he's put louis dejoy in a bad situation as well because, you know, louis dejoy said in the senate hearing the other day that these were long-standing processes for changing the postal service to make it more efficient over time and to curb some of the financial losses that it suffered, but when the president lays over that his own public statements that the $25 billion democrats wanted to add that he can withhold that money, that they wouldn't be able to process the mail-in balloting just taints everything that dejoy is trying to do. in addition to trying to claim that the drop boxes were not secure and safe which, of course, history has shown that they are, many states have been routinely using them for years, the question is how much additional use they get this year, but president even cited fear of covid, the pandemic that he has failed to control as suggesting they are not safe, saying they are not covid sanitized. that real was an extraordinary statement by the president and, of course, twitter has -- has flagged that tweet. >> and i had a republican member of that committee just a

postmaster dejoy: yes. the covid-19 related losses i do support. sen. carper: thank you. mr. postmaster general, my family has had military involvement throughout our lives. my mother's youngest brother died in a kamikaze attack in 1944 in the western pacific read he gave his life for this country. my father is a veteran. i am a veteran. we have generation after generation of americans who have been willing to risk their lives, so we will have the right to vote. we have people who are sick and afraid of going out and voting this year, because they are afraid to stand in lines and get a virus at that would take their lives. i urge you to work with us. work with us as we build up a postal service we can all be proud of. thank you. >> thank you, chairman. thank you for your service, postmaster dejoy. from what i have heard, apparently the post office never had any issues, there were never delays, never mail that was late, never financial problems, never any challenge to mail-in voting, until 65 days ago when y

dejoy, right hand. do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god? postmaster dejoy: i do. as postmastered general, and you spend more than 35 years developing and managing a successful nationwide logistics company as chairman and ceo of new breeze logistics. beginning in 2014, mr. dejoy served as the ceo of xpo logistics and after his retirement in 2015 he joined the company's board of directors where he served until 2018. mr. dejoy. postmaster dejoy: good morning chairman, ranking member pierce and members of the committee. thank chairman johnson for calling this hearing. proud to be with you on behalf of the women and men of the united states postal service the on june 15 i became 75th postmaster general. i did so because i believe the postal service placed -- plays a positive role in the lives of the american public and lives of the nation. i also welcome the opportunity to lead this organization because i believe there's an opportunity for the postal ser

dejoy. postmaster dejoy: good morning, chairman, ranking member peters, and members of the committee. thank you chairman johnson for calling this hearing. i am proud to be with you on behalf of the women and men of the united states postal service . on june 15, i became the 75th postmaster general. i did so because i believe the postal service plays a positive role in the lives of the american public and life of the nation. i also welcome the opportunity to lead this organization because i believe there's an opportunity for the postal service to better serve the american public and also to operate in a financially sustainable manner. congress established the postal service to fulfill a public service mission to provide prompt, reliable, and universal postal services to the american public in an efficient and financially sustainable fashion. our ability to fulfill that mandate in the coming years is that fundamental risk. changes must be made to ensure our sustainability for the years and dec

dejoy? we know it's not based on the facts. what could it be? >> you -- >> might it be politics? might it be? might be the election coming up? might it be the fact that they actually want to wait and count votes after election day? may be due what six weeks after the election. maybe you want to be counted but six weeks after the election, the presidential election, the biggest election were going to have. maybe you want to be counting posts six weeks after like they did in the chairwoman sprays or four weeks at selected individually or maybe you want to wait forever like they did in the democratic i'll caucus. by that be the reason, chaos and confusion with all through those elections maybe that's what they want. could that be the reason, mr. dejoy? >> i don't know what motivates people to a different opinions of me. >> they have called you on kinds of names today already. purchasing outside your house. they with her last night banging pots and pans outside your house, disrupting her neighbo

dejoy's controversial changes. we will be asking mr. dejoy some hard questions today. we will also be asking mr. duncan as chairman of the board about his own role in choosing mr. dejoy as postmaster general, about his own role in vetting mr. dejoy for conflicts of interest including mr. deyejoy' ownership of major postal service competitors and allowing these delays to happen under his watch. whatever the cause of these massive delays, the american people want to go back to the way things were. they don't want these changes. they want them reversed. they don't want anyone messing with the post office and they certainly don't want it politicized. they want to have confidence that their mail, their medicine, their ballots will be delivered on time. i look forward to hearing from our witnesses, and i now recognize the distinguished ranking member mr. comber for an opening statement. >> well, thank you, chairwoman maloney. i appreciate you calling this hearing today on the united states postal service, even though it would have been nice to do so before we actually voted

