The fate of the United State Post Office is in jeopardy today due the deliberate sabotage by President Donald Trump, according to Rep. Frank Pallone.
“My message to put out there is he wants to get rid of the post office, he wants to end it,” Pallone said in an interview.
Pallone also said a directive from the new Post Master General, Louis DeJoy on June 14, changed the operational standards of the post office dramatically to create a slow down of mail delivery.
Changes include no overtime, not allowing mail persons to go back and pick up mail and instead leave it until the next day and limiting the number of times they can park within their route.
All of these things hinder the delivery of mail.
Pallone especially wants residents to know the directives are coming from the top and not to blame individual postal workers when mail is not delivered in a timely manner.
“This is coming from the top – the president and the post master general,” he said. “They want to eliminate it as a government entity…that is the bottom line.”
DeJoy is a big campaign donor to Trump and has stock holdings in XPO Logistics, a logistics company.
“He is implementing all these policies,” Pallone said.
Pallone said he and his fellow congress members have been trying to give money to the post office to help it survive.
“But we have been forbidden, and the senate Republicans have gone along with it,” he said.
The congressman said the Democrats are trying to put $25 billion in the new stimulus package for the post office but Sen. Mitch McConnell said there is no money for the post office in the new HEALS stimulus bill.
“But we’re still pushing, I don’t want people to think we’ve given up. We are trying to get the money to them,” he said.
In addition to the $25 billion the Democrats are asking for the restoration of pre June 14 operational standards, including overtime and first class mail priority.
“The president is resisting,” he said.
In response to many who say Trump is trying to hurt Amazon and Jeffrey Bezos, Pallone said Amazon would just find another carrier.
“To do this because of Amazon is ridiculous,” he said.
He believes Trump wants to make the post office non competitive and put them out of business.
Recently Trump has declared several times, without providing any evidence, that there will be tremendous “election fraud” if people vote by mail.
He said ballots have to be postmarked by Nov. 3 and a mail slow down as the election nears will have a negative impact.
“People who don’t get it postmarked on time will be disenfranchised,” he said.
Pallone said the slow down in mail during the pandemic is especially hurting people who receive prescriptions by mail or medical information.