Two AP feeds carried by Strib, here and more recently, here. The latter item states in part:
The Democratic-run House on Sunday demanded that leaders of the U.S. Postal Service testify at an emergency oversight hearing Aug. 24 on mail delays as concerns grow that the Trump White House is trying to undermine the agency during the coronavirus pandemic while states expand mail-in voting options for the November presidential election.
The House Oversight and Reform Committee said it wants to hear from new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and from the chair of the Postal Service board of governors, Robert "Mike" Duncan. [...]
The agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment about whether the two men would appear before the House committee. [...]The announcement comes as pressure increases on DeJoy, a major Republican donor and ally of the president who took control of the agency in June. DeJoy has pledged to modernize the money-losing agency to make it more efficient, and has eliminated most overtime for postal workers, imposed restrictions on transportation and reduced of the quantity and use of mail-processing equipment.
"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," congressional Democrats said in a statement announcing the hearing.
On Saturday, Trump [...] said he was refusing to capitulate to Democrats on other parts of the relief package, including funding for states weighed down by debt accumulated before the pandemic.
But the president's critics were not appeased, contending that Trump has made the calculation that a lower voter turnout would improve his chances of winning a second term.
"What you are witnessing is a president of the United States who is doing everything he can to suppress the vote, make it harder for people to engage in mail-in balloting at a time when people will be putting their lives on the line by having to go out to a polling station and vote," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
[italics added]. Bernie is skilled at not mincing words. Tying up the needed money is a heap of trash, from Trump. Bernie says so without hesitation or euphemism. Trump's stunt is a universally recognized act of desperation by a total desperado.
Trump will cheat US any way he can, via vile tax breaks for the rich, (himself and children included), and by messing with our mail.
Trump has no conscience that way. He is sociopathologically inclined. A nasty tempered SOB being the other way to say it. Derailed. Hateful.
UPDATE: To know the two requested "public servant" witnesses is to love them, in Trumpland. A DuckDuckGo websearch yields:
Mike DuncanRobert Michael Duncan is a Kentucky Republican who served as the chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2007 to 2009. Throughout his career, he has served on the boards of a variety of public- and private-sector organizations. Duncan is Chairman, President, and CEO of Inez Deposit Bank located in Inez, KY. He is currently serving as the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the US Postal Service.Wikipedia
Sirota reports of that Kentucky operative, as well as a mention of DeJoy, the other perp:
In 2018 federal disclosure filings during his confirmation, Duncan listed himself as the current chairman of the Senate Leadership Fund -- a $100 million Senate-focused Republican super PAC whose 2020 electoral goals could hinge on vote-by-mail systems during the coronavirus pandemic. Duncan was listed as a director of the Senate Leadership Fund in an annual report the super PAC filed in Virginia in August 2019. CNN reported in January 2020 that the Republican effort to retain the Senate includes “McConnell's super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, which is helmed by Mike Duncan, the former RNC chairman and a Kentuckian.”
“Outside of government service, he served as Chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2007 to 2009,” Duncan’s official USPS biography notes. “As RNC Chairman, he raised an unprecedented $428 million and grew the donor base to 1.8 million -- more donors than at any time in RNC history.”
The biography also says “Duncan was also President and CEO of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity,” which represents the coal industry that Trump has sought to bolster. [...]
Duncan’s Board Appointed A Trump Donor To Serve As Postmaster General
Duncan recently announced that the board of governors that he leads had appointed Trump donor Louis DeJoy as the new postmaster general.
The USPS website says the board “directs the exercise of the powers of the Postal Service, directs and controls its expenditures, reviews its practices, conducts long-range planning, approves officer compensation and sets policies on all postal matters.”
During his 2018 confirmation, Duncan issued a statement declaring: “I consider the Postal Service a public trust as every American citizen enjoys universal service. Referenced in the Constitution, the organization has served to bind America together for over two hundred years. The Postal Service is in daily contact with virtually every business and citizen. The local postal employees are the primary contact of most Americans with the federal government.”
Fedex, UPS Cash & A Promise To Recuse Because of Amazon Holdings
Duncan has myriad links to companies with a direct interest in the postal service policy he oversees.
For instance, Duncan’s 2018 Senate disclosure documents said he was currently on the executive committee of the Republican Party of Kentucky and serves as chairman of the party’s Budget Committee, since 1992 and 1996, respectively.
Package delivery company United Parcel Service’s political action committee contributed $53,000 to McConnell and the Republican Party of Kentucky since 2003. FedEx Chairman Fred Smith and his wife have contributed $56,000 to McConnell and the state Republican Party, including $30,000 since Duncan’s confirmation in late 2019.
In his statement to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Duncan wrote that he had been “advised that it is the Postal Service's position that an appearance of impropriety may be created by my holding any financial interests in its competitors,” including Amazon. As a result, Duncan pledged to divest his Amazon holdings, which he said he had acquired through a “profit sharing plan.”
Heartwarming, the Amazon stock being sold. It inspires such trust. What else can be said? Mitch McConnell's fingerprints all over this coal-loving gentleman, but nothing to see there? Just a blue-grass loving son of Kentucky, probably a Derby fan, who says he takes the Post Office seriously during a pandemic with great risk attached to in-person voting at crowded polling places. Trumpland uber alles seems at play. Stacking the deck, with dreck?