get healthy. pay something for the unfunded mandates. if we just filled $25 billion this year and we don't do anything we'll be back in two years. then maybe we should change the legislation and not make us be self-sustaining. as a leadership team and board

to be self-sustaining and deliver at a high level of precision. i'm committed to both. both can be done with a little help from the congress and from the postal regulatory. >> congress has been unwilling to act on this for a very long time. over a decade congress has discussed any kind it seems to boil down to will that change distribution areas that may or may not be needed in a state that i live in or will it change any other post office structure that i'm familiar with? and if it changes my area i want to be able to block it. so it has been a great challenge. i've also heard from multiple folks saying the post office has so severely cut they can't meet the capacity to get ballots out. folks in urban and rural areas will they get ball-outs out? i've seen your letter the same in 2016. states need to send things out early. thanks for doing that and you

shouldn't be criticized for that but encouraged to be able to do that. but my question is folks have challenged me and said there won't be enough capacity for election. will you have enough capacity for christmas and mother's day? my understanding christmas and mother's day are the biggest capacity time for first class mail? do you have cap always tee now for christmas and mother's day? >> thank you. yes, we have capacity for christmas and mother's day. >> i went back and looked the week of december 16th the -- it's a remarkable feat to get 2 1/2 billion pieces of mail in a single week. you know you can handle the elections without slowing it down. >> it's more than that. besides the capacity. the intent, the extra

activities that the whole organization is going through between our postal union leaders, our board, executive management team here, we are focused on besides just having the capacity to execute, to react to whatever conditions exist at that particular point in time. up to and including the pandemic, which likely well will still be having some impact. i think the american people can feel comfortable that the postal service will deliver on this election. >> thank you. >> thanks, senator langford. senator hanson. >> well, thank you mr. chair and thank you ranking member peters for having this hearing and thank you, mr. dejoy for your willingness to appear before our committee today. my time is short this morning and because i've been told you won't be staying for a second round of questions i would

appreciate brief responses. mr. dejoy, i sent you a letter last week detailing stories from granite -- about delays in mail. a huge spike in complaints about the postal service and delays to my office. for so many of our service members, veterans, people who experience disabilities and rural americans their local post office is their lifeline and i'll note that the change in volume you are seeing doesn't change the need for timely delivery of the essential necessary items that the american public relies on the post office for. for example, one manchester couple fills preciptions through their va evidence and there has been a slowdown in mail delivery and delays have caused me to ration any medication. i start cutting back dosage to half pills to make them last. some of my pills are crucial. my cardiac and diabetic immediates need to be on a

strict protocol. will you insure any further changes you make to postal operations do not dedelay access to medications and other necessities? yes or no. >> yes, senator. i look forward to working with you on legislation to help this type of service not reach into the future. >> thank you. now i want to move to elections again. i am glad for some of the statements and actions you have taken. we all know how important voting by mail is usually and this year even more so. some states are starting to mail out general election ballots on september 4th just two weeks from today. you and the postal service general counsel have written letters that we talked about this morning about your plans to deal with election mail. you wrote last week that the postal service will, quote, utilize additional resources and maximize our efforts during the 10 days prior to the election to insure the processing and delivery of all

election mail within our system. the letters that you and the general counsel have sent to congress so far contain your full plan for insuring the processing and delivery of all election mail or do you have a more detailed operational plan for the additional resources and efforts you alluded to? >> the letter that has been sent to the states from general counsel speaks about comply mail classifications. >> i'm just wondering do you have a detailed plan about how you are going to insure the kind of delivery that americans count on for their voting by mail? do you have a more detailed plan than what's in your letter yes or no? >> there are detailed processes we're going through. we just announced the expanded

committee -- election committee within the operation. our board has established one. but there are detailed plans that we go through in every election and with regard. >> could you share those with congress and by sunday night to see what they are, please? >> i don't think i will have the complete plan by sunday night. we are just putting these committees together. i can try -- today is friday. i have to check and we'll get back to you. >> all right. i would appreciate them by sunday night if possible or by the end of next week. i know september 4th some of the ballots will start going out. last year the postal service inspector general interviewed managers in postal facilities across the country about handling elections. he found that facilities typically process political mail as first class mail delivering more than 95% of election mail. will you commit to the goal of delivering at least 95% of

leelection mail within 1 to 3 days this year? the same -- did demissioning of sorting xhfps. at the manchester processing four sorting machines have been taken out of service. three are just sitting there. one of them has been disman ld and sold to a company in pennsylvania for scrap metal. the manchester facility only has one other machine that can do the work of the machine that has been sold for scrap. if that machine fails like it did yesterday when i was talking to postal workers in my state, sorting stops and mail is delayed until the machine can be fixed. although you have suspended the removal of sorting machines the removed machines in manchester have yet to be brought back in service or replaced and you have said today it isn't necessary to do that and there aren't any plans to do. in fact, i understand that as

director of maintenance operations, kevin couch, sent an email on tuesday directing local maintenance managers not to reconnect machines. yes or no, is that true? >> i have no idea about that, ma'am. that -- those maintenance operations within the districts. this whole process was new to me last week. i'm sure there is logic behind what it is. >> so you've already said today it is not necessary but look, when we have only one machine that can do a certain kind of sorting in our largest distribution center in the state of new hampshire and it breaks and everything has to stop until it gets fixed again that's not efficient. that delays delivery and what i would like to get from you is a plan to make sure that you will commit to making sure that postal workers can deliver

every piece of mail that comes into the distribution center on the same day it gets in there which has been the practice in the past. by refusing to restart or replace these machines, you are really sabotaging the postal service's ability to sort mail efficiently and undermining postal worker's commitment to that everyday delivery. will you commit to having your team look into this and get back to me in writing about what the plan is to get at least some of these decommissioned machines back up and running? >> first, senator, i don't agree with the premise. i will comply with your request. >> thank you. it would be helpful to get a response by the end of the week. finally, i will just because i see that i am running out of time. i will ask a question for the record because there are growing concerns that postal workers are being retaliated against when they speak to their members of congress or to the press about some of the

shortages that they are seeing or some of the delays they are seeing, some of the sabotage and undermining of timely delivery that they're seeing. i want to make sure that postal workers who are speaking to protect the interests of the american public that they serve with such diligence are not retaliated against for doing so. can i have your commitment they will not be retaliated against for doing so? >> yes ma'am. >> thank you mr. chair. >> senator scott. >> sure. thank you, chairman johnson for holding this hearing today and thank you postmaster general dejoy for being here. we've had vote by mail for a long time and it is worked really well and the post office in florida has done a great job making sure it's worked. we've had three elections and they work hard to make it happen. mr. dejoy, can you talk about why you are uniquely qualified and what background you bring

to being postmaster general and why you were picked by the board of the postal service? >> thank you, senator. there are two things. you could look at two actions, the big actions that i've taken. the board will have to speak for their evaluation of me but i do have -- i have done -- one of the things they like is my experience with large program, large logistical transformations. i've back in the 90s over a $3 billion transformation of the postal network regarding mail transport equipment. i've done big projects for boeing. big projects for disney and big projects for verizon. that particular type of

experience i think impressed them and my commitment to public service impressed them. my engagement in community and in the nation. and when you look at the steps that -- i didn't come in here with a team or bring in any consultants. i work with the existing management team to create an organization that would look to move forward and help give us self-help and drive improvements in our service, drive costs out of the system, and grow revenues. and that is something that i've done all my life. i built a big business from nothing and there are some accusations this is not a business. but when you have to deliver service and be sustainable, the operating model needs to cover its costs. there is no other answer to