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

dejoy. slowdowns or impediments, like in seattle and portland and new york city and chicago, are they because of the rioting and the anarchy going on? >> well, sir, i mean, any kind of rioting does produce delays with any type of public service, so i don't have a specific measurement on that. but i will say this, that as the coronavirus cases throughout the country have expanded, it has had an impact on our employee availability and in the you are pan areas that are hot spots, the averages don't play out what the real picture is like in areas like philadelphia, where employee availability is significantly below our normal run rates. and what it has been in the pandemic, we actually peaked -- started to peak in terms of employee availability issues in the july time frame. >> now, i want to go back to, did you pause any policy changes to the postal service, such as the elimination of overtime, prohibiting extra trips, hiring freezes, and removing sorting machines? is that true? >> the extra tr

dejoy, raise your right hand. do you swear that the testimony you will give before this committee is the truth, and nothing but the truth so help you god. >> i do. >> mr. louis dejoy has served as the postmaster general since june of 2020. he spent more than 35 years developing and managing the successful nationwide logistics company as chairman and ceo of new breed logistics. beginning in 2014, mr. dejoy served as the ceo of the logistics supply chain business in the americas. after the retirement he served until 2015. mr. dejoy. >> good morning, chairman, ranking member peters and members of the committee. thank you chairman johnson for calling this hearing. i'm proud to be here with you today on behalf of the 627,000 dedicated men and women of the united states postal service. on june 15th, i became the 75th postmaster general. i did so because i believe the post service plays a positive role in the life of the nation. i also welcomed the opportunity to lead this organization because i believe there's an opport

dejoy, thank you for your service. from what i heard so far today, apparently the post office never had any issues there was never any delays, there was never any mail that was late, there were never any financial problems, never any challenge to mail-in votings, until 65 days ago when you arrived and then apparently all chaos has broken out 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, taking care of 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 hounded on postmasters on why they are not doing reforms and why we have

dejoy? we know it's not based on the facts. what could it be? >> you -- >> might it be politics? might it be? might be the election coming up? might it be the fact that they actually want to wait and count votes after election day? may be due what six weeks after the election. maybe you want to be counted but six weeks after the election, the presidential election, the biggest election were going to have. maybe you want to be counting posts six weeks after like they did in the chairwoman sprays or four weeks at selected individually or maybe you want to wait forever like they did in the democratic i'll caucus. by that be the reason, chaos and confusion with all through those elections maybe that's what they want. could that be the reason, mr. dejoy? >> i don't know what motivates people to a different opinions of me. >> they have called you on kinds of names today already. purchasing outside your house. they with her last night banging pots and pans outside your house, disrupting her neighbo

dejoy? >> yes, but i would say that only in washington, d.c. would that be a good position to be in, when i have 135 billion dollars in liabilities and 2 1/2 billion dollars a month -- a week, bi-weekly payroll and a whole bunch of others, but yes, we can get through, through the election, and with the loan, should we take it, i don't know how we would pay it back, but should we take it, we should be fine, until mid 21. >> so now isn't it true that you're actually generating more revenue at this time of the year than you also did last year, and you are processing more -- up tick in mass mail government items such as the stimulus check and the census questionnaire, is that true? >> we're seeing more revenue, mostly due to package increase, mail products are down 15% or so on average. but package volume is up substantially, but package volume is very costly for us to handle in overcapacity method >> do you believe that the money on hand, successful -- [inaudible] -- the mail volume is down by

