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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. We're going to clear the lines of the callers who are calling in for Aamer and those first couple of questions that were on the table today. Screeners, we're going to clear the lines. Listeners, if you were calling in for that segment, we ask that you clear the lines. We're going to try something now where we're going to dip into the house hearing in a couple of minutes that's taking place right now with the Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

If we can do that, it's being chaired by New York City Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. Of course, there are still questions about whether DeJoy is trying to help President Trump's reelection by ordering the removal of sorting machines and mailboxes just as the post office would need all its tools for delivering mail and balance on time by the millions. Last week, we took some calls from postal workers on what changes they were seeing recently.

Now, as we get ready to dip in here a little bit to this hearing, we're also going to take calls from you, and the question is simply, how's your mail delivery been? How are you planning to vote in the election? Given everything, and given all the uncertainties about whatever voting this year, are you going to vote by mail, are you going to vote in person? What's your own plan? 646-435-7280. 646-435-7280.

Part one, how's your mail delivery been? Mine's actually been pretty good up here in Upper Manhattan. As far as I can tell, my mail is getting in. How are you planning to vote in the election? By mail, in person, or what? 646-435-7280. 646-435-7280. If you feel like your mail delivery has been affected this year, maybe by the pandemic, maybe by DeJoy's intent, can't necessarily pick those apart from where you sit, just picking up your mail every day, but very simply, how's your mail delivery been? Given all the uncertainties between the mail getting delivered and the safety or not of indoor polling places, how do you plan to vote in the presidential election?

Remember, if you watched the Democratic Convention, they were making a big show of giving out this number to text to last week. I don't know what you really got if you texted to that number, probably Biden campaign material, but what they said you would get is instructions on how to vote in your state. They're making sure everybody at least knows the options for how to vote. Have you been starting to consider this? I've already heard from some people, "No, I know exactly what I'm going to do. I don't trust this, and I don't trust that so I'm going to vote like this." Have you come up with this for yourself already? We'll take your calls. We'll go to the hearing. 646-435-7280, right after this.

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Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Let's take a few phone calls first then we'll try to dip into the hearing on the question, how's your mail delivery been? Considering all the options and all the uncertainties, how are you going to vote if you've already made that plan? 646-435-7280. Let's start with Doon in Chester, New Jersey. You're on WNYC. Hello, Doon.

Doon: How are you today?

Brian: Good, how are you today?

Doon: Terrific.

Brian: How's your mail?

Doon: My mail is slow down coming in. I own a business, and we've seen our receivable checks slow down by about three or four days, taking longer than normally would. Although in fairness, I would also say it's not limited to the Postal Service. The outbound for UPS Ground. Last week I sent something to Syracuse on Saturday, and what would have taken two days finally arrived on Friday--

Brian: It's interesting that at the beginning of the pandemic, people were saying, there's so much more demand for the package shipping, FedEx, UPS, all of those, because, of course, many people were home and ordering things instead of going out shopping, but there was the last mail being sent and received. The demand on the post office was actually less in terms of letters, from what I heard at the beginning of the pandemic. Of course, a lot of the companies use USPS to ship as well as the private companies. I don't know why that would have been, but your experience is a little slower with the regular mail, more slower with the packages in or out.

Doon: I would say both. I don't know which is more. It's hard to predict exactly, both the Ground UPS, FedEx, and US Postal Service used to be pretty predictable as to what would happen. I don't think we really understand what the patterns are yet.

Brian: How do you plan to vote?

Doon: I live in a relatively small town. I'll vote at the local fire station and that way I'm sure it happens.

Brian: Doon, thank you very much. Going in person to make sure it happens. Amanda in Brooklyn. You're on WNYC. Hi, Amanda.

Amanda: Hi.

Brian: Hi. Listen to your phone, not the radio. Hi.

Amanda: Hi. I'm here to talk about the mail incidents I've had in Brooklyn lately. I'm really glad that you brought this up today. I've noticed a few different suspicious things happening, both with things delivered [unintelligible 00:06:24] that just never showed up. Also with things that I've left to be picked up, that said they were picked up, but then they were never received and it's happened pretty consistently.

Brian: Have you spoken to your mail carrier about it to try to get to the bottom of it at all?

Amanda: Yes, I have. I've been speaking to my mail carrier. I've been speaking to my local mail people on the street and so far there has been very little to show from it, but the only thing I noticed consistently is the Amazon people are everywhere. Sometimes I leave a package out for the mailman and I know the Amazon people have been there first thing at 8:00 AM and then my package has gone with them. I'm wondering if they are picking up packages without looking at them. If they're intercepting things in any way that's making it trickier, but it's been really difficult because you're home all the time, you're watching for mail, you're very aware of when things are supposed to arrive and then they just never do.

Brian: Yes, there is also some package theft occurring. People know a lot more things are being left in people's lobbies and they're getting in and taking a random box that's carriable. I've seen those reports. Who knows if some of that is happening in your case, but how about your plan to vote in the light of all this?

