In a wild moment on the floor of Congress, United States Postal Service Postmaster General Louis DeJoy had an utter meltdown when he faced scrutiny from Republicans and Democrats during a Tuesday, December 10 hearing before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. The lawmakers questioning DeJoy were mainly raising concerns about the USPS’s large financial losses and spotty service in some areas.
Amongst those who went on the attack against DeJoy’s leadership was Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill), who slammed DeJoy’s “Delivering for America” plan as having actually raised prices for customers and made service all the worse. Rep. Krishnamoorthi said, “Since 2021, the cost of a first-class Forever stamp has risen six times under Postmaster General DeJoy, jumping from 55 cents to 73 cents. Meanwhile, service standards at USPS post offices across the country are dropping.”
Republicans chimed in as well. Amongst them was Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), who noted that the USPS has seen itself bleed money under DeJoy’s leadership. Referencing its $9.5 billion loss in 2024 and a similarly huge loss of over $6 billion expected for 2025, Rep. Comer said, “The Postal Service is hemorrhaging red ink.”
Continuing, Rep. Comer noted that Congress is getting quite tired of shelling out ever larger subsidies for an organization that is supposed to be self-funding given that it charges taxpayers for its services. He said, “We did what we could to help the service with the Postal Reform Act, but the days of bailouts and handouts are over.”
Also chiming in was Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX). He sounded off on how the USPS is flailing as it tried to address growing regions, namely those in his state like Houston. Noting that the service knows it has issues but has failed so far to solve them, he said, “The Postal Service knows they have a problem. They’re having service problems across the United States, particularly in areas like Texas that have seen significant population increases.”
Continuing, he noted that those customers who try to deal with the service are, intentionally or not, given the runaround by a top-down service that fails to address those concerns. He said, “One of the frailties of the Postal Service is their response and getting back to you. It’s a top-down organization that doesn’t communicate well about specific problems.”
But the sharp moment that made the hearing interesting came when DeJoy sparred with Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) after Rep. McCormick accused DeJoy of not delivering on promises made. Hammering DeJoy, the Georgian Congressman thundered, “You are responsible for the fall of the Postal Service and the lack of accountability.”
DeJoy fired back that really Congress is responsible, saying, “No, this Congress is responsible for the fall of the Postal Service. I am trying to fix the Postal Service.” Rep. McCormick fired back, snapping, “You’re worse than if I took a horse and picked up the mail and delivered it two miles down the road.” It didn’t help that DeJoy told Congress that he gives himself an “A” grade on his running of USPS.
Then, as Rep. McCormick thundered at him. DeJoy, instead of responding like an adult, covered his ears so that he couldn’t hear the criticism. Roasting him, the congressman said, “I hope you got that on camera. This is the response that the Postmaster just gave Congress when he doesn’t like what he hears. Literally covered his ears and gives himself the grade of A.”
Watch that incident here:
.@RepMcCormick: “I hope you got that on camera. This is the response that the Postmaster just gave Congress when he doesn’t like what he hears. Literally covered his ears and gives himself the grade of A.” pic.twitter.com/sWNbQaa4xq
— CSPAN (@cspan) December 10, 2024
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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