Pascrell Blisters Post Office Interference

Report from Inspector General confirms corrupt slowdowns from Trump-appointed postmaster

PATERSON, NJ – U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09)  reacted to a blockbuster report issued by the United States Postal Service (USPS) Inspector General confirming widespread interrupted service under the leadership of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. On August 12, Pascrell called on IG Whitcomb to probe DeJoy’s ill-advised operational changes.

“I wanted to read through this entire report before commenting. What the Inspector General finds is absolute confirmation of the destruction and corruption wrought by Donald Trump and Louis DeJoy on our beloved post office,” said Rep. Pascrell, Congress’s leading critic of DeJoy’s disastrous tenure. “There are no coincidences here. The Inspector General’s report reveals that the operational changes imposed by DeJoy had a devastating impact on mail delivery nationwide. While unsurprising, it is despicable that USPS conducted no analysis of the service impacts of these various operational changes. Prescriptions, work payments, ballots, and innumerable other lifeblood necessities are being delayed from millions of Americans. Both lives and democracy hang in peril because of what is happening at USPS.

“The House has acted over and over to rescue our Post Office from destruction, only to be stymied by the McConnell Senate. Next year Congress must make postal revitalization a top priority. Absolutely nothing should be off the table to make our Post Office whole again.”

IG Whitcomb’s probe found that the operational changes imposed by DeJoy negatively impacted the quality and timeliness of mail delivery nationally. Guidance to local postmasters on the changes was very limited and almost exclusively oral. Accordingly, the IG found the resulting confusion and inconsistency at postal facilities compounded the significant negative service impacts across the country.  As a result, the Postal Service’s mail service performance significantly dropped beginning in July 2020, directly corresponding to implementation of the operational changes and initiatives by DeJoy.

On September 30, Pascrell led members of the New Jersey Congressional Delegation in a letter to Postmaster General DeJoy demanding an emergency visit to the Daniels Center in Kearny and requesting information on USPS’s ability to carry out New Jersey’s all vote-by-mail general election. Last week, Pascrell made a surprise appearance at the Daniels Facility and demanded access.

North Jersey has been plagued by reports of mail found discarded and undelivered. On October 4, mail bound for West Orange was discovered in a dumpster in North Arlington. On April 25, mail, including ballots for municipal elections, was discovered dumped in several apartment building lobbies across Belleville. On May 5, stacks of ballots were similarly left strewn across the floor of apartment lobbies in Paterson.

Since this crisis began, Rep. Pascrell has been aggressively demanding accountability. On May 21, Pascrell wrote to USPS Inspector General Tammy Whitcomb demanding an investigation of turmoil at the USPS, purportedly stemming from a pattern of interference engineered by the Trump administration in its efforts to destabilize the post office. After soliciting responses from constituents, Rep. Pascrell released a slate of stories from North Jersey residents in the Ninth District describing the impact of Trump and Republicans’ vicious vandalism against USPS.

And on October 7, Reps. Pascrell, Sires, and Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ-11) called for the USPS Inspector General to open a new probe into the habitually abandoned mail in North Jersey, as well as of USPS brass’s illegal blocking of congressional access to postal facilities.

On August 14, Pascrell became the first member of Congress to call for DeJoy and Donald Trump to be investigated by a state criminal grand jury for their arsoning the Post Office, making a criminal referral to New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal alleging Trump and DeJoy are subverting state elections.

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