that than that. and we need to take actions to do that and i have great experience at that. part of i think why they liked me is i have a plan. i have a plan for the success of the postal service. i believe the six day a week delivery is a strength in us. now our pieces for delivery are down under 3. our goal is to get that back up. we cover -- if you look on a chart and look at where -- what our reach is on a daily basis, it is impressive. and we need to drive our costs out of. this is well-known. we need to drive our costs out of the network and get more efficient and get more pieces into our carrier's hands. that's the success and along

with legislative help that will be the future success for the postal service as we face a new economy >> in your business life did you have to perform for your customer, did you have to be on time and were you able to do that? >> sir, our contracts had 99.98% performance metrics on everything we did, yes. and i think there is -- i think the attitude and the energy is here at the postal -- and the desire is here at the postal service to do that. i just think we haven't had the alignment and expectation of that and that's something that i bring to the table. >> so are you -- you personally committed to doing everything you can to make sure the mail is delivered on time and people get their medicine or ballot, that they would get it as quickly as they can with

realistic expectations? >> yes, sir, i am. >> so how does it make you feel when you have people out here that make these unsubstantiated claims that you personally have a goal to slow down the mail so ballots don't get to election offices on time, that you want to suppress the vote, that you personally are interested in damaging the ability of the post office to do their job? >> sir, that does not deter me at all and you would be -- i am unbelievably proud and humbled by the number of positives comments i get from employees, management team and people from around america on my initiatives. it is really a farce to believe that we can sit here and do nothing. >> do you feel like you need a

massive federal bail-out to be able to deliver the mail on election day? >> no, i do not need anything to deliver the mail on election night. we do need legislative reform. we do need freedom from the change in prc regulation. we do need to be -- we do need to be reimbursed for our costs, when you look at during the covid -- during the pandemic. we still delivered to 99% of the american homes and with no revenue. with no revenue. american postal worker was out there. this organization continued to perform and why we have such high ratings. our revenues were down. other organizations would have stopped going into some of the rural areas and so forth. we continue to do what we're supposed to do and at a

significant cost impact. i'm one to try and get to a sustainable model but in this case we -- i believe we deserve some compensation for it. >> i think a lot of us would like to be able to do if we're going to provide more funding to the post office, that i would like to work with you and others to find out what are the things that we ought to do to make the changes necessary to make sure that you can do your job in the future. i appreciate any information you could provide that would allow us to do that and i just want to thank you for your commitment. i want to thank all the people who work at the post office. they work hard. so -- but i appreciate your background and your commitment to excellence and i hope you can do the same thing over time at the post office. thank you, chairman johnson. >> senator rosin.

>> thank you, chairman johnson for holding this meeting here today and thank you, mr. dejoy for making yourself available. before i ask some further questions i want to ask the postmaster general i would like to ask you this. we need transparency in the changes you've been making and in everything that you've discussed here today. will you commit to providing this committee with any and all transcripts or minutes of all closed, non-public, board of governor meetings from this year by this sunday? can you commit to that, sir? >> no. >> you will not commit to provide minutes? >> i don't have the authority to do some of those things and that is something that i would need to discuss with counsel and the board's counsel. i can't commit to that. >> well, we'll be discussing that with you. let's move on. we have limited time. before i go with the rest of my questions i do want to thank

the dedicated postal workers across this nation particularly in my state of nevada. i spoke with many of them yesterday. majority of them veterans, veterans and their families. they have done years of dedicated service to this country, to this nation and they are very concerned. to mr. dejoy earlier this year you acknowledged you made operational changes to the postal service. removed mail sorting machines, had reduction, elimination of overtime and late trips. in las vegas where we're expecting mail volume to ramp up soon our postal workers, the ones i spoke with yesterday, are reporting the removal of sorting machine from our general mail facility which is actually right down the street from my house. as a former programmer and systems analyst i have a strong appreciation for the data. i want to talk about the data that you use to create these policies and what you may or may not have analyzed before you made these changes. during the pandemic health

officials directed older americans to stay at home for their own safety. that means our seniors in nevada and across the country postal service is the only way to receive their critical items. household supplies, social security checks. veterans my colleagues have already mentioned this, lifeline, 80% of veterans prescriptions are filled by the united states post all service. i have 225,000 veterans in nevada, many of them relying on this for their timely delivery of life-saving medication. and in small towns across nevada with a population of 269 people to a tribal community with 658 people to my larger rural communities it's all they get is the postal service. so please, will you answer yes or no, effort of time. before developing and implementing policy changes since assuming your role this year did you conduct any

specific analysis on how your changes would impact seniors? yes or no, sir? >> ma'am, the policy changes that i -- >> yes or no, sir. >> the policy changes that i embarked upon were not the ones that you identified in your -- >> you didn't do any analysis. let's move on. did you do analysis to see how veterans might be impacted knowing that so many of our postal workers are veterans and we employ so many veterans that they aren't getting their medication and that they rely on 80%, did you do a specific analysis to see how veterans would be impacted? >> the only change that i made, ma'am, was that the trucks leave on time. everyone should have got their mail faster. >> so can you look me in the eye and all the nevada veterans in the eye, all the nevada

seniors in the eye and tell us that you will not continue in the policies in the future that you know that will harm my seniors, my veterans here in nevada and all of our seniors and veterans across this nation. can you look us in the eye and commit to being sure that they have on-time delivery? >> well, i'm working towards on-time delivery ma'am, yes, i can commit to that. >> thank you. so did you do any analysis about the fees, if mail is late, the late fees that people would get when they paid their rent or car payment or utility bill if the mail is slowed down and the impact that the charges and fees would have on working families? is there any analysis about the impact of late delivery by you on that, sir, yes or no, please? >> the analysis that we did was that if we move the mail on schedule that all late deliveries would have been improved. that's -- >> that isn't the case and we

need to continue. >> for a variety of reasons. for a variety of reasons. >> our deployed service members cast their ballots by mail. did you specifically analyze how your policy changes would impact our servicemen and women across this country and across the globe, how your changes would impact them, sir? >> senator, the analysis we did would show that we would improve service to every constituent. >> that's great. can you provide me by this sunday if i understand you correctly, you have analysis that will show that this should have improved it although we're finding out through thousands and thousands of contacts to our office, to our connections that it has not been the case? this is frankly unacceptable and i would like to see the analysis that this was based on to our services by this sunday. can you commit to that, sir? >> no, ma'am. >> can you commit to providing

it to us at all, sir? >> i can -- i will get back to you on that. i would say -- >> you will not commit the analysis you use to base your decisions on about their very important medications, their social security checks, and all the other things? you won't commit to the american people to be transparent? >> senator, i will go back and get the truck schedule. the analysis that designed the truck schedule that i directed. >> can you commit to transparent? >> yes. >> if you're transparent that means you will provide us the data that you used to base these important decisions that impact people's lives. i want you to look in the camera. there are millions of people watching who are impacted every day by what you do and please understand that. and so i want you to commit to the american people to transparency and provide us with the data that has been

used to create these decisions. >> ma'am, i do not accept the premise and i will provide you with the transportation schedule that i directed the organization to adhere to. i will do that. >> we appreciate that. i look forward to seeing that and i look forward to having future discussions with you. thank you, my time is up. >> is senator paul available? we can hear you. >> thank you, mr. dejoy for your testimony. thank you for taking a thankless job filled with partisan rancor and thank you for bringing your business acumen. even with legislative reform i see it as almost an impossibility how we would actually balance the annual operating losses with the loss of your $8 billion a year is an

