A House panel issued a subpoena Wednesday to try to force Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to turn over documents Democrats demanded last month at a hearing on mail delivery problems.
Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney gave DeJoy a Sept. 16 deadline to comply with the subpoena, which seeks information about the removal of mail sorting machines, mailboxes, and other “policies and practices” that may be slowing mail delivery.
“I said it and I meant it, PMG DeJoy, congratulations on your new subpoena,” Maloney, a New York Democrat, tweeted Wednesday.
Maloney first threatened a subpoena Monday, after accusing DeJoy of withholding documents that Democrats asked for during an Aug. 24 House hearing.
“He has not produced a single additional document since the House and Senate hearings were held despite multiple conversations between Committee staff and Mr. DeJoy’s office over the past week,” Maloney said.
A spokesman for the United States Postal Service told the Washington Examiner in a statement that DeJoy had planned on complying as legally required.
“We remain surprised and confused by Chairwoman Maloney’s insistence on issuing a subpoena to the Postal Service in the midst of ongoing dialogue with her staff on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform to produce information in an orderly fashion,” a USPS spokesman said in a statement. “We fully intend to comply with our obligations under the law.”
DeJoy told a House Oversight panel last month that the mail delays following new efficiency reforms will be resolved quickly.
He denied accusations from Democrats who accused him of working with President Trump to thwart the Nov. 3 election by slowing mail-in balloting and said the changes to the sorting machines and mailboxes were planned long before he arrived on the job on June 16.
“Transitions don’t always go smoothly. We should have cleared it up quicker,” DeJoy, a Trump appointee and prominent GOP donor, told the House Oversight and Reform Committee. “We have the focus on it now, and it should recover quite rapidly going forward.”
