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Today at a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing, Congressman Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) questioned U.S. Postmaster General, The Honorable Louis DeJoy, about the current state of the United States Postal Service (USPS) and their ability to handle the increase in mail-in ballots for the 2020 general election.

Saturday, August 22, 2020: The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that authorizes $25 billion to be sent to the USPS to aid in the handling of mail-in ballots for the November election. This is 30 percent of the entire 2019 USPS total operating budget. Congressman Grothman voted against the bill and was present in Washington, D.C. for the vote.

Monday, August 24, 2020: After the USPS bill was passed, the House held its first public hearing with Postmaster General DeJoy to discuss the state of the organization and whether the USPS needs the additional funding to handle the increase in mail-in ballots during the 2020 election. DeJoy said “We have plenty of operating capital right now to get through November”.

Key Takeaway 1: The House passed a bill that authorizes $25 billion of spending before they even spoke to the United States Postmaster General.

Key Takeaway 2: The Postmaster General stated clearly that the USPS does not need additional funding in order to process mail-in ballots for the 2020 election.

Key Takeaway 3: If the USPS delivers 433 million pieces of mail per day, that means that from October 1 to the election on November 3, 34 days, the USPS will process 14.7 billion pieces of mail. If the same number of people vote in the 2020 election as did in the 2016 Presidential election, 139 million, and 100 percent use mail-in ballots, the USPS would see a volume increase of 0.9 percent spread out over the course of those 34 days.

Excerpts of Grothman’s questioning

Congressman Glenn Grothman: “Could you compare that [the increase in mail-in ballots this October] to other days or times, around Christmas for example, any other bump ups?”

The Honorable Louis DeJoy: “I think that the narrative goes that Mother’s Day is higher, Christmas is higher. We’ve just handled Census mail. So, it is not a lot of mail [the additional mail-in ballots], but it is critical. There are cutoff dates. It’s not a Mother’s Day card, it’s a ballot and it’s important. So, we put in extra effort to make sure it gets there on time.”

Grothman: “But you don’t consider it, say compared to how much mail you had maybe three years ago or the amount of mail on Christmas, this is not unusual?”

DeJoy: “It’s not a volume issue, sir, it’s just that every ballot counts so we want to get every one of them.”

[Continued…]

Grothman: “You right now have, I’m told, about $14 billion in the bank. Do you anticipate the election causing that to be run-down at all or do you anticipate it going up? Will it have any dent on it?”

DeJoy: I don’t think it will have too much of an impact in either way.

Grothman: “Okay, so if you have $14 billion in the bank now, you’re still going to have $14 billion on, as far as you know, December 1^st?”

DeJoy: “It depends. We’ll probably lose $10 or $11 billion this year. So, depending on how package volume stays, we could have less cash. And if I may, having $14 billion, we also have $12 billion worth of liabilities that need to be paid at some time over the next six months. We have $135 billion of liabilities. We’re running a 633,000 person organization that does not get funding. Even though the [agencies of the] federal government [have a fiscal year that] ends in September, they have an expectation of getting funding. We don’t have an expectation of getting funding, so we have to drive costs down and increase revenue. That’s the big difference we have than any other agency. So $14 billion sounds like a lot of money, it’s not a lot of money for what we do.”

Grothman: “But you anticipate still having money in the bank after the election? That’s the point I’m trying to make. “

DeJoy: “We’ll have cash, yes. We have plenty of operating capital right now to get through November, yes. And handle the election.”

Click here to view Grothman’s remarks.

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U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman is serving his third term representing Wisconsin’s 6th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.