Comer Opens Hearing on Oversight of the U.S. Postal Service
WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) delivered remarks today at a hearing on “Oversight of the U.S. Postal Service.” Chairman Comer credited Postmaster General Louis DeJoy with delivering a plan to fix the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) but expressed concerns that USPS continues to lose money. He urged Postmaster General DeJoy to remain focused on achieving financial self-sufficiency for the Postal Service’s operations while also improving overall service for the American people. In addition, Chairman Comer commended Postmaster General Dejoy’s efforts in managing election mail and ballot delivery. He highlighted recent legislation passed by the Committee and in the House that would require barcoding on ballots, which would add much needed transparency as ballots move through the USPS network. However, Chairman Comer remains concerned that bad actors could exploit USPS’s vulnerabilities during elections and stressed that the Committee will continue to closely monitor these issues and USPS’s performance.
Below are Chairman Comer’s prepared remarks.
Welcome to today’s hearing on the United States Postal Service.
Thank you, Postmaster General DeJoy, for appearing before the Committee.
And thank you also to Postal Service Inspector General Tammy Hull.
It has been three and a half years since Postmaster General DeJoy issued the Delivering America Plan, and two and a half years since the Postal Service Reform Act was signed into law.
This law may have eased the way for the Postal Service to reform its business model, but it left the details to Mr. DeJoy.
Mr. DeJoy has withstood terrible character attacks by Democrats, to include demanding he be tried for treason.
I give Mr. DeJoy credit for delivering a plan to fix the Postal Service.
Time and space have been provided for him to carry out this work.
The difficulty of his task has never been underestimated, as it involves completely transforming the Postal Service into a modern enterprise.
This transformation requires competing with some of the most innovative companies on the planet while fulfilling the universal service obligation to deliver the mail, which is a financial challenge.
And Mr. DeJoy started with an organization that had been allowed to fall into disrepair.
However, the Postal Service’s financial solvency today continues to be of concern.
The Postal Service is hemorrhaging red ink.
This year’s loss was almost $10 billion.
Next year’s loss is projected to be $6.5 billion.
And with each loss comes an explanation of how much it was out of your control.
Inflation caused by President Biden’s out of control government spending is one factor. But it’s not the only factor.
When you predicted the Postal Service could break even, did you not foresee some of these other issues?
This includes the Civil Service Retirement obligations, which may be as much as $14 billion.
In your testimony, you stated how you have been burdened with excessive oversight, to include letters from Congress.
Believe me, nobody is more aware than I am of members expressing concerns and frustration about the Postal Service.
But it comes with the territory.
And while the Committee is charged with oversight of the Postal Service at an operational level, we are all members representing our constituents.
And the people of Western Kentucky have not been immune to problems that seem to stem from efforts to change postal operations.
For example, in Crittendon County, the Postal Service was delivering bills after they were due.
And after being told the County was the problem, it turned out the problem lay with the Postal Service.
And as the Postal network changes, large amounts of mail from Western Kentucky sat in Louisville before finally being sent to Nashville to be sorted.
When problems like this occur, members are going to continue to reach out to the Postal Service just as I did.
There are positive signs, such as increased revenue and reduced work hours, but we are eager to hear where this is all going.
Are there things you are trying to do in-house that would be better left to the private sector?
The Postal Services has added over 100,000 career employees, but your personnel costs and retirement expenses are your biggest liabilities.
This isn’t going to work unless you look for ways to do more with fewer people.
We also must address election mail and ballot delivery.
We appreciate the effort of you and your employees in delivering election mail and ballots during this year’s cycle, as you have done in every cycle since you have been postmaster general.
But your job is to get mail and packages from point A to point B—not serve as a de facto election authority.
And while the Postal Service gains revenue delivering election mail, it also creates an immense burden. Not just in in terms of resources, but also reputational risk.
This Committee, and then the House, recently passed legislation requiring bar coding on ballots. This bill will add much-needed—but not complete—transparency to ballots as they travel through a portion of your network.
But when your extraordinary measures kick in, there is a gaping hole, as ballots are no longer scanned regardless of whether they have a barcode.
And in California, for example, ballots can be accepted long past election day as long as they are postmarked. It leaves postal employees in the position of applying this postmark.
To me, there is just too much room for bad behavior—or the accusation of bad behavior.
This issue must be closely examined moving forward, particularly in considering the patchwork quilt of election laws across thousands of election authorities. Some of these laws impose absurd expectations on the Postal Service—for example, allowing voters to request a ballot that comes from a printer across the country the day before the election. In closing, we know you have a job to do, but so do we. We need you to answer our questions and give us reason to believe things will turn around.
Distribution channels: U.S. Politics
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