The House of Representatives on Saturday approved a bill that would provide $25 billion in aid to the United States Postal Service (USPS) and would ensure that votes arrive on time to be counted in a presidential election under the shadow of the coronavirus.
Amid Democrats’ complaints about the Trump administration’s bid to undermine mail-in voting ahead of the November presidential election, the bill passed despite Republican opposition.
Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, said the bill was necessary to “stop the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine the critical mission of the Postal Service.”
James Comer (Kentucky), the top Republican on the Oversight Committee, said the Democrats’ bill was the “product of a legislative process less absurd than the conspiracies, insinuations and fabrications that gave rise to the supposed necessity of it.”
It is unlikely the bill will advance further, as Republicans in the Senate are not inclined to proceed. The White House has signaled it would veto the bill, and Republicans claim that the Postal Service has ample cash on hand and is being used by Democrats for political purposes.
Democrats have accused Louis DeJoy, one of Donald Trump’s major donors and the current Postmaster General, of implementing cost-cutting measures aimed at slowing mail delivery, with the intent of helping Trump in the election.
The president has repeatedly claimed that there is widespread fraud in mail-in voting because “no one knows what happens to lost ballots and fraudulent ballots.” Experts have noted that there is no evidence to support the president’s claims, noting that Trump himself has voted at times by mail.
On Friday, during a Senate hearing, DeJoy admitted that the mail service had slowed, but refused to reinstate hundreds of sorting machines that had been removed amid a drop in deliveries during the coronavirus pandemic.
During the pandemic a large number of citizens depended on package delivery services while staying at home. Delivery workers and mail carriers have been among the employees on the front lines of exposure to COVID-19. By the end of March, about 2,000 USPS employees were in quarantine and 51 contracted coronavirus.
However, those numbers surged when the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) reported that at least 5,000 employees were in quarantine and more than 12,000 had returned to work; 1,000 tested positive for the virus and recovered. The site Business Insider reported that at least 60 USPS employees died from the virus.
In April, President Donald Trump rejected a USPS rescue package, a move that could impact this year’s elections as more states adopt the mail-in voting system. Although the president said he “would never let the post office fail,” he refused to sign additional rescue funding for the agency.
The Postal Service does not receive money from taxes to cover operating expenses; instead, it relies on shipping revenues and the sale of products and services, according to the agency’s own website.
