Nancy Pelosi, the president of the House of Representatives, said this Sunday that she will reconvene the House during the week to vote on a bill that prohibits to the United States Postal Service (USPS) implement changes to current service level or operations.
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The action comes amid growing concern that the president’s government Donald Trump is trying to undermine the agency during the coronavirus pandemic as states expand voting-by-mail options.
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In a letter to Democratic lawmakers Sent Sunday night, Pelosi also asked her colleagues to show up at a post office in her district on Tuesday for a coordinated news event.
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“ In times of pandemic, the Postal Service is the Electoral Center. Americans shouldn’t have to choose between their health and their votePelosi wrote.
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“The Postal Service is a pillar of our democracy, enshrined in the Constitution and essential to providing critical services – dispensing prescriptions, Social Security checks, paychecks, tax returns, and absentee ballots to millions of Americans, including in our most remote communities. Alarmingly, across the country, we see the devastating effects of the president’s campaign to sabotage elections by manipulating the Postal Service to disenfranchise voters.“said the letter.
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Pelosi indicted Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, one of the major mega-donors to the Trump campaign.
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“He has proven to be a complicit crony as he continues to push for radical new operational changes that degrade the postal service, delay mail and, according to the Postal Service itself, threaten to deny the ability of eligible Americans to cast their votes by mail in the next election. in a timely manner, “he said.
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Pelosi said House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer would soon announce the legislative calendar for next week. House Democrats are likely to discuss the schedule in a conference call on Monday and are expected to be in session next Saturday, told AP a senior Democratic adviser who asked not to be named because the plans were private.
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Sunday early Democratic lawmakers demanded that Postal Service leaders testify at an emergency oversight hearing on Aug. 24 about mail delays.
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The House Oversight and Reform Committee said it wants to hear from new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and Chairman of the Postal Service Board of Governors Robert “Mike” Duncan.
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The agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment on whether the two men would appear before the House committee. But it said on Sunday it would stop removing its distinctive blue mailboxes until mid-November following complaints from customers and members of Congress that the collection boxes were being taken.
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“Given recent customer concerns, the Postal Service will postpone disposing of the boxes for a period of 90 days while we assess our customers’ concerns,” said Postal Service spokeswoman Kimberly Frum.
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Trump admitted to boycott USPS
President Trump said last week that he was blocking a $ 25 billion emergency injection requested by the Postal Service, as well as a Democratic proposal to provide $ 3.6 billion in additional election money to states.
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The president, who has falsely claimed that widespread voting by mail will lead to fraud, suggested that without the funds it would be more difficult to vote by mail: “They need that money to make the post office work so that it can take all these millions and million ballots “, Trump said in an interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo “: If we don’t make a deal, that means they don’t get the money. That means they cannot have universal vote by mail. They just can’t have it. A kind of madness“.
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On Saturday, Trump said he supports raising money for the Postal Service and that he refused to capitulate to Democrats on other parts of the aid package, including funding for states burdened by debt accumulated before the pandemic.
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“What you are witnessing is a president of the United States who is doing everything he can to suppress the vote, make it difficult for people to participate in the vote-by-mail at a time when people will risk their lives by having to go to an electoral college. and vote, ”said Senator Bernie Sanders.
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Trump, who spent the weekend at his New Jersey golf club, scoffed at the universal vote-by-mail as a “scam” and defended DeJoy as the right person to ” optimize post office and make it great again“.
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“Louis, he’s working really hard,” Trump said at a news conference Saturday. “But as you know, the Democrats are not approving adequate funding for the postal mail, and they are not approving adequate funding for this ridiculous thing that they want to do which is all vote by mail.”
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His chief of staff on Sunday tried to counter criticism that Trump was trying to stifle turnout with battlefield and national state polls that showed him facing a rocky road to reelection against Democrat Joe Biden.
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” I’ll give you that guarantee right now: the president of the United States is not going to interfere with anyone who legitimately casts their vote, be it the post office or anything else.“, dijo Mark Meadows.
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But Democrats said the changes made by DeJoy constitute “a serious threat to the integrity of the elections and to our own democracy.” They claimed that DeJoy “has acted as an accomplice in the president’s campaign to cheat in the elections, as he launches radical new operational changes that degrade delivery standards and delay mail.”
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