Maloney discusses fight to preserve USPS ahead of November election
/
Rep. Carolyn Maloney talked with the Eagle and WBAI about the effort to fund and preserve the postal service ahead of the presidential election. House Television via AP
By David Brand
Over the past two months, Rep. Carolyn Maloney has played a key role in the fight to ensure mail-in voting works efficiently this November — both as an unwitting example of absentee ballot glitches and as the leader of the legislative fight to preserve the postal service .
First, there was her June 23 primary election. After thousands of mail-in votes were initially disqualified by the state Board of Elections, President Donald Trump repeatedly used the contest to discredit absentee voting.
As new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy began to slash overtime and implement structural changes to the postal service, Maloney emerged as a top voice of dissent, calling on the Trump Administration to reverse the cuts.
Now, Maloney is leading the formal pushback as ranking member of the Congressional Oversight Committee, which will question DeJoy on Capitol Hill today.
Listen to Maloney on the Aug. 23 episode of City Watch, which airs live at 10 a.m. on WBAI 99.5 FM:
During an appearance on WBAI’s City Watch Sunday, Maloney, who represents parts of Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan, denounced the current efforts to erode trust in the mail and the years-long effort to privatize the postal service.
Removing mailboxes, cutting overtime and leaving mail undelivered “undermines the postal service,” Maloney said. “It undermines its ability to be self-sustaining and be the American institution that it is.”
Maloney sponsored legislation that would fund the USPS by $25 billion and restore mailboxes, distribution machines and overtime pay so that letter carriers can complete their routes and make sure Americans receive their mail — including medication, checks and bills. The bill passed the House on Saturday
She said DeJoy’s actions were attempts to discourage absentee voting, similar to how the Trump Administration cut the census response time to suppress participation.
“What was really disturbing was when the president said he was not for funding the post office and he was not for mail-in voting,” Maloney said. “That was a wake-up call like a thunderbolt.”
DeJoy has pledged to suspend structural changes until after the election in an announcement made during a series of coordinated press conferences featuring New York City members of Congress Tuesday. Maloney said Congress must hold him accountable. He reiterated that commitment during a Senate hearing Friday.
“How do you know he’s going to suspend these activities? He never consulted with us in the first place,” she said. “I don’t trust him.”
There is more at stake than just the November presidential election, Maloney said. The current actions come amid a decades-long attempt to break up and privatize the USPS. Maloney is against that, too.
“I am deeply and totally opposed to any privatization of the postal service,” she said.
