UPDATE: Sen. Dick Durbin Demands Immediate Postal Service Funding

CHICAGO — After more than a month of complaints about mail delivery woes here and across the country that were met with a shrug by the Postal Service, U.S. senators have launched an investigation into recent changes that have caused delays as the nation prepares for a spike in mail-in voting.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) on Thursday called out newly appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy for foolishly eliminating overtime for postal employees and issue orders that mail be delayed when distribution centers run late at the root of mail delivery troubles.

Last month, the Associated Press obtained memos outlining changes ordered by DeJoy including overtime cuts, later postal carrier start times and allowing mail to be left on workroom floors and docks as part of an effort to make the Postal Service "fundamentally solvent which we are not at this time.'' The memo said the Postal Service isn't "untouchable," comparing it to U.S. Steel, once "the largest company in the world" that's now "gone."

More On Patch: No Mail For Weeks: Is Postal Service 'Falling Apart' In Chicago?

"Postmaster DeJoy does not seem to understand the postal service as an essential service provided by the government, not a luxury and certainly not a routine business. Americans rely on the U.S. Postal Service to deliver needed packages, medications, social security checks, and other benefits,” Durbin said.

“Many small businesses would absolutely fold if they couldn’t use the U.S. Postal Service and its daily operations. Rural Americans know that many for-profit delivery services won’t come to their addresses in small-town America, but the Postal Service will be there.”

In June, President Trump appointed DeJoy, a top Republican fundraiser with no postal service experience, as postmaster general, a move that Democrats worry could destroy the postal service as we know it. Trump has said publicly that he believes the Postal Service should be privatized.

More on Patch: Postal Service Shrugs Off Chicago Mail Delivery Complaints

The Associated Press reported DeJoy met with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Wednesday in what Schumer called “a heated discussion.″ Also on Wednesday, President Trump contended “the Post Office doesn’t have enough time” to handle a significant increase in mail-in ballots.

The U.S. House Oversight Committee has called DeJoy to testify at a hearing next month.

On Friday, Durbin called for the "immediate" funding of the Postal Service at a news conference alongside Ald. Matt O'Shea, who got 43 of his City Council colleagues to sign on to holding hearings on abysmal delivery in Chicago, and U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-Chicago).

O'Shea (19th) said about 3,000 people responded to a survey he sent out to Southwest Side residents, and more than half of them expressed frustration with mail delivery service. Many reported not getting mail for days or weeks. Postal Service officials dismissed O'Shea's polling by claiming their own survey of postal customers in the Mount Greenwood ZIP code found 97 percent satisfaction.

"That's utterly ridiculous," O'Shea said Friday. "We have a serious problem. Not just in my community. Not just in our city. [It's] very widespread."

Durbin said the DeJoy-led Postal Service is in denial

"i think denial of reality is not going to work. ... We know what's going on there. They are cancelling overtime which is 20 percent of the activity of the Postal Service at a time when the demand is higher than ever ... They're just not accepting the reality," Durbin said. "And the bottom line is this: This is not the Postal Company. This is the Postal Service. It is a service for America that I'm proud to say has been part of our history from the beginning. ... We want to maintain the level of service and professionalism that we have in Postal Service. And we need men and women who are in charge to believe in the same thing."

Durbin called on the Republican-controlled Senate to approv $25 billion in emergency funding to cover USPS revenue losses over the next two years due to the coronavirus pandemic that the House included in "Heroes Act" legislation approved more than two months ago.

"For 11 weeks the Senate Republicans have produced no bill whatsoever," Durbin said. And two weeks ago, Senate Republicans forwarded a "shell" of legislation that didn't include funding for the Postal Service. Durbin also said Republican leaders didn't attend Wednesday's closed door discussions on Postal Service funding, and early the White House backed out of talks planned for Friday at noon.

"We've really come to a standstill," Durbin said. "If this president thinks he can cure the problems of the American economy and turn around this coronavirus by executive order he's just plain wrong. It's just like his medical quackery, where he says what's ever on his mind. It takes a bi-partisan effort with Congress and the White House to get this nation back on its feet and come to grips with this coronavirus."

Durbin said he has suspicious that cuts to overtime and efforts to block funding the Postal Service is an intentional move supported by the White House because more people are expected to vote by mail in the November election.

"I worry about it. A President who says he wants to consider changing the election day, says he may not accept the results of an election, naturally I have suspicions as to what's going on here. And I think people are, too," he said. "A majority of people I think are going to ask for a mail-in ballot. But many of them, and I've talked to them, are skeptical. Is my ballot going to be counted? Will it ever be picked up and be delivered? You know, that kind of thing undermines the confidence in our election process, which is the key to our Democracy. So I worry about it."

DeJoy told the Postal Service Board of Governors that there would not be a slow down in the delivery of election materials, according to published reports.

"Despite any assertions to the contrary, we are not slowing down election mail or any other mail. Instead, we continue to employ a robust and proven process to ensure proper handling of all election mail," DeJoy said.

Durbin said he plans to "hold him to that."