WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing mounting public pressure and a crush of state lawsuits, President Donald Trump’s new postmaster general says he is halting some operational changes to mail delivery that critics blame for widespread delays and warn could disrupt the November election.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said Tuesday he would “suspend” several of his initiatives — including the removal of the distinctive blue mailboxes that prompted an outcry — until after the election “to avoid even the appearance of impact on election mail.”
“We will deliver the nation’s election mail on time,” DeJoy said in a statement.
The abrupt reversal from DeJoy, who is set to testify Friday before the Senate, comes as more than 20 states, from New York to California, announced they would be suing to stop the changes. Several vowed they would press on, keeping a watchful eye on the Postal Service ahead of the election.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pushing ahead with Saturday’s vote to prevent election-year mail changes and provide emergency postal funds.
“I don’t, frankly, trust the postmaster general,” Pelosi said in San Francisco.
The crisis at the Postal Service has erupted as a major election year issue as DeJoy, a Republican donor who took control of the agency in June, has swiftly engineered cuts and operational changes that are disrupting mail delivery operations and raising alarms that Trump is trying to undermine the agency ahead of the election.
At the White House, Trump has flatly denied he is seeking to slow down the mail, even as he leveled fresh assaults Tuesday on mail-in voting and universal ballots. More Americans than ever are expected to choose to vote absentee during the coronavirus outbreak.
“You can’t have millions and millions of ballots sent all over the place, sent to people that are dead, sent to dogs, cats, sent everywhere,” Trump told reporters.
“This isn’t games and you have to get it right,” Trump said.
Some of the initiatives DeJoy said he was shelving until after the election had already been announced.
DeJoy said Tuesday he is halting the planned removal of mail-processing machines and blue collection boxes, as well as an initiative to change retail hours at post offices. He also said no mail processing facilities will be closed and said the agency has not eliminated overtime.
One initiative that DeJoy didn’t single out in his announcement was the newly imposed constraints on when mail can go out for delivery — a change postal workers have said is fueling delays. The statement also did not specify whether the agency would restore mail-sorting machines that have recently been taken offline.
A Postal Service spokesman declined to comment beyond DeJoy’s statement.
“What’s going on right now is nothing less than a full-on assault by this administration on the U.S. Postal Service, an institution that millions of Americans rely on every single day,” said Bob Ferguson, the attorney general in Washington state, at a news conference.
