In a congressional oversight hearing Friday, U.S. Senator Gary Peters interrogated recently appointedPostmaster General Louis DeJoy.
Congressional Democrats and Republicans alike have been concerned about the postal service. But, Democrats are worried delays could be the product of an intentional slowdown ahead of the election.
Peters pointed to a USPS chart showing the slowdown came not at the beginning of the pandemic, but shortly after DeJoy was appointed by President Donald Trump.
“Covid has been with us since March, but we’ve seen a dramatic drop since mid-July which is the time that I got all of those communications and my colleagues have been getting those communications,” said Peters. “These are not manufactured.”
Peters, who’s running for reelection, started investigating after mail delays were widely reported. DeJoy forcefully denies the slowdowns were the product of an attempt to slow down the mail system ahead of the election.
“We are very committed. The board's committed. The postal worker's committed,” Dejoy said. “The union leadership is committed to having a successful election and the insinuation is, quite frankly, outrageous.”
In an exchange between the Senator and the recently appointedpostmaster, DeJoy pushed back on returning mail sorting machines that have been removed.
According to reporting from the Washington Post 26 mail sorting machines were set to be removed from Michigan, including 10 last week from the Detroit area and some in Grand Rapids.
The Pontiac processing center in Detroit has experienced some of the biggest reductions in mail sorting capacity.
