Postmaster General says USPS will halt some operational changes until after election

CHICAGO - “I am horrified by this administration's efforts to dismantle this essential service,” said Illinois Rep. Lauren Underwood.

After complaints by Congressional Democrats, the U.S. Postal Service put a temporary hold on the cutbacks it's been implementing. But the angry debate over voting by mail continues.

On a day when Illinois’ Kwame Raoul joined more than a dozen other state attorney generals to sue the U.S. Postal Service over recent cutbacks, Postmaster General Louis Dejoy put new reductions on hold, writing: “To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded.”

That made DuPage County’s Congressman Sean Casten even angrier.

“It means that he was lying when he said that he had to do this,” Casten said.

Democrats cite recent surveys such as one that found 52-percent of Joe Biden supporters plan to vote by mail, compared to only 12-percent of Trump supporters.

When the Postal Service notified some states it would not be able to meet their vote-by-mail delivery deadlines and the president then suggested the post office cutbacks would foreclose voting by mail, Democrats exploded.

On Tuesday, President Trump denied trying to seek partisan advantage.

"It’s not a political issue....you can't have millions and millions of ballots sent all over the place. Sent to people that are dead. Sent to dogs, cats,” Trump said.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to convene the house this weekend to consider emergency legislation to provide the postal service new funding, and that’s not all.

“Freeze the policies that were in place as of January 1st of this year and not allow any changes to occur 77 days before an Election Day,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said.

The Postmaster General has agreed to appear before a House committee next Monday to answer questions.