Postmaster General Faces Intense Scrutiny Amid Allegations Of Political Motives

Louis DeJoy, depending on who you talk to, is either a Republican political operative beholden to President Trump, or a savvy businessman who's the right person to fix what's broken at the U.S. Postal Service. When Senators question him this week, they will want to know which narrative is closer to the truth — and whether he is suited to head the service at this time.

A longtime Republican mega-donor, DeJoy's background is in the logistics and shipping sector. A government contract years ago with the Postal Service helped him launch his business. Now he leads that same agency and finds himself at the center of a fight over whether the ballots of voters will be delivered and counted fairly in this year's presidential election.

Since he started in the job June 15, DeJoy launched a series of organizational shake-ups that have attracted bipartisan criticism that the changes would delay mail delivery just as more Americans are expected to vote by mail. Earlier this month, he announced an "organizational realignment" at the agency, which lost $9 billion last year. These changes included a reduction in employee overtime hours and the elimination of postal sorting machines.

Then, President Trump weighed in. He said that he opposes additional funding for the Postal Service because he wants to make it harder to expand voting by mail — ostensibly to prevent voter fraud, for which there is no evidence.

Amid the furor that followed, DeJoy pledged to put changes on hold until after the election.

"To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded," DeJoy said in a statement.

Ronald Stroman, a former NPR's that, regardless of DeJoy's motivations, "The question is, what is the effect of what he is doing? And if the effect is to slow the mail, to potentially disenfranchise people, voters across the country, then I think we are all right to say these are initiatives that should certainly be halted."