Comer: Facts Quickly Debunk Democrats’ USPS Conspiracy Theory
WASHINGTON – House Committee on Oversight and Reform Ranking Member James Comer (R-Ky.) today delivered the following statement during House consideration of H.R. 8015, the Delivering for America Act, to debunk the Democrats’ baseless conspiracy theory. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I rise today in opposition to H.R. 8015, the Delivering for America Act.
This is the result of a legislative process only slightly less absurd than the conspiracies, insinuations, and fabrications that gave rise to the purported need for it.
But here we are debating a bill to simultaneously hamstring and bail out the Postal Service.
We’ve had no committee hearings or markups. On Monday, we will hear from the new Postmaster General – after we vote on this bill. It makes no sense. And the result is deeply flawed.
Although Dr. Fauci advised there’s no reason Americans cannot vote in person, citizens choosing to vote by mail must have their ballots delivered in a timely manner. The Postmaster General has pledged that is his mission, and on Friday before the Senate he pledged ballots would be delivered “faster” than First Class mail without rate increases.
But I want to turn now and one by one debunk the Democrat’s conspiracy theories:
First, Democrats claim Postmaster DeJoy is removing blue collection boxes to sabotage the election.
This is an absurd claim. This removal process is routine. The Postal Service has removed 35,000 boxes over the last ten years. Under President Obama, at least 12,000 mailboxes were removed and no one cried foul then.
Second, Democrats claim Postmaster DeJoy is removing mail sorters to intentionally slow the mail.
These sorters were on track to be removed prior to his appointment and reflects the reality that mail volume is down 33 percent over the past 15 years.
The third Democrat claim is that the Postal Service cannot manage the volume of mail resulting from the upcoming election.
In 2019, the Postal Service handled an average of 471 million pieces of mail each day.
Assuming all 158 million registered voters decided to vote by mail, the total volume of requested and mailed ballots would not exceed a typical day of total USPS mail volume.
Fourth, the Democrats claim the Postmaster General’s pilot program and his effort to reduce excessive overtime were intended to sabotage the election.
The Postmaster General testified he never sought to eliminate overtime. Instead, he sought to get postal operations running on time, so there would be less need to rely on overtime and to reduce extra mail truck trips.
With overtime costs of $1.1 billion in 2018 alone, why wouldn’t you try to improve on that?
The fifth Democrat claim is that the Postal Service General Counsel sent letters to the state election boards to intimidate and stoke fears.
Letters were also sent in May – well before Postmaster General DeJoy took over – saying what USPS has been saying for years:
That some state election boards have deadlines and requirements that simply do not consider the reality of USPS operations and logistics constraints.
If a state allows voters to request absentee ballots a day before the election, why wouldn’t the Postal Service advise there might be a problem?
Sixth, Democrats are acting like any mail delays are new and orchestrated by Postmaster General DeJoy.
As I’ve said time and again, I’ve been hearing about postal delays for years. Where there are delays, it makes sense to figure out why, and it makes even more sense to do something to fix them.
And finally the false narrative that the Postal Service is running out of money and will cease operations before the election.
Currently, the USPS has over $15 billion in cash on hand – that’s enough to keep it solvent until August 2021 and enough time for us to do this right.
Like the Russia hoax and the impeachment sham, the Democrats have manufactured another scandal for political purposes.
I reserve the balance of my time.
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