Several Lawmakers Denied Access to Postal Facilities

Rep. Bill Pascrell, a New Jersey Democrat, visited a large mail-processing plant in Kearny, N.J., on Monday, according to his staff, after being refused entry last month. He told the Postal Service on Sunday that he was coming.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last week, Mr. Pascrell said he wanted to see if the plant is keeping up with its workload, including handling mail-in ballots. He said that he and two other members of the New Jersey congressional delegation never got beyond the lobby.

Mr. Pascrell said that right before the 2018 midterm election, he toured that same facility without incident or objection.

The congressman said he was told they couldn’t enter nonpublic areas of postal facilities within 45 days of an election out of security concerns and because it might violate the Hatch Act, a federal law that prohibits executive branch employees such as postal employees from engaging in partisan political activity. The election is 14 days away.

“These are phony-baloney excuses. It’s not like I’m trying to get into Area 51 or something,” said Mr. Pascrell, referring to the high-security Air Force site in the Nevada desert.

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which investigates alleged Hatch Act violations, issued guidance in 2018 that federal buildings shouldn’t be used for campaign events, but said the act didn’t prevent lawmakers from “visiting federal facilities for an official purpose, to include receiving briefings, tours, or other official information.”

In a statement, the Postal Service said its headquarters staff arranged more than 60 congressional tours during the first nine months of the year, most of them since June. It said the number was “noteworthy when considered against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic.” It said it has an “ongoing commitment to transparency and oversight” and has sent nearly 2,000 letters to members of Congress this year, responding to questions.

“The Postal Service has been, and will continue to be, responsive to the Congress’s legislative needs in providing information on postal matters, while also protecting our legitimate institutional prerogatives,” said the Postal Service statement.

Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican and ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, which oversees the USPS, said in a hearing in August that Democrats were whipping up baseless fears about the Postal Service as a “political stunt” to hurt Republicans at the polls. He didn’t respond to a request for additional comment.

Last month, in a letter to the postmaster general, Mr. Comer suggested the Postal Service invite monitors from both political parties to watch election mail being processed because, he said, most postal workers are members of “highly partisan” labor unions—something union officials say is incorrect.

There has been an increase in congressional interest, particularly among Democrats, in the USPS since Louis DeJoy, a former logistics executive and Republican Party donor, became postmaster general.

Shortly thereafter, the Postal Service initiated changes in work rules and ordered the removal of hundreds of mail-processing machines. On-time mail-delivery fell and hasn’t recovered to pre-pandemic levels, according to the latest USPS data.

The Postal Service has said it is working hard to increase on-time delivery and that Mr. DeJoy has directed workers not to remove any more mail-processing machines until after the election. Mr. DeJoy didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

The Postal Service attracted unwanted attention last summer after it gave Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat, a tour of a postal facility in San Antonio. Right after his visit, a union official told local news reporters that thousands of pieces of delayed mail had been hidden and that inoperable mail-processing equipment had been gussied up to appear functional. Mr. Castro requested an investigation by the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat who sits on the House oversight committee, said she unsuccessfully sought permission to visit mail facilities in Florida in early September, before the 45-day blackout period claimed by the Postal Service in observance of the Hatch Act. She’d gotten reports that pallets of mail were piling up.

A Postal Service employee said postal police were instructed to block the tour because Ms. Schultz was supposed to take a special training course first, which wasn’t a requirement previously. Ms. Schultz’s staff said there had been some vague mention about some new requirement when she was denied access but what it was wasn’t clear.

In a written statement, Ms. Schultz said it was wrong for the agency to erect a “bogus training course and Hatch Act hurdles” and that she fears a cherished institution is being used as a “partisan cudgel.”

Rep. Jared Huffman, a California Democrat, said he tried to make a routine visit last month to a post office in Eureka, Calif., and was refused due to the Hatch Act. He said he’d had “all sorts of previous meetings and tours and it’s never been an issue.”