enormous loss. i have been of the pin basically we shouldn't give you any more money unless it's attached to reform. the only leverage we have. when the post office needs money we -- we started less employees a few years ago. the mail keeps dropping, you have to have less employees. that's where your legacy costs are, too. over time you'll catch up on that but we have to go to less employees over time. we also need to look at the easiest way to continue personalized service to each person individually at their house and we need to do it less frequently and people who live 20 miles down a road get something two times a week instead of six times a week we would live with this. i live in a small town. i think people could live with that. people should be told of the problem of continuing to run

massive deficits in the post office and through our government. really we shouldn't pass money out like it's candy. we should send it attached to specific reforms. could you list some of the legal impediments you have? you are a businessman. if you came in as a venture capitalist group took over the post office and named you ceo, what would you do that you are unable to do because it's a government entity now? what are the governmental or legal restraints that prevent you from fixing the 8 to 9 billion annual loss the post office has. >> well, thank you, senator, for the opportunity to address that. i'm a little bit more optimistic than you in terms of our ability to at least get to a close point of break even. number one, the legislative reform i would ask is what i said in my written testimony in

the opening statement and remarks on the integration of medicaid and pension reform. i would like to be kind of liberated on pricing from -- it's a very competitive market out there now. i would like more pricing freedom. that would help us. i would like some of our unfunded mandates addressed with and then within the organization i would be able, without as much fanfare, to do a simple thing like say adhere to our schedules, right? and if we adhere to our schedules that will improve performance. in transition there should be -- there would be an issue but -- we're seeing that recover right now. once we get mail packages moving with trucks moving 97% on time and driving costs out of the system by doing that,

that's what i would do in my own business. my own business i would craft new business revenue generating ideas, which we have here that will drive billions of dollars of contribution to the cost of serving the american people. so we are beginning to have a plan. i'm an optimist of trying to pull this off. >> i won't ask you your opinion from going to six days to five days. that's a job of congress. that's estimated to save a billion half. that could be a one-sentence bill that takes a billion half dollars over there and puts us on a better putting. i think you should do it further. instead of assessing people more of a postal charge if they live 20 miles down a dirt road have less frequent delivery. i think you could make up for a large amount of your shortfall if you went below five days for

very rural areas. it has been said that some of your competitors use the post office for the last mile delivery and that we don't charge them an adequate amount. they are using the post office to subsidize last mile delivery. is that a problem? do we charge your competitors enough when they get a package shipped to an area and use the post office for the last mile? is that competitively bid? is that a problem? should we do anything to fix that? >> senator, if i may when i first came here coming -- when i first got this assignment, that was an obvious thing to me. cut back five days or four days or whatever. and as i've worked through the process and researched and studied the organization, i think the six day delivery, the connection that the postal letter carrier has with the american people, that gives us

this highly trusted brand and where the economy is going in the future, i think that is probably our biggest strength to capitalize on. we talk about 1 1/2 billion to take a day away. i'm looking at a transportation change that could get us 2 or 3 billion and improve connection to the american people. >> i'll believe that when i see it. i don't doubt you. i doubt the government and post office history. what about the last mile delivery from your competitors? >> we are studying it. my general view, i've only been here 60 days and i've looked at that. we make broad-based deals across the whole country that deal with average rates. there are areas that we could push them up and we're studying

that. i don't believe that on the surface it is not the -- it's reasonable business gaps that may exist is how i describe it. >> all right. thanks for trying to fix sort of perhaps an unfixable problem and hang in there and just the partisan barbs hopefully they will be portrayed for what they are, partisan barbs that aren't trying to fix anything but doing electoral politics by way of attacking you. i apologize for that from my colleagues across the aisle and wish you the best. >> senator romney, are you there? >> yes, i am. can you hear me mr. chairman? >> yes. >> i want to begin by expressing my appreciation to the thousands upon thousands of letter carriers and i also want to note as well the postal workers have made our vote by

mail system in utah a reliable and very successful system i think for the entire nation. mr. dejoy, assuming that you've been truthful in your testimony today i can imagine how frustrating it is to be accused of political motives in your management responsibility. at the same time of course you can thoroughly understand there have been pretty good reasons for people to think that you or your colleagues are purposely acting to suppress voting or that you will purposely prevent ballots from being counted. any surprise has to be tempered by the president has made repeated claims that mail-in voting will be fraudulent. he doesn't want to give more money to the post office, without more money you can't have universal mail-in voting. but putting that aside, let me note that a great deal of that may be the fact you contributed to president trump's campaign. i would note that you also

generously contributed to my campaign. so some people would say that you have contributed to both sides. [laughter] let me turn and note -- let me note that like others today i state the obvious when i say that reliable, valid voting is essential to democracy here and, of course, to other places around the world. particularly with covid still raging the mail is essential to our voting system and therefore to democracy. can you -- do you have a high degree of confidence that virtually all the ballots mailed seven days before an election would be able to be received and counted? if people vote within seven days of an election are they highly -- are you highly confident that those ballots would then be received? >> extremely highly confident.

we will scour every plant each night leading up to election day. we're very, very confident. >> i very much appreciate that. that is a commitment. i hope the american people, as they see news reports of this hearing and of others that will come in the house will underscore the fact that if they get their ballots in at least seven days before an election and probably even closer than that, but that the person who is running the post office is saying he is highly confident those ballots will be received by the various clerks in a timely way. that is key to us. on a separate topic, you mentioned that there are delays in the system and that's to be expected. are there greater delays in certain areas than others? for instance, are delays greater in rural areas than they are in the rest of the country?

>> senator, i think more urban areas where the coronavirus -- the intimidation of the coronavirus, which scares our employ our employee availability average has dropped across the nation about 4%. when you can go into some of these hot spots, philadelphia, detroit, they are as much as 25%. and we have routes, we have -- philadelphia has 750 routes and we have days where we're short 200 carriers. and this can go on for a while. so that's where -- it's not the only contribution but when the american people see two or three days that they haven't seen their carrier, that's an issue. i would say i think there at

least 20 of those around descending level of consequence around the country. >> thank you. i will just end by saying like a number of my colleagues who already expressed this point, i would very much look forward to seeing -- i'm not talking about by sunday but at some point seeing a plan developed by someone of your expertise and logistics for how we can get the post office to be more economically managed. but at the same time maintain a level of service which is essential for a functioning economy and that's a real challenge but as someone who has done what you've done throughout your career i expect you to be up to the task. like senator paul, i am anxious for there to be a recognition on the part of congress that for us to demand certain service levels may require us

to make legislative changes. please feel welcome in our committee or in the house for letting us know what we need to do to make sure that you can do the job that we've asked you to do. thank you, mr. dejoy. appreciate your service. >> thank you, sir. >> thanks, senator romney. senator enzi. >> appreciate you senator johnson for holding this hearing and i especially appreciate the postmaster general coming to this hearing knowing what kind of target he will be. it has to be really difficult only being in office 60 days and being expected to solve all of the problems of the postal service. it has been in a crisis for many years. senator collins used to head this committee when it wasn't

called homeland security. it was government affairs, and she has worked on the post office all of that time and has a pretty good bill she has worked on with senator feinstein that i hope people will take a look at. i'm not sure that anything can be done in a bipartisan way particularly if one of the participants, susan collins, is up for election. that might help her in her campaign. but she has been dedicated to this. it isn't a new idea she had. it is something she has been working on and it has a lot of good ideas in it. i feel -- i really appreciate postal workers. in wyoming particularly they're doing an outstanding job in spite of all of the difficulties of the pandemic. my postal worker and he was before the mail sorting machines and he was pleased that he was able to memorize all the zip codes in the sheridan area and handled

