The US House of Representatives on Saturday passed a text providing for $ 25 billion in aid to the US Post Office (USPS) and an end to controversial operational reforms that Democrats say threaten the postal vote for the November presidential election.
The text, validated with 257 votes for, mainly Democrats, and 150 against, has little chance of being adopted in the Senate, controlled by the Republicans. According to their leader Mitch McConnell, this is a “partisan coup”.
President Donald Trump has been denouncing the widespread use of postal voting for weeks, crying out the risk of fraud in the November 3 ballot. But his opponents accuse him of actually wanting to prevent a voting method that could be favorable to his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.
Postal boss Louis DeJoy, a close friend of Donald Trump and a major donor to his presidential campaign, on Friday refuted the sabotage accusations. Such accusations are “scandalous,” he told the Senate internal security committee.
Since his arrival in the spring, Mr. DeJoy has been carrying out reforms intended to redress the financial trajectory of the heavily loss-making public service, which had the effect of slowing down mail, according to a union official at AFP.
However, postal voting must be widely used for the presidential election in order to reduce the risks associated with the COVID-19 epidemic, which is hitting the United States very hard.
Mr DeJoy announced on Friday the suspension of reforms accused by Democrats of deliberately slowing down mail delivery and collection, but that did not deter Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from calling on elected officials to shorten their August break to return to vote for emergency aid to the USPS.
“Congress must act to ensure that our postal service can continue to do its job for America throughout the pandemic,” said House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer.
“This is not a partisan bill,” he said. “This is a bill for American democracy.”
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