dejoy. >> i know my time is almost done. when you next consider operational changes, i'd ask you to take into account the negative customer experiences that folks have shared with us like spoiled medicine or missing rent checks. we've been getting more complaints about service getting worse since some of these most recent changes. we ask that you take into account these negative customer experiences when making decisions in the future. my team is happy to share some of those direct experiences with you. >> thank you for your guidance, ma'am. appreciate it. >> thank you so much for being with us today. mr. chairman, thank you for this opportunity. i yield back. >> thank you senator cinema. let me just again thank you, mr. postmaster general for appearing here on pretty short notice and subjecting yourself to this hearing process. just to quick summarize a few things we heard today, obviously the postal system is every bit as affected by covid as the rest of the nation. it's been economically devastating. for anybody to assume

louis dejoy. he, alongside michael cohen and elliot broidy and steve wynn, was the guy announced in that press release. louis dejoy is, now, trump's appointee as postmaster general. the guy, who trump has installed to take over the post office, as the president embarrasses on an admitted overt campaign. to mess up the mail. to mess up the post office so it can't handle the ballots that are going to be mailed in for -- for the election. >> they need that money, in order to have the post officer work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. if we don't make a deal, that means they don't get the money. that means they can't have universal mail-in voting. they just can't have it. >> the president appointed this guy, louis dejoy. republican fundraiser with no experience in postal anything, other than him being invested, heavily, in companies that compete against the post office. and so, he would, therefore, personally, financially, benefit if the post office fails under his leaders

dejoy is set to face a congressional hearing and answer

l'enfant plaza and postmaster general dejoy. what we learned was that he had put in measures that slowed down the mail. they include the removal of sorting machines from post offices. in fact, congressman sarbanes and i were in baltimore yesterday and learned that the central distribution center had four of their machines that had been removed from the post office. that was part of the slowdown. now, as congressman hoyer said, if any of these postal workers had unlawfully delayed or detained the mail, they are committing a violation of the criminal statute. and they could be prosecuted. but that statute also covers postal officers. and that includes this postmaster general. and i can tell you everybody knows that it is unlawful to interfere with the post office in order to try to cook and fix and disrupt a united states election. which is what this postmaster general was doing on the orders of donald trump, who told the country on national television and via twitter that he is interfering with the post office because he doesn't

and dejoy said flatly, no.i have obtained an internal usps document, the headline here is pivoting for our future, this is a document talking points that was circulated on july 10th, 2020, and in this document that was given to managers to relay to employees, you can see how the policy changes that are listed here have the same effect of cutting worker overtime to include things like, late trips are no longer authorized or accepted. carriers must begin on time, leave for the street on time and return on time. so this is why one of the reasons, one of the reasons why we've seen those images of a box that was due to be hand sorted of packaged mail that had sat in this facility in upstate new york for nine days because there were no people to sort it because of the effective cuts to overtime. it's not clear if dejoy was playing semantic games or what, we haven't heard from the postal service yet about all of this. it's important to point out, even if he wasn't expressly cutting overtime it's certainly true that hi

dejoy. the bill had no prior committee action and to that the bill and no hearings, no markups and because of this rust process the bill was significantly admitted by the democrats before it went to the rules committee that then proceeded to the house floor process that prevented any amendment to the bill. there waso no republican input, not it any step in the process. just this morning we have learned that the u.s. postal service opposes the bill that you all past saturday. they read the bill and realized that it ties their hands and will make it harder and more expensive to deliver the mail and at least this legislation is consistent with the obama biden years at the postal service, more delays, more financial losses. this chain of events show democrats are not serious about meaningful reform in the president does not support the bill, the postal service does not support the bill and the senate will likely not take up the bill. this is a political stunthe. during saturday's debate chairwom

louis dejoy will be testifying before congress on u.s. postal service operations during the coronavirus pandemic and the 2020 election. we will hear from him on friday before the senate homeland security committee starting at 9:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. monday, he will testify before the house oversight and reform committee. c-span2at live on starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern. you can view both hearings online at c-span.org or listen live with the free c-span radio app. announcer: our live coverage of the democratic national convention continues tonight, with congresswoman, alexandria ocasio-cortez, former president, bill clinton, and jill biden. live coverage of the democratic national convention, tonight at 9:00 eastern on c-span, live streaming and on demand at c-span.org/dnc or listen with the free c-span radio app. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. announcer: you are watching c-span, your unfiltered view of government. created by america's cable television company as a public service and brought to you today by your television

