Thread by @BBuchman_CNS

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night has stayed these couriers from making their rounds, US Virgin Islnds Rep Stacey Plaskett says this morning in the opening of the final debate on H.R. 8015, invoking the Postal Srvc creed. "Let it not happen on our watch," she adds

.@RepDebDingell says from the House floor, Postmaster DeJoy is running a "sabotage campaign" that is hurting everyday Americans, seniors and is an attack on the Constitution and our democracy.

The Delivering For America Act legislation available here: documentcloud.org/documents/7042…

We are here today because our democracy is being eroded by this administration. It is under siege on all fronts. - @RepMcGovern kicks off 2 hours of debate on today's legislation proposed by @RepMaloney that infuses Post Office with $25B and stops changes to operations by DeJoy

Sorting machines have disappeared, mail service has slowed to a crawl in some locations. Medication, social security checks, delayed, McGovern says.

This admin knows more Americans than ever are likely to vote by mail in November. USPS expects 10x the normal amount of election mail because of Covid19. This president fears that if more people vote, the less likely he is to win a second term, McGovern says.

"What we are seeing here today is not to be dismissed as just Donald being Donald or the president being provocative. This is scary stuff. It is frightening and we have to do something," - @RepMcGovern

Postmaster DeJoy, a Trump megadonor, said he wouldn't make any changes after outcry to which Rep. McGovern says today: "I wouldn't trust this administration to tell me the correct time."
@CourthouseNews

Postmaster DeJoy didn't study the impact of changes on our seniors or veterans, McGovern says. "He just made them, struggling Americans be damned."

McGovern: The GOP has tried to claim there's no problem, waving around charts that are weeks old, saying "Everything is fine, everything is beautiful...I don't need empty rhetoric from DeJoy or the White House. My constituents are my evidence."

"They are flooding my office with calls. They are stopping me on the street. Something is happening here whether this administration wants to admit it or not," Rep. McGovern said.

McGovern: "Before GOP tries to paint this as a liberal conspiracy, let me remind them: there's no money here for hungry families, though they badly need it. No money for state govts, though they are pleading for relief...

All this bill does is get the USPS back to where it was at the start of the year and provide them with the resources they need, not just to process an influx of ballots but to continue delivering mail, including prescriptions and checks for seniors dependent on Social Security

Rep. Bod Woodall, R-GA, says that there is no conversation going on with the Senate on this bill, calls it another wasteful partisan exercise. Mail deliveries are booming, he notes.

More on that from this report by WaPo:
washingtonpost.com/business/2020/…

Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wisc.: "This president is on a warpath to destroy the US Postal Service and through that, the election."
He notes mail processing equipment removed under DeJoy, major cutbacks on overtime.
He & many Dems have demanded his resignation:

https://twitter.com/repmarkpocan/status/1296131132942163973?s=20

Rep Tom Cole, R-OK, ranking member of the Rules Committee opposes the HR8015
"The majority's reason for bringing this legislation are ludicrous." It's a silly rule and it's not going beyond the House.

Cole says Democrats want to remove DeJoy but also want to give him $25B - arguing its nonsensical.
We don't need to be spending this money right now. It's a silly, silly bill, Cole says.

"I want to give some free political advice, you want to pass this bill, get it through the Senate, to the WH? If that's true, make it bigger. Put something on it we agree on. Every family that makes less than 75k annually, they need more," he says, calling for GOP aid pkg

"No money is going to get to the Post Office because it won't get to the Senate...We'll have a few entertaining hours but it's a Saturday morning, so not many Americans will be wasting their time listening to this, Cole says as he ends his remarks

McGovern pulls up a poster with Postmaster DeJoy's own remarks about the unintended consequences of his changes on postal service performance.

This isn't just coming from Dems, is McGovern's point.
DeJoy says it himself.
More on that here: documentcloud.org/documents/7042…

The graph below shows on time mail this year compared to last year. The red line is 2020. Mail is slowing. People aren't getting deliveries they need on time. (Graph thru end of June)
"Our constituents are not lying to us. Their mail is delayed. Their medication is delayed."

Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon waves several letters sent to her office from constituents saying they aren't receiving mail on time, aren't seeing carriers for more than 10 days at a time, biz invoices not being received timely etc.

Rep Woodall says he wants to solve all of Scanlon's concerns but "this bill solves none of them."
Rep Debbie Lesko says today is all about bashing Trump in time for the Sunday talk shows in time for RNC and just like all other times, "the media will lap it all up."

It's my job to report on the business of Congress. My bad.

McGovern says in response to GOP barbs that Dems are "do-nothing." They passed the Heroes Act months ago, he notes. The Senate has passed nothing more since the intial relief rounds.

McGovern says he can't believe that Republicans are still complicit, still indifferent, given what is going on in the country right now.
He points to Trump's own remarks.
washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/…

Did you miss DeJoy's testimony before the Senate Friday? While he vowed mail-in ballots would be given top priority, he also said he has no plans to restore sorting machines that would help USPS process those ballots.
Check out @MMineiro_CNS's report:
courthousenews.com/postmaster-gen…

The USPS Board of Governors - made up of 100% Trump appointees - they are the ones that asked for $25B. Not Democrats. That is why, Rep. McGovern says, they are asking for this amount in this bill today.

Rep. Steve Chabot, R-OH, calls for more Covid-19 relief, reopening of PPP: "We ought to be voting on that today."

McGovern says, that's interesting to hear from Chabot since he voted against that in Heroes Act when it came before House. It passed but "where's Mitch McConnell?"

There are no more Republican speakers up for debate.
Rep Woodall delivers closing remarks.
We talk more about bills we passed than the changes we make, Woodall says, then:
The Heroes Act had no chance of getting through Senate.
There's no effort at voter suppression here.

Woodall: USPS has an unused 10B line of credit, the blank check of $25B doesn't solve any of the existing problems.
The frustration from GOP is that "they are back in emergency session working on language that is going nowhere, that will help no one."

Woodall: We can pound on our chests all we like about all the wonderful things we think... but we all know from year upon year of painful experience, the only things that get done in this town, get done together.

Rep Woodall: In divided government, you cannot bully your way to success. You have to partner your way to success.
Let's move PPP extension, let's move vax funding, law enforcement reform.

McGovern says this bill is about more than money. It's about undoing all the damage done by Postmaster DeJoy that has resulted in all the confusion and chaos.
He closes: History is not going to look well on those who went along to get along with this president.

McGov: What POTUS is doing w/the postal service is indefensible & everybody needs to be counted on this issue. Its the right thing to do for your constituents even if the man in the WH doesn't want it. It's about time people started doing what is right for the ppl of this country

I'll have a story on today's vote for @CourthouseNews later.

Thanks for following along with today's live updates. On Monday, I'll live-tweet Postmaster DeJoy's full testimony before the House. I hope you'll join me.

NEW: According to USPS and despite contentions by GOP, there has been "a significant drop in srvc standards across the board since the beginning of July—including in First-Class, Marketing, Periodicals, and Priority Mail."
Per Oversight chair @RepMaloney oversight.house.gov/sites/democrat…