Postmaster Common admits he won’t know the cost to mail a postcard

• Postmaster Typical Louis DeJoy struggled to respond to basic inquiries about the cost of postage for standard merchandise at a US Dwelling Oversight hearing on Monday.
• In an trade with Rep. Katie Porter, DeJoy admitted he didn’t know the charge of mailing a postcard or a smaller greeting card, the commencing level for US Precedence Mail, or how a lot of Individuals voted by mail in 2016.
• “Mr. DeJoy, I am involved. I am glad you know the rate of a stamp, but I am worried about your comprehension of this company,” Porter claimed. 
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Postmaster Common Louis DeJoy struggled to respond to essential inquiries about the price tag of postage for products including postcards even though remaining questioned by Rep. Katie Porter at a US Household Oversight hearing on Monday.

DeJoy, a former shipping and delivery and logistics executive and prolific Republican political donor, was appointed postmaster standard in May and took about the placement in June. He’s the to start with postmaster typical in just about 30 a long time to have no past practical experience functioning at the agency. 

Porter, a to start with-phrase congresswoman from Southern California and former customer finance regulation professor at the College of California Irvine, is identified for her immediate and incisive dilemma of witnesses in hearings. 

The suitable part of their trade is down below:

• Porter: “Mr. DeJoy, thank you for becoming with us these days. What is the price tag of a initially-course postage stamp?”
• DeJoy: “55 cents.”
• Porter: “Just required to look at. What about to mail a postcard?”
• DeJoy: “I don’t know, ma’am.”
• Porter: “You really don’t know the price to mail a postcard?”
• DeJoy: “I really don’t.”
• Porter: “You claimed 55 cents for a very first-class stamp, but what if it truly is like 1 of individuals greeting playing cards which is a square envelope, then what is the postage?”
• DeJoy: “I am going to post that I know very tiny about postage stamps.”
• Porter: “You were being extra in the delivery and logistics company, what is the fat limit for Precedence Mail?”
• DeJoy: “Seventy kilos.”
• Porter: “And what is the beginning price for USPS Priority Mail?”
• DeJoy: “Beginning bodyweight…fourteen ounces.”
• Porter: “No, the level, the cost.”
• DeJoy: “I don’t know.”
• Porter: “Within just a million or so, can you inform me how numerous folks voted by mail in the final presidential election?”
• DeJoy: “No, I cannot.”
• Porter: “To the closest ten million?”
• DeJoy: “I would be guessing, and I you should not want to guess.”
• Porter: “So, Mr. DeJoy, I am involved. I’m glad you know the price tag of a stamp, but I’m anxious about your comprehending of this agency. And I’m particularly concerned about due to the fact you commenced using quite decisive motion when you turned postmaster typical.”

—Public Citizen (@General public_Citizen) August 24, 2020

It costs 35 cents to mail a postcard in the United States, 70 cents to mail a square or unusually-shaped envelope, and the setting up rate for Precedence Mail is $7.50. 30-3 million voters, earning up 23.7% of the citizens, voted by mail in the 2016 presidential election, according to the US Election Aid Commission. 

A week before the listening to, Porter wrote on Twitter: “I hope the Postmaster Basic will come geared up. I know I will.”

In the latest weeks, Democrats have accused DeJoy of gutting the company and  working in tandem with President Donald Trump to sabotage the election, which is probably to see far more Americans than at any time returning their ballots by the Postal Service. 

In the two testimony before the US Senate on Friday and on Monday in the Dwelling, DeJoy has preserved that he has not arbitrarily slash extra time or eradicated desired sorting machines from post places of work, He mentioned he is fully commited to guaranteeing the integrity of the election and generating certain all ballots are shipped on time. 

But his solutions have been unsatisfactory to lots of Democrats, who grilled DeJoy on Monday about new functions modifications that have taken put for the duration of his limited tenure.

Some lawmakers have lifted problems about new expense-reducing measures, together with restricting time beyond regulation and late outings for mail carriers. Regardless of DeJoy’s assurances, new mail delays have elevated alarms that some ballots could come in far too late to be counted.