House panel will subpoena Postal Service, Louis DeJoy for records on mail delays

WASHINGTON — The head of the House Oversight Committee says the panel will issue subpoenas to compel the U.S. Postal Service and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to turn over documents on slowdowns in mail service and any communications DeJoy might have had with President Donald Trump or members of his reelection campaign.

Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., plans to subpoena USPS on Wednesday after DeJoy refused to provide records requested last week by committee members during a hearing.

"I trust my Aug. 24 testimony before the Committee on Oversight and Reform clarified any outstanding questions you had regarding operational changes that I have implemented," he wrote in a letter to Maloney on Aug. 28, two days after the deadline the committee imposed for USPS to voluntarily submit documents.

A Postal Service representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

During the hearing, House members requested any analysis the Postal Service ran on the affect of the operational changes DeJoy instituted at the agency, which included eliminating extra mail delivery trips and stricter dispatch schedules that have caused mail and packages to pile up undelivered.

Postal workers from coast to coast and national union leaders also say workers were told overtime hours would be eliminated and that the directive was issued by the postmaster general. Memos circulated to mid-level managers and obtained by The Washington Post stated that DeJoy planned to eliminate overtime hours.

"Carriers were ordered off the streets at 5 o'clock whether you finished your route or you didn't finish your route," said Al Friedman, president of the Florida State Association of Letter Carriers. "That was everywhere. That was all over Florida."

A letter carrier in New Jersey told The Washington Post he was ordered to do the same thing.

DeJoy denied in sworn testimony that he’d ever given such an order, and suspended some of the cost-cutting moves until after the November election. But DeJoy is considering additional changes after the Nov. 3 vote. The plans under consideration, described by four people familiar with Postal Service discussions, include geography-based pricing, lower mail delivery standards and raising prices.