the sorting. of course, now local mail isn't postmarked locally. i didn't realize that you personally deliver everything. that you personally fix the sorting machines. that was all news to me. and detailed analysis, how much detailed analysis can you do in 60 days, particularly as i suspect that maybe people aren't wanting to share information with you. i hope that those postal workers out there that are dedicated will actually do something to help out on it. and of course, you have been accused of picking on veterans and picking on seniors, and i have to admit that i have felt picked on not by you, but by the postal service recently. and i was glad to hear your explanation that you are having some difficulty with people to deliver the mail in light of the pandemic. i don't think a lot of people

understand that. i didn't understand that. but i know that we had a package that we were expecting that was being traced and we paid extra to have it traced and it sat in the d.c. post office for 11 days before it was delivered to us. there have been days our mail wasn't picked up. i am glad to know the reason behind that and to find out this is the big surprise, it wasn't you. i thought you caused all of that. mail sorting machines. in wyoming, i don't think we sort any mail in wyoming. what i learned was that when you move a sorting center under the union requirements, if the people don't want to move, they don't have to move and they still get paid. that's not going to save any money. i have asked for the analysis

on some of these changes that drastically affected wyoming and which weren't done under you. it was done under previous administrations. and i know that they want to save money but they have to do some analysis that will actual save money. you used to be able to put an envelope in a collection box for local delivery and they got it the next day. now you put it in my community for local delivery, it goes to denver first, gets sorted and comes back to gillette. sometimes postmarked in denver. that's not good management. and as an accountant i know that post marks make a difference. so i'm concerned. i have a lot of concerns. i'm only pointing these out because i know that you've only had 60 days to work on them and your plate was already full. i'm trying to fill it a little

bit more. i appreciate that you are willing to take on this i guess you would have to call it an adventure, not a job. it would be too tough as a job. i know you've made some sacrifices to get to this. i hope you will take a look at the urban areas. we've been picked on in the rural areas for a long time but we have some really efficient people out here dealing with long distances and doing it very well. but when i go to my post office in d.c., i find that there is only one person working at the counter and if the person that comes up to the counter needs a box to mail it in, the boxes are not out where people can actually get them. so the person behind the counter has to leave and go get a box. when they bring the box back it still has to be sealed and addressed and they don't move them over to the side to see if

they can wait on the next customer. everybody waits at social distancing. i've been to the post office before during my lunch hour and found that the postal workers decided that was their lunch hour as well. no business lets their employees sit down and eat in front of customers during their lunch hour. well, enough of my i guess trying to defend you here. >> senator, if i may. thank you for that. if i may, the day i take the seat as with any organization the day you become the ceo you are responsible for everything that goes on around you. i have big enough shoulders to deal with that.

but more important about what you said in the beginning about legislation, you know, not moving. we, the organization, needs to and we will move forward. we have to. without legislation, without any assistance, we will run out of money and nine months. we talk about a 633,000 person organization and nine months worth of cash. everybody thinks we're okay. that's outrageous thinking. so we need to -- we will -- that's kind of the difference. as i said in my opening remarks to the board of governors, we'll do what we need to do to meet our operating objectives and get to a self-sustaining manner. >> i appreciate your willingness to be here and i hope you will take a look at the collins/feinstein bill and give us some analysis on that

and i recognize that you have to rely on the post masters across the united states of doing their jobs to manage their own business. thank you for taking this job. >> thank you. >> thank you, senator. sen for hawley. >> thank you for being here mr. dejoy. let me see if i can ask a few questions that may clear out some of the misinformation we've heard repeated over and over and over in the media and some of it echoed today. just to be clear, will usps have enough cash on hand to support operating expenses through the november election? >> yes, sir. >> has the postal service seen an increase in total operating revenues in the most recently reported quarter relative to last year? >> yes, sir. small. but yes.

>> has the postal seen its overall cash on hand increase since the start of the pandemic in march to a level of approximately $15 billion, is that right? >> somewhere between 14 and 15 billion, yes. >> so if i understood your testimony today and what you said and what i've read in written testimony. your testimony to us is that the postal service has the wherewithal and has the resources, it has what it needs in order to deliver the mail safely and on time through the november election. just to be clear about that. is that right? >> yes, senator, two separate things. we'll deliver on the election and cash to operate the business in the future are two separate things but yes, we have plenty of cash to operate for the election. >> what is your estimate of the amount of additional assistance that you require as you look toward the future into the months and years to come past november? >> i think we have -- so a, the

biggest thing we need is legislative reform and prc. i estimated about $10 billion. we estimate about $10 billion cost on covid expense side. and what i would like to see is the note that we have negotiated with treasury used to get long-term financing to buy new vehicles. >> can i ask you about that since you bring up the note from treasury? the cares act authorized $10 billion in borrowing authority. you came to an agreement late last month in principle over what that would look like. can you give us a sense of when this $10 billion that was authorized, the loan, when it is likely to be made available to you, what you see its utility? give us an update where that

stands? >> so, we have in terms of agreement and all we would need to know is when we request it, i have a final document, but the terms have been agreed. the issue here with borrowing money is you need to know how you are going to pay it back. this particular point, you know, we are evaluating that but it is available to us pretty quickly. >> and what do you anticipate using it for in the near term assuming that you do avail yourself of it >> it is pretty specific. i cannot use it for capital but i can use it to cover operating costs that are closely associated with covid. we can identify that pretty easily. >> you said just a second ago when we first introduced the topic of the loan you said you would like additional authority to perhaps use the loan for vehicles or as collateral for vehicles. can you say more about that?

>> so we have -- we have many 30-year-old vehicles that we're desperately in need of new vehicles. the loan is not for capital. i would like to see the term extended and used as a capital-type equipment loan to buy vehicles and other types of modernization efforts that we have. but longer term than five years. >> very good. part of the additional legislative reforms or authorizations you seek is that my understanding? >> yes, sir. it's already been passed in a committee a couple years ago what we're looking for. >> right. understood. let's come back to some of the reforms that you had recently implemented. to what degree were any of the changes that you implemented over the summer in response to

the oig's recent findings? >> i considered the oig's recent findings as we were doing our own analytics i thought they were for somebody new coming in i thought they were a remarkable gift in terms of just laying out the two things like that. the system was out of balance. transportation system 40,000 trucks a day were running. once you get below, you know, 90%, you can't depend on anything, right? and so that was -- then there was the cost -- when we're looking at where the organization was headed financially and what was the thing we could balance around, it was getting that transportation network aligned, which we will do. and saving, you know, a

billion, billion 1/2 to two billion which we can reach for was a christmas present. i'm delighted. >> very good. let me just ask you here i see my time is almost expired. let me ask you in conclusion. as you probably know, my home state of missouri we have a very significant percentage of our population in rural areas. part of the state that i'm from where i grew up is absolutely vital to me that any postal service reform going forward continues to preserve the network of rural delivery service. that it preserve the existing delivery and post office box services that are available throughout rural missouri. are you committed to protecting rural delivery and rural post offices for people i represent in missouri and around the country.