dejoy's answers. so we can expect that when both dejoy and the usps chairman of the board of governors, robert duncan, go before this committee today, they'll face a far less favorable reception. look, there are some 90 house democrats who have already called for dejoy's removal. so we can expect house democrats today will press for details. both dejoy, the usps board of governors, they've all said the postal service is committed to fully handling election mail on time. well, the obvious question there is, how can that be? how can that be when mr. dejoy has not committed to restoring the cuts he's already made and denies cutting overtime even though documents we obtained on friday show that his policy changes have had the same effect. now committee investigators have been doing their homework and one of the things the committee released on saturday was a document, a powerpoint presentation that mr. dejoy was briefed on last week. this is an internal usps document which we have. and what you can see is

and pamela, dejoy tried to make it clear that the u.s. postal service is prepared to handle this massive volume, tens of millions of mail-in ballots and that all americans, he said, should be allowed to vote by mail. >> reporter: right. very early on in this virtual hearing today, jake, louis dejoy, the post master general, seemed to want to distance himself from president trump who you pointed out has railed against mail-in voting, rather. dejoy in contrast assured lawmakers that american people should have faith in the system, that he's a supporter of mail-in voting and something that he does himself and something the person public should be able to do. here is what he said during that hearing. >> i voted by mail for a number of years. the postal service will deliver every ballot and process every ballot in time that it receives. i think the american public should be able to vote by mail and the postal service will support. >> reporter: and dejoy also made the case that election mail will be prioritized and this is important because cnn

donald trump and louis d dejoy e saying, you can't vote by mail. amy: protests also took place sunday outside the greensboro, north carolina, residence of louis dejoy. the u.s. death toll from the coronavivirus has totopped 170,. public health officials are expressing alarm as the number of daily covid-19 tests across the united states has dropped 17% since mid-july, making it harder for states to track the outbreak. thehe centers for d disease control's wararning infection rates are "steadily increasing in children.n." this comes as millions of children prepare to return to school. in arizona, , one school distrit outside of phoenix has canceled classes for a week after teachers threatened to stage a sick-out. new data is coming to light about how the pandemic is disproportionately impacting people of color. according to the cdc, 14,000 pregnant women have tested positive since january. nearly half of them have been latina mothers. a new study by the university of pennsylvania found black and latina women are five times more likely to be infected

louis dejoy is a trompe l'oeil list. he is a long time donor.is wife is the nominee for the ambassador to canada. he was set to be the lead fundraiser on the charlottes republican national convention. obviously, this is someone with close ties to the president. weeks, hematter of has instituted these measures that have led to this backlog of days within the postal service, testing new w sortingg systems t seemingly don't need to be tested right now when the mail is under stress, blocking over, and other measures that have created this delay that pretty much everyone sees. talk to anyone who has had trouble getting their mail and you'll know that this is very widespread. and because the fact that dejoy and his wife, who is now be considered to be the ambassador to canada -- this came out in her filings for that position -- toething like $75 million 100 million dollars invested in the u.s. maiail service competetition or its contracact? >> yeah, it is pretty surprising. we talk about the impact of this on the elections, but i think a larger goal -

said he did or did not have with people like trump and like tasury secretary steven mnu dejoy said heith trump a solely can graduation all -- a solely congratulation numer -- way. they want to know if the president directed dejoy to take some of these steps to that -- c thatated problems. the whole thing, remember, is politically critical, because people like the post office. people like getting theirhe mail and paychecks and their prescriptions and everything else that comes in the mail, whh is why it is critical not justrom the election standpoint and the ballotingnt standput people's lives and livelihoods, as way, election ballots,ar tong what happened in 2018. 95% will be processed between one to five days, a commitment that he made. robert: hallie -- you made a great point, yamiche, about expediting the, ballo but he said under intense pressure from democrats, dejoy refused to unwind vario steps like the mailboxes and sorting machiots, so still af unanswered questions. yamiche: well, onebif the est questions after postmaster general dejoy announced he would be postponing more cha

