At a House Oversight Committee hearing on Monday, Rep. Katie Porter (D-California) grilled Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on his knowledge of the United States Postal Service, revealing that DeJoy did not even know the cost of mailing a postcard. The purpose of the hearing was to address the changes that brought about delays and could affect the November election.
“I’ll submit that I know very little about postage stamps,” DeJoy said.
DeJoy also could not answer Porter’s questions about the price for USPS Priority Mail and how many people voted by mail in the 2016 election.
Porter asked, “Within a million or so, can you tell me how many people voted by mail in the last presidential election?”
DeJoy responded, “No, I cannot.”
“To the nearest 10 million?” Porter amended, to which DeJoy responded that he didn’t “want to guess.”
The cost of mailing a postcard is 35 cents, the starting rate for the USPS Priority Mail is $7.50 and 33 million voters voted by mail in the previous presidential election.
DeJoy’s lack of knowledge about the basic operations of the postal service bring into question his qualifications as postmaster general. DeJoy was appointed to the position in June by President Donald Trump, and like Trump, he has a background in business. He has no prior experience working at the USPS.
“Mr. DeJoy, I’m concerned. I’m glad you know the price of a stamp, but I’m concerned about your understanding of this agency,” said Porter.
Porter went on to ask DeJoy if the changes that were made during his time in the office – “the unplugging and destroying of machines, changing of employee procedures and locking of collection boxes” – had been well-informed. DeJoy responded that he did not order these things to be done, and then tried to change the subject by saying that he got “to run the trucks to a schedule.”
DeJoy could not name who it was that ordered these changes and refused to commit to reversing the changes. Later, when Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) asked about restoring machines if the USPS got additional funding, DeJoy conceded, “Get me the billion and I’ll put the machines in.”