>> we have an unbelievable asset in our letter carriers reaching every american each day. and i commit to trying to strengthen that relationship across the country. >> very good. thank you very much. >> senator hawley, before i go to senator sinema based on one of the questions in your response from senator hawley, you talked about the transportation system just being out of sync. i want to make sure we're talking about the same thing. in your written testimony you said your on-time trips went from 35,000 per day to 39,000 per day, which means scheduled time of 89% improved in 97%. is that what you are talking about, your trucks actually leaving on time to get on their routes and has that been part of the disruption as well? if the letters aren't getting to the trucks in time they may

be left behind for the next day's delivery. can you clarify that a little better? >> inside the plant there is a production schedule for mail that would meet -- set up to meet a dispatch schedule for trucks that gets tied to a destination center for let's say to keep it simple right to the delivery units where carriers go out in the morning and carriers can come back at night. the whole thing is an aligned schedule on paper. there are lots of imbalances that we are finding as we went through this process. but the big thing to try and get everything aligned around is that transportation schedule. and now we have taken that up and all that mail that was going on that track was also late mail. right now we've advanced the mail. we did some of the mail coming off the processing lines, we did -- we found these

imbalances and not as great a job as we should in recovering for it but we will. we're seeing improvements now. once that comes together mail will move around the country 97% on time. i'm excited and committed to trying to do that. that enables us to balance the front end and the delivery end of the system and saves us all that money that you saw in the ordering. it's in billions, not millions. >> so as a former manufacturer i realize if you don't have a good process you don't have a good product. you identified process breakdowns and you made a dramatic improvement in terms of on-time dispatch level and now you have covid affecting our entire economy and it affects the postal system as well. basically what i'm hearing out of your testimony is the delivery delays are primarily being caused by the issues

related to covid but the changes you made in terms of process certainly in theory, if it hasn't improved already will set you up for improvement and cost reductions and cost savings in the future. >> so substantial portion of our delays are related to covid. i won't go as far as to not say that -- we had maybe a 4 or 5% hit on our service level for delay, all sorts of mail, marketing mail and everything because it got stuck on the dock and we are drastically bringing that down. once that is aligned we should have a smooth running system at a much more high performance rate. >> some of it is due to the changes but the changes are necessary to improve it in the

future. >> it is very doable. fedex and ups do it. >> thank you for holding this important hearing and thank you mr. dejoy for joining us today. the u.s. postal service has been a critical lifeline for communities across arizona and the entire nation. during the pandemic it's more true. over the past week my office heard from over 18,000 people in arizona about the importance of the postal service. they want to insure the postal service will be there to deliver prescription drugs and support their right to vote. arizona had -- the postal service must act to support our upcoming election since we will see increases in vote by mail due to the pandemic. our hearing today shouldn't just be about election mail. my constituents shared store eefs about prescriptions that took so long to arrive they worry whether the medication is

spoiled. others concerned their small business will go under without reliable postal service or rent checks and bill payments take a week longer to reach destination than it did two months ago. i'm pleased you are here to answer questions about the operational services, the postal service is making. it is critical that you and your team demonstrate a commitment to customer to reliable service and stakeholders and election officials is a big part of that effort. so from my first question in arizona we expect 85 to 90% of the electorate to vote by mail this general election. 2.4 million ballots moving through the postal network in arizona in the weeks before the election. given that significant volume unexpected challenges will arise and adjustments need to be made. i've been working closely with the -- [inaudible] (no audio)

>> you've been watching the hearing on capitol hill with the postmaster general testifying before a senate committee there. the top republican the chairperson on the committee ron johnson, the senator from wisconsin, saying that dejoy has been subjected in his words to character assassination as democrats put him in the crosshairs of a false narrative. the ranking democrat on that committee peters saying if you plan to continue pursuing these kinds of changes he says his colleagues and his constituents will continue to question whether or not dejoy is the right person for the job. but very simply and clearly dejoy made the case, trace, that there have been no changes in any policies with regard to 2020 election mail. he has not spoken to the president about the postal service other than to congratulate him on the role and said the usps can handle the influx of election mail and calls it his sacred duty. and trace, there was that

moment with senator tom carper grabbing a few headlines where he thought his microphone wasn't working and it was and a few expletives came out. we're told the hearing is back, trace. we'll dip back in and listen. >> leadership and myself to communicate out our commitment and continue to work with the state boards. and our board, we've decided to put together a bipartisan committee on the board to kind of oversee everything that we are going to be doing. so we are emphasizing -- in fact, i think in september we'll send a letter to every american with what our process is going out to every american citizen. i think we -- i feel good and i appreciate the question and i feel good about what the whole

organization from the board of directors down to our letter carriers and plant personnel, we're very proud of what we're doing and we'll deliver for the american people. >> thank you for that. i appreciate it. postal processing plants are the critical piece to insure everyday mail arrives and all votes are counted. we want to make sure those processing operations remain smooth and efficient. in your announcement earlier this week you said you wouldn't close any postal processing facilities before the election. i don't think you ruled out consolidations at processing plants. are they planning to modify or reduce capacity before the election and if so what steps you've taken to insure the postal service can continue to meet service standard for election and regular mail in the communities served by those facilities? >> senator, i promise you we are not making any changes

until after the election. >> i appreciate that. that was very concise and direct answer, i love it. as you know, i recently wrote to you regarding the cherry bell processing plant in tucson. it is very important to mail service in that community and throughout arizona. if the postal service considered closures of processing facilities in the future would you require studies and analysis before moving forward with a consolidation or closure? >> i'm not totally familiar with it but there is a whole process that -- a detailed process we need to go through to -- before we close a facility. we'll take that down. if that facility ever gets on that i'll make sure we reach out to you in advance and let you know. there is a whole public

awareness process, detailed analysis as to how the mail is going to be processed. it is not an easy thing to do so -- but we have it marked down and will keep you posted if it ever gets on our list of interested locations. >> i appreciate that. for your awareness the original analysis was done in 2011. we've had population growth throughout arizona since then. we want to make sure decisions are made with up to date data. this is very important for southern arizona in particular. mr. chairman, go ahead, mr. dejoy. >> i look forward to speaking to you about it. >> thank you. i know my time is almost done. the last thing i will just say is when you next consider operational changes, i would ask you to take into account the negative customer experiences that folks have shared with us like medicine or

missing rent checks. we've been getting more complaints about service getting worse since the most recent changes. we ask that you would take into account these negative customer experiences in making decisions in the future and my team -- (no audio) >> sandra: having some audio technical difficulties there with the hearing as happens now, trace, with the virtual hearings taking place on capitol hill today. a lot coming from that. dejoy said there was no change in policy to handling election mail. as you heard him telling the senator just now there will be no changes to the mail ahead of election day. >> trace: he said again and again the postal service was able to deliver all of these ballots on time. fully capable. what he said is they need legislative reform because there are 26 states that allow ballots to be sent out to people a day or two before the election. that makes it hard for those ballots to get back on time.

senator kamala harris is also on this panel and submitted written questions. those have to be answered sometimes in the next seven days. she did not attend this. she is joe biden's vice presidential running mate. you were talking about senator tom carper yes, we no, went on a tirade and didn't think his internet connection was open and it was much to his chagrin. overall the theme here seems to be the post office is capable. low on money and losing money but capable of handling -- >> sandra: before the republican led senate committee this morning. next week on monday he will be testifying before the democratic-led house committee. we'll see a lot of him coming up, trace. chad pergram is handling all this on capitol hill this morning. quite a moment. i saw you tweeting about it. there was a moment where one of the senators got caught on a hot mic. a lot coming out of the hearing

this morning. >> these virtual hearings never quite know what's going to happen. the house of representatives when they started virtual hearings had to have at least two successful test hearings, mock hearings before they committed to actually doing a virtual hearing. senate didn't have some of the same qualifications as the house of reft ins. the difference there. a lot of questions this morning for louis dejoy about how close he was to the president. he contributed $3 million to republican campaigns. mitt romney from ukah noted he had given to the president and also given to romney and romney joked that means you've given to both sides. louis dejoy said it was an outrageous claim that he was trying to do things in favor of the president. said he had not talked to him at all and you know the president has flagged this issue of voting by mail. he said it is fraught with fraud and that seems to be an area where there is disagreement between the president and the postmaster general. listen to this exchange. >> postal service will deliver

every ballot and process every ballot in time that it receives. >> you do support voting by mail? >> i do. >> he said his advice would be to vote early. the postal service warned 46 states that delays in delivery could leave ballots uncounted. he said he doesn't anticipate issues with mail-in votes this time. the system has slack to handle a potential uptick. >> there has been no changes in any policies with regard to election mail for the 2020 election. as you stated, this letter was sent out before my arrival. >> democrats like gary peters of michigan are skeptical that the postal service is as efficient as it used to be. he worries about slowdowns.

