Hill Votes Against House Democrats' Postal Service Political Stunt

Statement

Today, Rep. French Hill released the following video after voting against H.R. 8015-- Delivering for America Act. Click HERE, or on the image below, to watch Rep. Hill's message about the need for mail to be delivered on time and for all ballots to be counted.

A transcript of Rep. Hill's message is copied below:

It is vital for the American people to have high confidence that their mail will be delivered in a timely manner, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. After hearing concerns from constituents, I sent a letter to Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, sharing those concerns about timely deliveries. Receiving mail within an advertised time frame is essential for Arkansas families who rely on important medications, or for small businesses whose customers expect a package by a certain date. Further, in my letter, I stressed how the post office plays an important role within our political system, particularly now when so many Americans are requesting absentee ballots and voting by mail.

This past Friday the postmaster testified before Congress, assuring that he had ample financial resources and would treat absentee ballots as first class mail and that he was fully committed to halting any of the long-standing structural changes being made to the post office until after the election. You should know that these long-standing structural changes are as a result of the post office losing nearly $80 billion over the past decade. In fact, it was the Obama administration that began the significant restructuring of the post office as overall mail volume has decreased by 33% since 2006.

During President Obama's term, the post office removed some 12,000 mailboxes without any uproar from Democrats. These machines and mailboxes had been taken out of service because it's cost-effective to do so. Why should taxpayers fund unnecessary equipment?

So, today, in the House of Representatives we find ourselves with the postmaster fully committed to fast and accurate mail delivery during this election and assurances that he has ample financial resources to accomplish that task. In fact, just in March, Congress gave the Postal Service the ability to borrow $10 billion from the Treasury in case the postmaster needed funding during the COVID crisis. Today, there's been zero borrowing on that $10 billion line of credit and the post office has $14 billion in liquidity.

Speaker Pelosi has very publicly stated that the House would not come back to Washington unless we were successful in voting on a comprehensive bill addressing the true needs of the American people -- like extending the Paycheck Protection Program, restoring unemployment compensation and create incentives to work, further assistance for state and local governments and our educators. Instead, she's contradicted her own tough rhetoric bringing Congress back to vote on an unnecessary $25 billion funding bill for the post office that doesn't include a single reform. She should be ashamed of her personal, misleading attacks on Postmaster DeJoy. The postmaster is not appointed by President Trump, but instead was unanimously selected by the Postal Service's Board of Governors. The Postal Service is not remotely subverting democracy.

Whether you are voting in person in accordance with CDC guidelines, or you'd like to vote by mail, we all agree the American people must feel confident that their vote counts and that their ballots be fairly delivered and collected by the Postal Service. Speaker Pelosi is peddling fiction and alarmism.

Here's the reality in Arkansas. You will have the opportunity to request an absentee ballot to vote. You can vote early in one of our generous 13 days of early voting. Or you can wait until Election Day. Our county clerks and our Secretary of State, John Thurston, are working overtime for a healthy, safe, election process. Congress and the states have invested millions of dollars in new equipment and in monitoring our elections to keep them fair and free from interference.

In short, Arkansas is taking an "all of the above" approach to this year's election to ensure that all votes are counted and the election system remains a hallmark for democracy and freedom around the world.

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