Amanda: I am still deciding based on everything going on. I think I might try to go to my [unintelligible 00:07:56] voting precinct. [crosstalk]

Brian: Did you vote by mail in the primary? Did you vote by mail?

Amanda: I did. I did.

Brian: You did. Now you're thinking, "At least in New York, maybe if the virus positivity rate and prevalence is low as it's been and they social distance everybody," you'll just go out.

Amanda: Absolutely.

Brian: Thank you very much. Of course, we've got to ask people in Florida and Arizona and Wisconsin and Michigan. By the way, do you know that early voting-- We're going to be doing a lot on this over time. Early voting starts 45 days before the election in the earliest voting states. They include Michigan, obviously a pivotal swing state. Virginia starts 45 days out, one or two others. That's around like September 19th or so. I was counting back on the calendar the other day. I probably got it within a day or two. Anyway, roughly September 19th. September 19th for early voting in some important places. We'll be talking a lot more about how to vote in different states and what your options actually are because the rules really are different from state to state. Diane in Queens. You're on WNYC. Hi, Diane.

Diane: Hi. Thank you for taking my call.

Brian: How is your mail?

Diane: Good days and bad days. My personal mail is okay, but I'm having my company's mail forwarded to me. I live in Queens and it's being forwarded to me from Manhattan. There are just many delays. I was telling your screener we closed in March. It took a while for the mail forwarding to get going. A few weeks ago in July, I got a stack of 68 pieces of mail dating back to March for my company.

Brian: Wow.

Diane: I was not a happy camper because I have to open and scan all this mail, send it to different co-workers and staff. It has to be done, but it's just very concerning. In terms of voting, I was telling your screener, I'm planning to request my ballot early to get it in the mail, but I want to fill it in and then bring it to my polling station so that my time at the voting place is less than-- I can just go in, hopefully not stay there too long to have to have it scanned and then that's it. I'm not crazy about sending it in by mail. It's nothing against the post office, but when I see stuff like this, it's concerning.

Brian: Thank you very much for your call. Joanne in Boonton. You're on WNYC. Hi, Joanne.

Joanne: Hi, Brian. Great to hear you. Thanks for taking my call. My mail has been patchy. It was crappy during lockdown and then it loosened up a little bit. One day, I got a whole pile of stuff and most of the rest of the time it's been empty mailbox, which in normal times almost never happens. The only thing that comes fast that I can guarantee comes fast is the Amazon package. [chuckles]

Brian: How are you going to vote?

Joanne: Dropbox.

Brian: Another option that we haven't even mentioned yet. Trump has tried to cast shade on those too. "Oh, you put it in a dropbox instead of scanning it into a computer, who knows who's going to pick it up and do whatever," but the dropboxes are at polling places, right?

Joanne: No. In New Jersey, each county has a handful. There are about five in Morris County. I have close access to two. One near my workplace and one near my house. People can call their county corporate counter County Board of Elections and find out where the dropbox is. They're camera surveilled 24 hours. They're generally by municipal buildings and they pick up every day. When I voted in the primary, I filled out my ballot. I zipped down with local dropbox in the neighboring town and dropped it in that day.

Brian: Thank you for your call, Joanne. Interesting. Sorry. Did you want to finish your thought there?

Joanne: Yes, they pick it up. The County Board of Elections pick them up and get them back to the board of elections. It doesn't sit for long periods of time.

Brian: Thank you very much. Thanks for your call, Joanne. Interesting. A lot of people calling up who may have preferred to vote by mail, now saying they're going to vote in person. At least in the New York, New Jersey area, this little sample that we have of people calling in. Let's step into the hearing. I was hoping that we would run into an exchange between a Democratic member of this House Oversight Committee and Louis DeJoy, the postmaster general to see the back and forth. We haven't heard it so far during the segment. Let's dip in a little bit. Speaking right now is Michael Duncan, a Kentucky Republican asking Louis DeJoy a question. Let's listen a little bit.

Michael Duncan: and strengthen this organization for generations to come. Thank you for your time. I appreciate the opportunity and look forward to your questions. Thank you.

Carolyn Maloney: Thank you for your testimony. I now recognize myself for questioning. Mr. DeJoy, we have all been [crosstalk]

Brian: Perfect timing. This is Carolyn Maloney, chair of the committee and Congresswoman from New York City.

Carolyn: [crosstalk] with concerns and complaints from constituents about the delay in the mail. In the vote on my bill, Delivering for America on Saturday, 26 Republicans voted with us and they express the same concerns. People depend on their mail for their medications, for business, for keeping in touch with their families. It's critically important. We've seen headlines across this nation from many, many states. Headlines, major news from our states about the delay in the mail. It's been said it's a major institution in our country, people depend on it.

Over the weekend, we obtained this internal document and it is dated less than two weeks ago on August 12th. It's entitled Service Performance Measurement for the PMG, Postmaster Master General briefing. Now, your office already confirmed to my office that this document is authentic. Let's go through a little bit of it now. This document clearly shows major degradations across the board beginning in July when you started your changes.