louis dejoy testified at one point during the hearing that he said you know, we have enough cash. we're good for right now to get through the fall. the house of representatives is going to convene tomorrow, a rare saturday session, $25 billion in a bill. the house rules committee is setting up that debate right now preparing the parameters of that debate. they started at 11:00 eastern time. the house will vote on that tomorrow afternoon. and that bill is going nowhere in the senate. that's a house-only project. almost every democrat will vote for it if not all. we expect 12 to 15 republicans to defect even though republicans have been whipping against voting for that bill. and of course the underlying issue here is the pandemic. is there coronavirus relief? nothing is moving on this so-called skinny bill. that's something they wanted to put money for the postal service. even republicans about $10 billion in an overall coronavirus bill. democrats wanted $25 billion. but they are going to continue with this hearing. again they'll have dejoy here

today and then he is to appear before the house oversight committee on monday. remember that the chair of the committee ron johnson of wisconsin, he wanted to get dejoy into this hearing before monday. he viewed the house hearing, his term, a hostile environment and thought it would be appropriate to have senators on his side of the building get first crack at dejoy and he said he wanted dejoy to give his side of the story first, sandra. >> sandra: that's what we saw today. chad pergram. dejoy just telling senator sinema that every american in september will be receiving a letter that will tell them what the u.s. postal service process for election mail is. so chad pergram on capitol hill on all of that for us. meanwhile breaking news on the college admissions scandal. a sentencing has just come down for lori lochlin's husband. we'll have that for you after the break. it's time for the biggest sale of the year on the sleep number 360 smart bed.

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and voice solution at a great price. call or go online today. >> trace: breaking news coming into "america's newsroom" on the college admissions scandal. a judge accepting the plea deal and he will serve five months in prison. part of the plea deal. his wife will be sentenced in

about 12 or 13 minutes, we're told. her plea deal calls for her to serve two months in prison. it works out if the judge accepted mass mo's plea he will also accept the 2 month prison term. because of this plea deal they aren't allowed to serve house arrest. they have to go to prison. when that happens we don't know but they will have to go to prison. the judge did have some discretion as to whether he could accept this or he could ask for a tougher sentence. he has decided to accept this so that appears to be the parameters as the couple will also pay about $400,000 in a fine and the likelihood is that lori lochlin will go to the same california upstate prison, minimum security prison that felicity huffman went to a few months ago after serving 11 days for her part in the

college admissions scandal. lori lochlin and her husband, they actually faked the application for their daughters to attend the university of southern california putting forward that their daughters were actually crew team recruits when in fact they had never been on the crew team. they had never crewed at all. they took pictures of them and sent them in and they were caught. now the question remains will they actually go to prison because of the whole covid outbreak? what we're being told is they will actually have to present themselves at the prison. if there is a covid-19 outbreak at the various prisons where they're sent to, at that point in time the judge will have the discretion to be able to send them for house arrest. but it works out that they would have to present themselves and right now our understanding is the prison that we anticipate that lori

lochlin would go to doesn't have a covid outbreak. she will likely go there and spend two months. there were 73 people involved in this college admission scandal. the sentences have come down from slap on the wrist to some fines to six months in jail. that seems to be about the extent of this. lori lochlin had fought saying we're not guilty. we thought we were just doing it in a way to benefit the college and the whole thing here sandra is they are not being bought by a judge. that judge has accepted the plea deal. they worked a long time on this and will both spend some time in prison. >> sandra: they are among 30 prominent parents involved in this and to your paint they were first course on this. they initially said they were making legitimate donations in all of this and they reversed

course and admitted to participating in it. molly line is live in boston. we know he has been sentenced to five months, molly. we're awaiting on the official sentencing to come down to lori loughlin. she is expected to get two months. do they actually serve prison time? >> well according to the deal the plea agreement that the judge has affirmed he has accepted the deal. he didn't have to do so. he could have rejected the deal and it would have been null and void. at the very beginning of the sentencing hearing that's still underway right now happening via zoom. the judge is in the federal courthouse in boston, that the terms of the deal will stand. which means that her husband, has essentially been sentenced to go to prison. it is for five months behind bars as well as considerable fines, probation following that

and many hours of community service as well. the big question now is will he spend all that time behind bars? there was another defendant in this case also sentenced by this same judge by judge gorton who spent about 3.5 months actually in prison behind bars. so at this point in time it looks like he will be reporting the prison. it won't happen for at least 90 days. that expected date to be three months out. but how long he will spend behind bars we do not know. many of these defendants have not spent the entirety of their sentence. >> sandra: covid-19 situation is changing a lot of that. as far as the fine, $250,000 for him and a $150,000 fine for her is what it called for. 250 hours of community for him, 100 hours for her. we'll getting the breaking details. keep us posted. >> trace: let's bring in fox

news judicial analyst andrew napolitano. so we don't get ahead of ourselves the judge has accepted the husband's plea deal and it would stand to reason that he would also agree to lori loughlin's plea deal. >> if a judge is not going to abide the plea agreement fully between the government and the defendant, the government -- the judge lets the government and the defendant know that ahead of time. i've sentenced over 1,000 people, probably 3/4 of them pursuant to these plea agreements. you almost always follow the plea agreement unless some new information about the defendant or about the government's case comes to you after the plea has been entered. i don't know what new information could come in this case. so it's likely that lori

loughlin will be sentenced to what he expects and her husband 5 months in jail. house arrest was ruled out. you have to go to prison. the question now begins in the era of covid, we know it won't be at least 90 days. we don't know what the transmission rate is. we anticipate the judge that lori loughlin will go to the same minimum security prison that huffman went to in california several months back. if covid plays into this, how does that work? >> well, the decision on covid is not the government's and not the court's. the bureau of prisons, a arm of the department of justice and that decision has to be based on health concerns. so the bureau of prisons has standards. a checklist how close is the prisoner to others, how people in the prison have been infected, what's the age and

medical condition of the prisoner? and after examining that checklist and seeing which boxes apply, the bureau of prisons make the decision as it did for michael cowan, president trump's former lawyer who only served a year or so of the three-year sentence. they would make that evaluation right away and their options are to keep the person there or send them home under house arrest which is what they both requested and the court denied. the court cannot interfere with this decision of the bureau of prisons based on the condition of the prison or the health of the prisoners. >> trace: i want to read you an op-ed from the "boston globe" saying it really is not necessary to send them to prison quoting here loughlin is not a danger to society. let's be clear, america won't right the massive inequalities in the u.s. criminal justice

system by imprisoning loughlin. is it a fair assessment, judge? >> full disclosure. i was asked to write a letter for one of the defendants, not these two. a college friend who was sentenced and i'm record on my opinion of this. there is no crime here in my opinion. the government gravely overreached. in my opinion the defendants tricked the schools so they have a cause of action. the schools have a cause of action against the defendants and against this creep rick singer who put it all together but the "boston globe" is entirely correct. these are not criminals. these are not people worthy of incarceration and quite frankly i'll say this clearly, the judges who sent them away

