Hearing of the House Oversight and Reform Committee - Opening Statement of Rep. Comer, Hearing on Oversight Democrats are doing things backwards on USPS reform

Hearing

House Committee on Oversight and Reform Ranking Member James Comer (R-Ky.) delivered the following statement debunking the Democrats' fabricated myths about the U.S. Postal Service at today's hearing with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and USPS Board of Governors Chairman Robert Duncan.

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 passed a bill on the subject.

We all agree that the Postal Service needs to be reformed to better serve the American people. We all want the Postal Service to be as efficient and effective as possible to ensure Americans receive their prescriptions on time, small businesses thrive, and mail in ballots are delivered in a timely fashion.

But meaningful reform is going to take bipartisanship, which unfortunately we have seen too little of thus far.

Democrats fabricated a baseless conspiracy theory about the Postal Service and hastily passed a bill Saturday before hearing from you, Mr. DeJoy. The bill had no prior committee action to vet the bill -- no hearings, no markup.

Because of this rushed process, the bill was significantly amended by the Democrats before it went to the Rules Committee. It then proceeded to the House Floor under a process that prevented any amendments to the bill. There was no Republican input -- not at any step in the process.

Just this morning we have learned the U.S. Postal Service opposes your bill you all passed Saturday. They read the bill and realized that it ties their hands and will make it harder and more expensive to deliver the mail. At least this legislation is consistent with the Obama-Biden years at the Postal Service: more delays; more financial losses.

This chain of events shows Democrats are not serious about meaningful reform. The President doesn't support the bill, the Postal Service doesn't support the bill, and the Senate will likely not take up the bill. This is a political stunt.

During Saturday's debate, Chairwoman Maloney unveiled a 60-page PowerPoint deck she had just received overnight from an apparent whistleblower. Madam Chair, I don't need to remind you that you and Adam Schiff's record with whistleblowers is less than stellar.

The deck is dated August 12, proving it played no role in the creation of your bill, which was unveiled the day before.

The deck contains delivery performance data, updated since the USPS's 3rd quarter report. It shows some delays in July and August.

I'm very interested to hear from Mr. DeJoy today about what he has learned about the causes of these delays. How much of an effect is the ongoing pandemic and increasing employee sick leave having on USPS's delivery performance? How does that compare to any temporary growing pains from efforts to make USPS more efficient and self-sufficient?

I say I am interested to hear Mr. DeJoy's responses because I do not know the answers to those questions, and I don't believe the Chairwoman does either.

This is the why I have repeatedly said, Madam Chairwoman, that the Committee is doing things backwards.

When we make policy, it's our job to understand WHY something is happening.

How would you find out WHY?

You would have a hearing on the topic with the Postmaster General.

When would you have this hearing? Certainly before you passed a bill.

Returning to today, let me say postal issues are something I have long heard about a great deal in my rural district.

For example, I distinctly remember when, during the Obama administration, a mail facility in Paducah was closed, resulting in letters that once took a day to get from point A to point B now taking 3 or 4 days.

And I also heard a lot about the Postal Service from my Grandmother, who spent her entire career -- 27 years -- as a rural mail carrier.

My heart and sympathies go out to our Postal Service families who have lost loved ones during this pandemic.

As her grandson and the congressman representing the First District of Kentucky -- and as the ranking member of this committee -- I want to see the Postal Service return to being a viable institution.

But I am disappointed at the hysterical frenzy whipped up around this issue by my colleagues on the left and their friends in the media. Let's look at the most often repeated claims again.

Does the Postal Service need a bailout in order to survive through November?

Mail volume has declined but package delivery has shot through the roof, increasing USPS' revenues by $1.5 billion. It has nearly $15 billion cash on hand and can operate until at least August 2021.

Is the Postmaster General sabotaging the election by removing blue postal boxes and mail sorting machines?

The Postal Service has more than adequate capacity to handle vote-by-mail. If everybody in the U.S. requests and sends their ballots via USPS, that's still less than one day's average volume.

The blue boxes and mail sorters were both components of long-standing programs in response to a significant reduction in mail volume -- 33 percent over the past 15 years.

For reference, under President Obama approximately 12,000 blue mailboxes were removed, and we didn't hear a word from the other side of the aisle.

The mail sorters were on track to be removed because they were sitting idle, simply taking up floor space from more productive activities.

Is the Postal Service telling states they won't be able to deliver ballots on time?

What the Postal Service IS doing -- as it has for YEARS -- is trying to warn states their vote-by-mail laws DON'T take into account what the Postal Service can and cannot do.

USPS can treat ballots as first class mail -- or better than first class mail -- but they cannot break the laws of time and space.

The letters that Democrats characterize as threats and propaganda are good faith efforts to prevent weeks of uncertainty and confusion, such as what happened very recently with Chairwoman Maloney's race.

And the charges about overtime -- those came from an effort to reduce the BILLIONS of dollars in overtime and extra truck trips the Postal Service spends EVERY YEAR.

If overtime and extra truck trips are a normal, everyday part of your business operations, it means something is wrong and you better fix it.

On Friday, before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Mr. DeJoy acknowledged the recent dip in service. He took responsibility for this performance lapse.

The logical step is to understand why this happened and come up with a plan. Even though your bill would prevent that, Madam Chairwoman, I hope today helps in that process.

I yield back.

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