Wednesday, October 23, 2024

The Postal Service fight that could play out in a spending deal

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By Jennifer Scholtes and Caitlin Emma

Presented by Charter Communications

With assists from POLITICO’s Congress team

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testifies.

The House spending bill that funds the U.S. Postal Service includes a new order for USPS to let lawmakers visit mail facilities. | (Tom Williams/Pool via AP)

LAWMAKERS PLEAD: OPEN THE DOOR, DEJOY 

Not all policy riders in Congress’ government funding bills are the “poison pill” mandates that snag bipartisan negotiations. This year, lawmakers in both parties are rooting for a new add-on thanks to one driving force: Mutual animosity toward Louis DeJoy.

Aghast at the work of the Trump-allied postmaster general, lawmakers from both parties want unfettered access to U.S. postal facilities, complaining their visits are routinely blocked as they fight DeJoy on issues like closing local mail-sorting centers, price hikes and delivery delays. In the runup to Election Day, that tension has risen as they protest the far-flung journey of many mail-in ballots traveling out-of-state and back again.

“He’s so cocky,” Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio) told us about DeJoy, a major fundraiser for Donald Trump before his ascent to the Postal Service role on the former president’s watch.

After Joyce took over the appropriations panel that funds USPS this year, he and other lawmakers met privately with DeJoy. “Talk about bipartisanship. Everybody was hating on that guy by the time we were through,” the Ohio Republican said before lawmakers departed for recess.

The mandate to allow lawmakers and congressional aides to visit postal facilities is now tucked in among all the dollar signs in the annual spending bill Joyce handles, thanks to an amendment Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) offered over the summer. Whether that language makes it into law could be decided over the next two months, if Congress manages to clear final spending bills ahead of the new Dec. 20 government shutdown deadline.

Wasserman Schultz, a longtime appropriator who has fought and won several battles for lawmaker access, predicts her amendment has a good shot at getting accepted in final negotiations.

“If there's anything unifying for the United States Congress, it is that the Postal Service is a maddeningly impenetrable force field,” the Florida Democrat told us.

House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) agrees: “Only the post office has brought us together in righteous outrage.” Cole also said he thinks the USPS directive has strong odds of becoming law whenever Congress wraps up funding bills for the current fiscal year.

Lawmakers in favor of the mandate say time is of the essence.

Upon the urging of those in Congress, DeJoy agreed earlier this year to pause his “Delivering for America” plan to consolidate centers that process mail. But lawmakers say they’ve heard equipment is still being moved out anyway, and the effort is supposed to start back up as soon as January.

While Senate appropriators didn’t include the same access mandate in their own version of the funding bill this year, they’re just as miffed.

The Senate’s top Republican appropriator, Maine’s Susan Collins, said she hears reports from throughout her state that residents are no longer receiving daily mail delivery. DeJoy’s consolidation plan “simply makes no sense,” she argued.

In Oregon, mail from central towns like Eugene is trucked over the Cascade Mountains to Portland and back. “This is really devastating,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.). “And I hope we can find a way to create a lot more pressure to save the postal system from DeJoy. There is no joy in DeJoy-ville at the moment.”

Lawmakers complain that USPS often stops them from visiting postal facilities even after following rules for requesting an appointment weeks in advance. Four years ago, after Wasserman Schultz said she was formally and repeatedly denied access to a mail sorting facility near Miami, she brought a media entourage and tried to enter in the middle of the night, only to be blocked by armed officers. And others describe similar experiences.

“It is an absolute hostile, adversarial thing that you're met with here,” Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) said before voting in favor of Wasserman Schultz’s amendment this year. “And if we want to come look at what their operation is, that it is our duty to be able to do that without basically begging.”

— Jennifer Scholtes 

GOOD EVENING! Welcome to Inside Congress, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Wednesday, Oct. 23, where we really miss the sweater weather that has seemingly evaporated in Washington.

 

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DEFENSE PURSESTRINGS POWER SHIFT

The lawmakers who oversee the nation’s military budget are locked into highly competitive races this election cycle, the outcomes of which could lead to a major shakeup on the House and Senate Appropriations panels.

In Montana, Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who oversees the defense spending subcommittee, has fallen behind his opponent in recent polls — a major problem not just for his reelection, but for Democrats’ prospects of holding the Senate. Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) wields the defense funding gavel in the House, and the Cook Political Report has labeled his race a toss-up.