should be ashamed of themselves because this is not a proper exercise of the judicial discretion. >> trace: i think we should note that in california now where lori loughlin will likely serve her prison sentence they're letting out convicted murderers because of the fear of getting covid-19. always good to see you. lori loughlin should be sentenced sometimes in the next few minutes and we'll break in with that. thank you again. >> sandra: thank you. fox news alert. president trump will speak before a conservative group in arlington, virginia. his first public remarks after joe biden's acceptance speech went hard after the president without mentioning the president by name. mark meredith is live at the white house. what can we expect to hear from president trump today? >> good morning to you. president trump may have a lot to say about last night's speech. it appears he was watching he was tweeting as it was happening. one of the tweets last night getting a lot of attention the president writing in 47 years

joe did none of the things of which he now speaks. he will never change. just words. now the trump campaign is also focusing on what was not said last night. vice president mike pence making the rounds on the morning shows including earlier today on "fox & iends." >> the fact that joe biden didn't talk about china, didn't talk about the violence in our streets tells you all you need to know about the liberal agenda that they'll try to advance on the american people. >> the president spent the last several days trying to counter program the democratic convention. multiple stops in battleground states including in pennsylvania yesterday. now with the convention wrapped up the focus shifts to the modified gop convention. president trump is set to accept his party's nomination on thursday night here in d.c. at the white house. platform is being built on the south lawn and there are reports there will be fireworks after the speech. as for the rest of the convention we're getting an idea what the themes will be

starting with monday. land of heroes, they have the roll call vote as the convention gets underway. tuesday land of promise and we expect to hear from the first. wednesday mike pence will be speaking land of opportunity. thursday the land of greatness when president trump will reaccept his party's renomination and waiting to see the president may decide to pop into the rnc down in charlotte where the roll call event will be happening. within the last half hour or so fox news learned president trump will be going to north carolina for an official event but that stop is not in charlotte. two hours away. we're waiting to see if he will make his way to that arena where the delegates will be meeting for his renomination. >> sandra: we're just getting word the motorcade has just departed the white house. we should see and hear from the president a short time from now. thank you. >> biden back on the virtual campaign trail. peter doocy live for us in

wilmington, delaware. >> trace, when joe biden says he thinks the four big issues right now are the pandemic, the economy, climate change, and racial justice issues, republicans are wondering what about china? >> there was no attention paid to two of the most important challenges that our nation faces either during the convention or during joe biden's acceptance speech last night and that is the violence that is besetting the families in major cities across this country, and the economic and strategic challenge we face with china. >> the house minority leader kevin mccarthy republican from california said he watched four nights of the convention and doesn't know anything about the biden platform except they don't like president trump and they want to raise taxes. >> that was clear. peter, thank you. >> sandra: former white house press secretary sarah sanders reacting to joe biden's speech

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see for yourself, at carvana.com. >> sandra: president trump will be speaking at the council for national policy at the meeting happening in arlington, virginia, moments from now. we'll watch for that. first democratic presidential nominee joe biden last night getting high remarks for striking what many said was the right tone in his acceptance speech on the final night of

the democratic convention. the headline says biden just made it a lot harder for republicans to tag him slow joe. sarah sanders former white house press secretary and fox news contributor joins us now. good morning to you. what was your thoughts as you watched joe biden deliver that speech? >> it's one thing to read teleprompter. it is a whole new ballgame to have to go toe and toe and debate the president or take tough questions from the media. two things joe biden will have to do to move the ball forward and i think it will be a pivotal moment when we actually see these two men on stage debating one another and i don't think that joe biden is going to get the same kind of headlines coming out of that that he did last night. i think president trump has shown a masterful ability to debate and go up against pretty much anybody and do extremely well. i think that will be a key moment in this race and one of the reasons that president

trump is going to do extremely well in november. >> sandra: there seems to be continued attacks on the part of democrats as you watched four nights of this convention this week attacks on president trump's character. joe biden tried to draw a sharp contrast to what a biden presidency was look like versus a trump presidency and tried to make an optimistic picture of what it would look like. did he convince? >> the entire convention was doom and gloom and desperation. all they did was attack the president. they didn't lay out a clear case what they would do over the course of the next four years. we know why. most americans reject their policies and their platform that their party has moved so far to the left they know they're out of touch with americans. the only thing they did over the last four days was attack this president. this coming week you will see a very different convention and a total contrast. you will hear the president and

others talk about all of the successes over the last four years, better trade deals, higher wages, lower taxes, the victory over isis, rebuilding of the military, and being tough on china, something the previous administration that joe biden was a part of failed to do. it will be a major difference. i think you will also see republicans step up and talk about taking on the liberal mob, not allowing them to control and destroy our cities, something democrats completely ignored and didn't address one single time that i remember over the last four days. it will be a very different convention and i think will put the president on a great path headed into the rest of september and october leading into november. >> sandra: democrats make the case this was a strongest speech of his political career. even some republicans saying that he delivered and he came in above expectations in many points and there was a moment that is being highlighted by a

lot of media outlets this morning where he tried to paint this positive picture of his administration vowing to bring light to darkness. here is joe biden. >> we can choose a path to becoming more angry, a path of shadow an suspicion or we can choose a different path and together take this chance to heal, to reform, to unite. a path of hope and light. this is a life changing election, character is on the ballot. compassion is on the ballot. >> sandra: sarah, i'll ask how you believe republicans need to respond to that with the convention next week. but first i'll put up on the screen these officials for biden and official letter. comprehensive 10 point letter from 70 plus former national security officials who served under gop add min ition traetions and wrote this. trump has shown he is unfit to

lead. aligned himself with dictators and failed to stand up for american values. disparaged our -- vilified immigrants to our country. it includes defense secretary chuck hagel and former nsa director michael hayden. what do you do about that as far as messaging next week when you see those continued attacks and some who served under gop administrations on president trump's foreign policy? >> i think that these individuals are certainly entitled to their own opinions but they aren't entitled to their own facts. the truth is the president has actually led our country in the defeat of isis, something the previous administrations failed to do. in fact, their weakness is what allowed isis to go in the first place. it wasn't until president trump came in and unleashed our american military that we defeated them. president trump has been tough on china. he has been tough on russia. he has given us energy dominance and energy independence from other countries that are our

adversaries. if anything, these people should listen and look at what actually has taken place over the last four years because it was this president that cleaned up most of their messes and fixed the failures of those administrations that came before him. i think if anything maybe they're embarrassed because they couldn't get the job done and they've been doing this for decades. donald trump has been there for four years and already done more in those four years than the previous individuals have done in the last 40. >> sandra: quick preview. rnc, convention happening next week after what you've seen four nights of the democratic convention. how do you tailor your message and what was learned? >> i think anything that has a message of hope and optimism and talks about what this president not only has done but will continue to do for this country, about lifting americans up instead of putting every single individual down. it is about remembering what

makes america so incredible and so special. it is that we enjoy freedom. we celebrate freedom and prosperity and we will do everything we can to protect that and protect what makes america the greatest country on the face of the planet instead of trying to take us to a socialist country and create a new system that is so opposite of what we love about america. i think you will hear a lot about that. i think you will hear from everyday americans who have lived the success story under this president how his policies have impacted their lives and again, i think you are going to hear a lot more optimism. not the doom and gloom and negativity that we heard from the democrats this past week. >> sandra: we'll see. we have had the dnc on this week as well and we'll talk to them next week. appreciate your time. thank you. >> absolutely. >> trace: breaking news. we're waiting for the president. now officially gotten to the ritz-carlton in arlington, virginia where the 2020 council

for national policy meeting is being held. we're waiting for the president to make remarks. when he does, we'll bring them to you live next. on "america's newsroom." veterans can shortcut the process with newday's va streamline refi. there's no appraisal, no income verification, and not a single dollar out of pocket. rates are at the lowest they've been in our lifetimes. one call can save you $3000 a year. ♪ ♪ ♪ the open road is open again.