dejoy here. he was incredulous, the idea that he's a fund-raiser that he's a president that he would put his thumb on the scale of the election. said that's outrageous and said since day one on the job he's been worried about the election. listen. >> 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. there has been no changes in any policies regard to election -- for the 2020 election. as you stated, this letter was sent out -- before my arrival simply to help education state election boards. >> kate, he's either a fantastic liar or the democrats are greatly exaggerating what happened here. >> yeah. i think he's speaking out of both sides of his mouth. i think the good news is that he says he votes by mail, that voting by mail is legitimate, that he's going to prioritize election mail, that congress needs to step in and help the postal service. i wrote a piece bac

dejoy, he's a businessman.o good businessman doesn't have a business plan that's based on some kind of analysis. all we're asking him is to show us the analysis, let us know what the post office needs. i have veterans, i have seniors, i have rural communities, we are all depending on the united states post office, the framers of our constitution put the post office right there in article i. it's a civil service. we need to do everything we can to be sure that they get out to that last mile to every person who needs it every single day week, week in, week out. >> yeah. i want to actually ask about where i think this is headed. we saw there's a "washington post" report this morning that indicated some of the changes he wants to make, now that he's agreed to wait until after the election. but some of it has to do with the last mile that you just talked about. there's an idea to charge more to send mail to alaska and hawaii, or to some areas. if that's the direction the postal service goes, is that something you th

a lot of doubts that dejoy is going to back off.on't know how much credence even the white house puts in it because it could be that he's just saying that for the politics. what's your reporting? >> so, first of all, senator warren speaks for a lot of her democratic colleagues there where they feel like this is a first step, that the fact that dejoy has said he will pause these changes. and let's be honest, these cutbacks in service. that's good, that's encouraging. but first they're also demanding that he revert to where service was a few weeks ago before these changes put into place. and let's remember, joy, it's not just about the crush of mail-in voting that we're of course expecting in the weeks ahead. americans are unable to receive perhaps necessary medication, something that seniors and veterans alike are really struggling with right now. there's been cascading delays across the country with the postal service, not business. the president's rhetoric on this has shifted slightly in the last few days. i think they were caught

dejoy but criticizing the institution.makehat they need certain changes especially as it relates to their pricing. thehey fully support postmaster general, he has ties to the president's fundraising efforts. is dejoy made clear -- this what he said under oath, that he has not talked to the president at all about any of the changes he is making or anything to do with the postal service. he has talked briefly to some officials let the treasury secretary, mceachin, but he said thes not really influencing post office. host: the house is coming back in at 10:00 a.m. today for an unusual august session dedicated to the post office. what is a legislation that the house is working on? guest: the house is really looking at these changes that the postal service has undertaken and trying to reverse them at least through the end of the election. and basically go back to the same standards that the postal service had earlier this year before dejoy took over. it would also provide a cash influx, a cache in fusion for the postal service

. >> the governors actually appointed dejoy.e trying to understand is, what was the process they went through that led them to believe mr. dejoy was, "a," qualified at all, which i have questions about, and "b," the most qualified person for the position? because it's really important to have the most qualified person, because now during the pandemic more than ever, people are counting on the postal service to deliver medication, to deliver bills to stay in touch and of course with election season coming up. >> yeah, that final question is one that's been front of mind here. very clear that the post office has had significant changes, that they've resulted in significant declines in service. it's also clear on the record that the president has been railing against mail-in voting. he does not like it. his campaign sued to stop expanding it in states. spreading lies about it. there's a question of whether or not two plus two equals four. are you confident the usps process and do what it needs to do for the election this fall? >> i

dejoy, for being here. let me see if i can ask a few questions to get started that will help maybe clear out some of this misinformation that we have heard repeated over and over and over again 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 actually of total operating revenues in the most recently reported quarter relative to last year? >> yes, sir. small. but yes. >> has the postal service seen its overall cash on hand position increase since the start of the pandemic in march to a level of approximately 15 billion, is that right? >> somewhere between 14 billion and 15 billion, yes. >> so if i understood your testimony correctly and what i've heard you said and what i've read from your written testimony, your testimony to us is that the postal service has the wherewithal, it has the resources, it has what it needs in order to deliver the mail s