Calvert has indicated that he wants to keep the top defense spot, provided he wins reelection. But his loss would open up a coveted spot on the Appropriations panel that could potentially fall to several interested Republicans. One possible option is Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), who leads the Transportation-HUD subcommittee. After initially leading the Financial Services subpanel, Womack took on the THUD gavel earlier this year after that position was vacated by Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), who now leads the full committee. Second in seniority on the defense subcommittee to Womack is 86-year-old Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), the former chair of the full committee and current dean of the House.

Tester’s potential successor is less clear, and approps watchers stress that Democrats are focused on getting the Montana senator reelected, rather than gunning for his defense gavel. On the Republican side, it’s worth noting that some appropriators have speculated Sen. Mitch McConnell, a longtime appropriator who serves on half a dozen subcommittees, could take on a more formalized role when it comes to defense and national security spending after he steps down from Senate leadership in the coming weeks.

Defense spending is already one of McConnell’s top priorities and a frequent topic of his floor speeches. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) currently holds the top Republican spot on the defense funding panel and the full committee. But if the Senate flips Republican, Collins is expected to become chair of the full committee. And it’s possible that a broader reshuffling could land McConnell a top subcommittee spot, like defense.

Caitlin Emma

 

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RASKIN: LOOK INTO MUSK’S $1 MILLION GIVEAWAYS

House Oversight Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) is the latest lawmaker to demand an investigation into Elon Musk’s pledge to give $1 million away every day to registered voters in swing states.

“I think that Elon Musk has crossed the line here, and I hope that people will begin to blow the whistle on that and that people in law enforcement will check it out,” Raskin told SiriusXM’s “The Dean Obeidallah Show .” “That is fundamentally inconsistent with the laws against vote buying.”

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz said of the giveaways on Tuesday “that’s what you do when you have no plan for the public.” Other Democrats, most notably Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), have urged against giving Musk any more oxygen and focusing instead on getting Harris across the finish line in swing states — though Fetterman cautioned that the world’s richest man “could resonate with a demographic in Pennsylvania.”

The first two winners of Musk’s giveaway, by the way? They’re Pennsylvanian Republicans who had already voted.

— Anthony Adragna

HUDDLE HOTDISH

Big news for Washington Mystics fans.

Former Rep. George Santos weighs on his mental health this election.

Cool sighting in the skies over Alexandria.

Get a golf cart ride, courtesy of Rep. Maxwell Frost.

Five years since the “impeachment angel” tweet.

Rep. Mary Peltola has facial hair puns after some campaign sign vandalism.

QUICK LINKS 

Trump’s transition chief under fire for ‘totally sketchy’ conflicts of interest, by Rachael Bade and Jasper Goodman

GOP conservatives want Trump to play role in picking McConnell successor, from Alexander Bolton at The Hill

McConnell speaks on legacy, election during Bowling Green visit, from Jack Dobbs in the Bowling Green Daily News

A wave of crypto-friendly lawmakers is about to crash Congress, by Jasper

KSHB 41 reporter injured at Lucas Kunce campaign event, from KSHB 41 News Staff

House Democrat says Trump campaign has ‘refused to commit to a smooth transition’ by not working with administration, from Rebecca Shabad at NBC News

Between Eric Adams and the congressional delegation, an uneasy peace, from Jeff Coltin

 

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TRANSITIONS 

Josh Altman is now acting deputy assistant Defense secretary for Senate affairs, our colleagues at Morning Defense report. He was most recently team chief for policy at the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s legislative affairs shop.

Alex Davidson, a former Defense Department special assistant, is acting team chief for policy at the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s legislative affairs shop.

Jay Bhargava is now comms director for House Budget Committee Democrats under Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.). He is a Gary Peters, Tom Suozzi and Clinton Foundation alum.

TOMORROW IN CONGRESS

The House and Senate are out.

THURSDAY AROUND THE HILL

Nada.

Trivia

TUESDAY’S ANSWER: Ross Kapilian was the first to correctly answer that Robert Moses wanted the Dodgers to move to Flushing Meadows.

TODAY’S QUESTION, from Ross: Who moderated the first televised debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960?

The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Inside Congress. Send your answers to insidecongress@politico.com.

GET INSIDE CONGRESS emailed to your phone each evening.

 

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