Warren Calls on McConnell to Reconvene Senate to Address USPS Troubles

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to reconvene the Senate to address problems with the United States Postal Service (USPS) amid reports that the Trump administration is interfering with the postal service to impact November’s general election.

“Good for [Speaker] Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for bringing the House back. I believe Mitch McConnell needs to bring the Senate back as well,” Warren told NBC News’s “TODAY” show. “People depend on the post office. We’re depending on it for our democracy.”  

Yesterday, Pelosi called the House back in session to work on a proposal to block the Trump administration’s attempts to undermine the postal service.

“Alarmingly, across the nation, we see the devastating effects of the President’s campaign to sabotage the election by manipulating the Postal Service to disenfranchise voters,” Pelosi said in a letter to fellow House Democrats yesterday. “That is why I am calling upon the House to return to session later this week to vote on Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman [Carolyn] 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.”

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McConnell has faced heavy criticism since he allowed the Senate to take its recess on Friday without working out a deal on coronavirus relief, let alone one that would have included significant USPS funding.  The August recess is expected to last until September 8.

Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) agrees the Senate should return to address these issues.

“The Senate should return this week to consider a COVID-19 package that includes the Postal Service Emergency Assistance Act—a bill I introduced w/@SenFeinstein in July—which would provide USPS w/ up to $25 billion to cover losses or operational expenses resulting from COVID-19,” she wrote on Twitter.

Alan Herrera

Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.