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

everything dejoy does is seen throug lens. even though dejoy contradicted the president and said voting is safe and reliable, question s de jd he would be votingt that way this election, there' sll so much suspicion because of what the president is saying. >> woodruff: the president ramped up his conspiratorial talk today about the posto ffice. he suggested tod that what democrats might have in mind is creating so much chaos that, after the election, they couldsn k in nancy pelosi, the speaker of the house, to be the next president. >> yeah, he keeps saying this,th ane's really no truth to it. i mean, here's the theoryir undeng what the president is saying, that mail-in voting which he alleges is going to cause all this chaos, so let's delay is election. the president has no authority to delay the election, that's congress' job, a congress, 100% of congressmanon senators have said we're not delaying the election. but the president is sort of alleging that,inccoto the law, which is true, that if on january 20th, when the presid

this is michigan senator gary petersrs questioning dejoy. anynyl you bebe bringing back mail sorting machines that have been removed s since you havave become postmaster general? >> there is no intenention to do that. they are n not needed, sir. >> so you will not bring back any processors. >> they are not needed, sir. amy: postal workers in washington state and dallas, texas, said they have ignored orders from above and reinstalled high-speed mail sorting machines. meanwhile, "the washington post" reports over 534,000 mail-in ballots were rejected across 23 states during this year's primaries -- nearly a quarter of those in battlegrounds states. dejoy is testifying before the house oversight committee today. in other news from the house, congressmembers unanimously passed a bill saturday to provide emergency funding to u.s. citizenship and immigration services, which is planning to furlough around two-thirds of its employees at t the end of ts month.h. in belarus, tetens of thouousanf prototesters took to the streets of minsk sunday as demo

of mind. >> reporter: louis dejoy insisted he's acting to save the struggling postal ve committed. the board's committed. the postal workers committed to having a successful election. and the insinuation is quite frankly outrageous >> reporter: a former major republican donor, dejoy has been on the job for just 67 days he insists some of the cost cutting has been under way for years, as mail volume dropped significantly. but americans nationwide report their mail slowed dramatically this summer it comes as president trump, behind in the polls, has floated false claims about mail-in voting suggesting last week he'd oppose additional funding to help the postal service. >> so therefore they don't have the money to do the universal mail-in voting so, therefore, they can't do it, i guess, right? >> reporter: today postmaster dejoy admitted he himself votes by mail and promised to process mail-in ballots as first class mail, while he said he has stopped dismantling sorting machines until after the election he won't reinstall those already removed. and he insists overtime has not been cut

what pushed dejoy was the public outcry, right? especially from those americans who are most dependent on a fully functional postal service, those retirees who need checks, those military veterans who need their meds on time, and so i'm told there is an emergency meeting between dejoy and his effective bosses, the postal service board of governors. on sunday and monday, we don't know what was said in those meetings because it was private. but we do know that some three days later comes the announcement from the postmaster general that he was suspending what he called those operational changes. one of the things i heard from a lot of postal workers and union reps i talked to, they say dejoy seems intent on restructuring the postal service so that he can ultimately privatize it. you create the delays, you tank consumer confidence, public confidence in the postal service and sell it off in chunks. that is the allegation. i put that question to white house chief of staff mark meadows because meadows knows a thing or two about the posta

and one thing to watch is how exactly dejoy will respond.s is actually his introduction to the american public and his behavior may impact or color how the situation is viewed. alisyn? >> very interesting updates, kristen, because people were wondering if kamala harris was going to play a role or which role she would be playing. so that answers that. so thank you very much. >>> joining us now is congresswoman carolyn maloney, the chair of the house oversight committee which is set to question the postmaster general on monday. congresswoman, great to see you. what's your big question for mr. dejoy? >> first of all, he shouldn't have become the postmaster general in the first place. usually the postmaster general is nonpartisan and comes through the postal ranks. his one qualification is that he's a megadonor to president trump. his wife is under consideration to be the ambassador to canada. and i am putting in legislation to require that the postmaster general in the future be a non-partisan position. but i want to know why he made these chan

