Democrats have accused President Trump of sabotaging the election by threatening to block funding for the U.S. Postal Service.
Liberals, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, allege that Trump seeks to block the money to stop efforts to expand mail-in voting, which they say is a necessity given the coronavirus pandemic.
“The president says that he is not putting up any money for absentee voting and he’s not putting up any money for the post office, undermining the health of our democracy,” Pelosi told reporters, adding, “at a time of the pandemic, you would think that [Republicans] would have a little sensitivity.”
Pelosi has called for a new relief package that would include more funding for the Postal Service to handle mail-in voting.
The impetus behind its inclusion is that the pandemic could prompt multitudes of people seeking to avoid infection to cast ballots via mail instead of showing up at the ballot box in November.
The expected numbers are so high that the Postal Service informed 46 states and Washington last month that it expects an avalanche of mail-in ballots and warned that because of cost-cutting changes, it could not guarantee that all votes would be counted in time for the election.
Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer issued a joint statement on Friday calling on Trump to include funding for the Postal Service and mail-in voting in a relief bill.
“House and Senate Democrats call on the President to immediately cease his assault on the Postal Service, make clear that he will allow the 2020 election to proceed without his sabotage tactics,” the lawmakers stated.
Trump suggested on Thursday that the disagreement over funding was to hold back a deal on the relief package.
“If we don’t make a deal, that means [the Postal Service] don’t get the money. That means they can’t have universal mail-in voting,” the president said in an appearance on Fox Business.
Trump backtracked from that statement later on Thursday, telling reporters that he would sign a relief package that funds the Postal Service.
“I would do it,” he said, adding that the agency needs the money to keep track of the ballots.
“One of the reasons the post office needs that much money is they have all of these millions of ballots coming in from nowhere, and nobody knows from where and where they’re going,” Trump said.
He added that threatening to block funding gives him leverage over Democrats when negotiating the relief plan because they might compromise on other issues to ensure funding for the Postal Service.
“They have the post office as one of their requests. It’s their request,” he said, adding, “What has happened is that’s part of a big negotiation.”
Trump told reporters on Friday that if Democrats agreed to $3,400 stimulus payments for families, additional money for the Paycheck Protection Program loans to small businesses, rental assistance to those facing eviction, and sending $105 billion to states to reopen schools, as well as an unspecified amount to state and local governments, he would agree to fund the Postal Service.
“I would certainly do that, sure,” he told reporters.
House Democrats in May approved relief legislation, the HEROES Act, that would provide $25 billion to the Postal Service and ensure every voter in the country access to mail-in voting. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has rejected the bill, and the chamber will not vote on it.
McConnell last month released the HEALS Act, the Republican relief bill, which would not provide funding for the Postal Service or mail-in voting.
Without aid from the federal government, the Postal Service faces a tsunami of red ink, according to a Government Accountability Office report issued in May.
“USPS’s overall financial condition is deteriorating and unsustainable. USPS has lost $69 billion over the past 11 fiscal years. … USPS’s total unfunded liabilities and debt … have grown to double its annual revenue,” the GAO report stated.