Here is the document for first-class mail and overall, it is down an astonishing 8.1% from the baseline before your changes for the past two months, beginning in July. Now the second one, the next slide is the marketing mail and that is down a stunning 8.42%. Now, the next and it's on the wall where you can see it better. The next, periodicals and that is down almost 10%, down 9.57%

Mr. DeJoy, you and your aides have repeatedly downplayed these delays. You just downplayed it in your testimony. This is just a disaster for the people who need their mail. Don't you agree?

Louis Dejoy: We are very concerned--

Carolyn: Would you turn on your mic? We can't hear you. Thank you.

Louis: We are very concerned with the deterioration in service and are working very diligently. In fact, we're seeing a big recovery this week and the fact that I've requested that report be put together. Oddly enough, we didn't have measurement briefings at an executive level like this before my arrival where the whole executive team was involved in looking at what the underlying circumstances were, and we're focused on fixing it. We're starting to see a nice recovery and we will have it back to-- My goal is to get it to a higher level. We were not meet metrics before. With this fundamental change, we have a real good shot of getting to the stated metrics that are supposedly governed by.

Carolyn: You just testified that you've been on the job 70 days. This is essentially your report card for that period of time. If any other CEO had this plummeting record in his first two months on the job, I can't imagine why he would be kept on.

Louis: That's an unfair accusation.

Carolyn: May I continue. When you testified on Friday, Senators asked you over and over about the status of these delays. They also asked you to produce analysis about the negative impacts of your changes. It would have been easy to mention to the senators that this document existed. You could have said as a matter of fact, "Senator, I just received a detailed briefing, and unfortunately, the data shows major delays in nearly all categories." You didn't do that. You dismiss these nationwide delays as "a dip" and you refuse to turn over any analysis. My question is, why didn't you disclose this document and any analysis to the Senate when you had it? They were asking for it?

Louis: They asked me for it on Friday. They asked me for an analysis on my decision.

Carolyn: Of the delays. I watched the testimony. They wanted analysis why are these all these delays?

Louis: There's a lot of reasons for delays besides just the action that I took to run your trucks on time. There are other reasons for the delays in the nation.

Carolyn: I would say running trucks on time would probably increase delivery, but for some reason, it backed it up five to six days into the district that I represent so reported. Mr. DeJoy, on August 14th, this committee sent you a 10-page letter along with the chairs of ranking members of three other committees. We asked you to produce all communications and I'm quoting from the letter, "All communications, evaluations, assessments or reports regarding mail left behind or delayed as a result of these new policies that you instituted."

We asked for these documents by Friday and on Friday night, you did produce some documents to us, but you did not produce this one. My question is, why did you leave this important internal document from the postal professionals that was delivered to you and briefed to you two days before the Senate hearing? Why did you leave it out?

Louis: I am not familiar with the request in total or how we support it. I'm sure the staff answered the questions as they were asked. Let me just for the record clear up. That is not a policy change. That is a request that we run our 40,000 trucks a day on schedule and your intuition is right. You would think that the mail moved faster and it did. A good portion of it moved faster. All right. I was sitting there looking at a report that talked somewhere between $1 billion and $3 billion worth of cost wasted on our truck trips being out of schedule. It was an easy request that I spoke with every senior executive in the organization about the change.

Carolyn: My time is limited and then I'm concerned why we didn't receive any of this information. I have to just say that, Mr. DeJoy, we sent our letter two days after you received this briefing and this document. It must have been fresh on your mind. There's absolutely no excuse for concealing it and withholding this information from the committee or from your testimony before the Senate when you're expressly asked questions about the information in the document. Unfortunately, this committee received it from someone else.

Mr. DeJoy, you're withholding information from us, concealing documents, and downplaying the damage that you're causing. Let me close with this. This committee expects a full and complete production of all the documents we requested no later than this coming Wednesday and if you continue to withhold information or otherwise fail to comply, you can expect a subpoena. Now, I know many of our members plan to ask about how you intend to fix the problems, the problems you created, and reverse these horrible trend lines. We will get to those questions next. With that, I now recognize the distinguished ranking member for five minutes for his questions.

Brian: There was New York City Congresswoman, Carolyn Maloney, chair of the House Oversight Committee. As chair, she got the first round of questioning with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. We heard very briefly as we were going into that from someone else from the Postal Board of Supervisors who I misidentified, I believe, as a member of Congress from Kentucky. He's another witness.

Congresswoman Maloney as chair of the committee, got the first questions there and as you've heard, she emphasized documents not produced. As she sees it, the decline in service that he acknowledged in that little bit of testimony we just got from Mr. DeJoy was real and Carolyn Maloney said, "Well, other CEOs would have been fired for taking over the reins of their companies and having an immediate decline in service like that." Of course, we will see what else gets produced in that hearing throughout the day and how it can lead to more confidence about the mail-in ballots getting through in the election as well as other kinds of mail that people depend on.

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