Huffman Visits Eureka, CA Post Office to Investigate Sabotage by Trump Admin Ahead of Elections

August 18, 2020

San Rafael, CA – Today, Representative Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) visited the Eureka, CA Post Office to meet with postal workers and investigate impacts of recent operational changes by the Trump administration and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. The Postal Service itself has warned that voters, even if they send in their ballots by state deadlines, may be disenfranchised in 46 states and in Washington, D.C. by the Postmaster General’s manufactured delays.

“The Postal Service is a pillar of our democracy, enshrined in the Constitution and essential for providing critical services: delivering prescriptions, Social Security benefits, paychecks, tax returns and absentee ballots to millions of Americans, including in rural communities like many in my district that are often underserved by commercial carriers,” said Rep. Huffman. “The President and Postmaster General are making sweeping operational changes to degrade postal service, delay the mail, hurt local businesses, and call our election into question. This brazen political attack on the Postal Service is an attack on our democracy and our economy. Congress must act now to save the USPS.”

postal workers union

Rep. Huffman meets with Mike Hetticher, President of the Local American Postal Workers Union, outside the Eureka, CA Post Office

Rep. Huffman and Congressional Democrats are taking swift action to address the sabotage of the Postal Service, which threatens lives, livelihoods, and the health of our democracy:

  • Later this week, the House will return to session to vote on Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Maloney’s ‘Delivering for America Act,’ which prohibits the Postal Service from implementing any changes to operations or level of service it had in place on January 1, 2020.
  • On Sunday, Chairwoman Maloney and the Committee on Oversight and Reform requested that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and Chairman of the USPS Board of Governors Robert Duncan testify at an urgent hearing before the Committee on August 24. The Postmaster General and top Postal Service leadership must answer to the Congress and the American people as to why they are pushing these dangerous new policies that threaten to silence the voices of millions, just months before the election.  Senate Democrats are similarly calling on Republicans to hold a hearing with the Postmaster General.
  • Democrats have written to the Postmaster General multiple times to demand answers: including in a detailed, ten-page letter giving the Postmaster General a one-week deadline to produce a host of key documents and information relating to these matters and a letter signed by Huffman and over 190 House Democrats calling for a reversal of policies that have worsened the crisis facing the Postal Service and exacerbated a dramatic increase in delayed and undelivered mail.

Throughout Representative Huffman’s time in Congress, he has fought to uphold the integrity of the postal service and ensure that the agency can continue to provide regular deliveries at high standards to rural areas. In 2016 and 2018, he introduced the Stop Postal Closures Act, bipartisan legislation to end the misguided closure and consolidations of mail processing facilities across the country. Rep. Huffman led the charge against proposed closures of the North Bay Processing and Distribution Center in Petaluma and the Eureka Customer Service Mail Processing Center, warning of a disruption of mail delivery, job loss, and damage to local economies. Rep. Huffman also helped lead the recent effort in the House to modernize postal infrastructure, including $6 billion specifically for the purchase of next generation USPS delivery vehicles. 

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