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>> trace: how effective was joe biden's acceptance speech? let's bring in former democratic national committee interim chairwoman donna brazile. we're waiting for president trump at the ritz-carlton in arlington, virginia. when he starts speaking we'll go to him. if we interrupt, you'll understand. the speech last night by joe biden. coming into his party's virtual core nation the test was not whether he would give a good or bad speech. it was whether he could give a speech at all. so congratulations to biden for clearing a fundamental hurdle. now the bar is raised and he should be treated as any other candidate. there is some truth in there because you had a lot of

critics that really weren't listening to joe biden's speech as much as watching him to see how he handled himself on stage. your thoughts, donna. >> first of all, you know, over the last couple of months the insults that continue to come from strangers attacking a man based on his wage. my dad lived to be 82, a war veteran and i can tell you while he didn't have as much pepp in his step he kept moving because he was motivated not only by the fact that he was a grandfather and just wanted to be with his children, but he was motivated because he continued to want to serve. it doesn't matter what age he is. what joe biden said last night resonated with so many americans. he said i want to draw the best -- the best out of people. i want to try to unify the country. if i get to 77 and those are the words that come out of my mouth then i should at least encourage people to respect the fact that i want to serve my

country. so last night was the finale. it was a very good week. i heard sarah's cherry picked through the democratic party. this is not cherry picking one party. it's about what is the future of this great country. the future is all of us. throughout the week it was about we the people. i think we said not just democrats. again, joe biden said i don't want to be the president to just my base but to the united states of america. that's a contrast. donald trump has chosen to not be the president of all 50 states, of every american. >> trace: i hear what you are saying about joe biden's age. but in fairness it wasn't just the age. it is the number of comments and gaffes he has made in recent months. >> compared to who? compared to donald trump? barack obama, compared to what, george walker bush?

he is a man. he is not perfect. okay? he is a man like i am a woman. i am not perfect. we make mistakes but we're constantly trying to pull people apart based on their mistakes. and not their promise. i want to say to all americans regardless of your age, if you have this desire to serve we have to give back and do so. >> trace: donna, thank you so much. let me stop you right there. >> sandra: president trump arriving a short time ago delivering remarks at the 2020 council for national policy meeting. he is in virginia this morning. the president speaking now. >> president trump: thank you to the council for national policy. my brother, robert, would have wanted me to be here today. thank you very much. [applause] together we're committed to protecting the american people, preserving american values,

defending america's heritage and keeping america safe, strong, prosperous and free. i want to thank bob mckuhn, kelly shackelford and jenny beth martin for your tremendous leadership of the cnp. you've done a fantastic job. we're also joined by acting secretary of homeland security, who has done incredibly, chad wolfe. where is chad? [cheering and applause] thank you very much, chad, you are right in the heart of it and got some big things coming. very big things. good job. also lieutenant governor friend of mine dan patrick of texas, dan, wherever you may be. [applause] what a great guy. great family, great son doing a tremendous job as u.s. attorney.

many other state and local officials. thank you all for being here. we have a lot of horsepower here, a lot of fire power you might want to say. over the last week the democrats held the darkest and most angry and most gloomy convention in american history. they spent four straight days attacking america as racist, a horrible country that must be redeemed. joe biden grimly declared a season of american darkness and yet look at what we've accomplished until the plague came in, look at what we've accomplished and now we're doing it again. [cheering and applause] it's the most successful period of time in the history of our country from every standard. look what we've accomplished. now this plague comes in and look at the way they talk. but look at what is happening and look at how we're shooting up. we call it a super v, it's no

longer a v but a super v. they didn't think that could happen and they probably aren't happy about it. they want to punish america and its citizens instead of holding them high, where joe biden sees american darkness, i see american greatness. we've seen heroic doctors and nurses racing into action to save lives. we've seen first responders helping strangers in need. we've seen the passage of historic legislation to save 50 million american jobs. we've mobilized american industry like never before. we've built military hospitals from scratch to produce lifesaving therapies. and we're on track to develop the most incredible for me standpoint of time, record time vaccines. we have vaccines. you'll be reading about them very soon. way ahead of schedule. years ahead of schedule. where we are now this would

have been phase three clinical trials, you wouldn't have been there in two or three years if you went back to another administration. it is time to reject the anger and the hate of the democrat party. we have the biggest election coming up of our lifetime. [applause] no party can lead america that spends so much time tearing down america. but the biggest part of last night's speech was what joe biden didn't talk about. he didn't talk about law enforcement. he didn't talk about bringing safety to democrat-run cities that are totally out of control and they have no clue. china was never mentioned in any way, shape or form. china will own our country if he gets elected. they will own our country. we're not going to let that happen. [cheering and applause]

and you've seen the intelligence reports. china very much wants joe biden to win. that would be very insulting if they wanted me to win. i don't think so. i don't think so. we've taken in billions and billions of dollars from china. we've given it to our farmers and we've given it to -- they've had the worst year they had in 67 years. we had the best year we ever had. we demonstrated over the last four years the extraordinary gains possible while we stand strong for our beliefs, when we trust the wisdom of our founders and when we embrace america's destiny. it is a great destiny. with your help, we carried out the largest tax and regulation cuts by far in american history.

[applause] and they now want to quadruple taxes and quadruple and beyond the regulation cuts. and when we say tax and we say regulation, you say tax cuts, that's wonderful. but the people in this room that are the heads of industry, you have some very powerful people in this room. they know the regulation cuts may have been even more important than the biggest tax cuts we've ever had. [applause] to build a highway in this country could take in certain places 18, 19, 20, even 21 years to get approved. this is not even thinkable. we have it now down to 2 and we'll have it down to probably one. it may get rejected for safety or environmental reasons. that's okay, it may happen.

we'll soon have it down to one year from as much as 21 years. we have cases that have just been disastrous. i just wanted you to know some of the little details. that's what we're working on. we'll have it down to one year to build a highway. you can do it in one year. it doesn't have to take 21 years and cost 100 times more, literally. i've seen 100 times more. we eliminated obamacare's unfair individual mandate penalty which is really the elimination of obamacare. [applause] and to give to critically ill patients access to lifesaving drugs, we passed a thing called and hopefully nobody in this room will need it. if you do it's right to tray try. we have a greatest medicines a and doctors in the world.

used to be 12 years to get drugs approved by the fda. we've cut it down to more than half. right to try where we have the right to go in and use some of these very promising drugs and the response has been unbelievable what has happened and lives saved have been really incredible. people used the leave for asia, they used the leave for europe and they used to leave for other places all over the world or they would go home and die. they would go home and die. if they had no money they would go home and die which is most people. now they sign a very short, simple document and they have the right to try. it is giving them hope and in many cases it's given their life back. these are things that nobody talks about, but they've been trying to get that approved, by the way. not as easy as it sounds. it's complicated, because you have the insurance companies,

the doctors, the hospitals, and the country itself doesn't want to get sued. not very easy. but they've been trying to get it approved for 41 years, they've been trying to get that. that's just one of many, many things that we have done, for 41 years. to provide our amazing veterans the care they deserve, we passed va accountability and va choice. many, many decades, they've been trying to get those. [applause] choice meaning you wait online and you can't see a doctor, they would wait on line for a week o. sometimes they be ill and they'd end up being terminally ill by the time they saw the doctor. we are letting them go out, get a private doctor immediately, and we pay the bill. we just got a 91% approval rating in the va, the highest we've ever had by many points. 91%. [applause]