New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney is holding the United States Postal Service and the Trump administration accountable amid COVID-19-related changes in operations that she believes will result in massive voter disenfranchisement ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
In Union Square on Tuesday morning, Maloney advocated for the passage of her own bill, the Delivering for America Act, in a special session of Congress later this week to put a pause on any reduction of service the Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and President Donald Trump plan to implement, rather than funding the Postal Service.
“My bill will reverse actions that have been taken by the postmaster general to slow down the mail in what amounts to voter suppression,” Maloney said. “One of the reasons for this emergency is the president’s own words, last week on national television, he said he was opposed to funding the post office because he was opposed to mail-in voting. Think about it, it’s one of the most undemocratic things I’ve ever heard of.”
Trump’s statement came during a Fox News segment on Thursday in which he said that funding USPS by up to $25 billion would only enable what he believes would an absentee voting system that allows for mass voter fraud. He’s since attempted to walk that comment back.
The House’s Delivering for America Act would prohibit USPS from reducing the level of service from what it was in January 2020 at least until after the COVID-19 pandemic is declared to be officially over, or until January 2021.
An internal memo to all USPS employees on July 10 came as a shock to many after letter carriers were ordered to make no additional trips to deliver mail as well as a moratorium on all overtime.
“One aspect of these changes that may be difficult for employees is that.- temporarily – we may see mail left behind or mail on the workroom floor or docks (in P&DCs), which is not typical,” the memo noted.
“We will address root causes of these delays and adjust the very next day,” the memo continued. “Any mail left behind must be properly reported, and employees should ensure this action is taken with integrity and accuracy.”
DeJoy will be appearing before the Congress on Monday for an oversight hearing, the committee which Maloney chairs. Friday, he’s scheduled to appear before a Senate committee.
Maloney’s role in the Oversight Committee has been called into question in recent weeks as she only recently pulled through in a Democratic primary against Suraj Patel.
With an unprecedented number of absentee ballots being cast, and the counting of said ballots hinging on USPS employees adding a postmark, up to one-fifth of all ballots in Maloney’s district were discarded by the New York City Board of Elections.
While a lawsuit with Patel’s campaign as a plaintiff among several others, Maloney was not among them. Even with 1,200 ballots redeemed by a federal judge, it was not enough to close the gap between the two and Maloney was declared the winner in early August.
She has served in New York’s 12th Congressional District since 1993.