dejoy for being here. we had vote by mail for a long time. and it worked really well and i think the post office in florida has done a great job in making sure it worked. i had three elections and everyone -- they worked hard to make it happen. can you just talk about why you're uniquely qualified and what background you bring to being postmaster general as you -- and why you were picked by the board of the postal service? >> thank you, senator. i mean, there is two things you can look at the two acts, 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 i think one of the things they like is my experience with large program, large logistical transformations. i've done a great -- i've done back in the 90s over $3 billion transformation of the postal network. we have gone -- i've done big projects for boeing, big projects for disney, big projects for transformational projects for verizon. that particular, you know, type of experience, i think

right here toed this headquarters in postmaster general dejoy. what we learned because he had put in place a number of measures that slowed down the mail. ofy include the removal sorting machines from post offices. in fact, we were in baltimore yesterday and learned the central distribution center machines that have been removed from the post office, and that was part of the slowdown. -- thegressman warr congressman said, if any of these postal workers had unlawfully delayed or detained the mail, they are committing a violation of the criminal usc 1703, and they can be prosecuted, but that statute also covers postal officers, and that includes the postmaster general. and i can tell you anybody knows that it is unlawful to interfere with the post office in order to disrupt a united states election, which is what this postmaster general is doing on the orders of donald trump, who told the country on national tv and feo twitter that he is interfering with the post office because he does not like mail-in ballots. so, we need to pursue that line, we n

dejoy, do you take responsible for these changes? responsibility from the day i sat in the seat for any service deterioration that has occurred. if you're asking about -- >> mr. dejoy. >> you're asking about operational changes throughout the whole organization. >> reclaiming my time. >> around the country. >> mr. dejoy, i'm reclaiming my time, sir. will you commit to reversing these changes? >> no. >> mr. dejoy, will you commit to -- if -- i want to switch to conflicts of interest quickly. will you commit if the inspector general finds you committed misconduct with regard to your financial interests in any other company, such as xp love logics or amazon. will you commit if the inspector general finds that you committed misconduct, will you commit to then resigning? >> i don't believe they will find misconduct but i don't see why i would commit here right now to resigning for any reason. >> well you don't think there is any reason that you should ever resign? >> no reason that i've heard here today. >> okay. mr. dejoy, do you today,

louis dejoy does not seem to share your concerns over this. the administration doesn't ieth sport what can y either. so what can you do to solve what gef w geoff was describing? >> we've collecting all the information we need to make the full case. that's why i've launched an investigation and the staff is doing an in-depth investigation to find out what are the facts. so far the facts are incredibly disturbing. you've outlined them very well here before this -- or as this segment started. but it's clear that without overtime, without sending extra trips with taking these machines, these sorting machines out, it's slowing down the process. there's no question about that. i have asked the post master general a number of questions. he is not very transparent. he doesn't want to come forward with facts. the initial report i got from him was that we're not doing this nationally. these are just localized. then later he said, well, no, we are these things on a nationalized basis, but he has refused to answer question questions like was any data brou

. >> house democrat, dwight evans, and 80 other members of congress, wrote dejoy, demanding the postal service not reduce mail-delivery hours. dejoy denies that any intentional slowdown is taking place. >> despite any assertions to the contrary, we are not slowing down election mail or any other mail. >> reporter: postal carriers live by the motto, neither rain, nor snow. now, the concern is politics will keep those, like james mayo, waiting on the mail. >> both sides of the aisles need to look at this. they need to fund the postal service properly so that these guys can go back to work. >> pete muntene, cnn, philadelphia. >> on saturday, france reported more than 3,300 new coronavirus infections. that marks a post-lockdown high, for the fourth day in a row. and it's forcing authorities to step up their efforts to fight the spread of the virus. cnn's jim bitterman has more from paris.