- VOX
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the chamber would return from its annual August recess early to address President Trump’s attacks on the US Postal Service, which threaten the country’s ability to conduct an election largely by mail. [Axios]
- A bill to protect the agency, stymie further policy changes, and provide an infusion of emergency funding could come to a vote in the House by this weekend, though the Senate remains in recess. [AP / Lisa Mascaro and Matthew Daly]
- And Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, [above] a Trump donor, is set to testify before the House Oversight Committee next Monday about a recent slew of changes he has pushed at the agency. [Politico / Daniel Lippman]
- DeJoy has a strong incentive to appear: Over the weekend, Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper tweeted that the House “need[s] to subpoena the Postmaster General, and if he fails to appear, we should send the Sgt at Arms to arrest him.” [Twitter / Cameron Joseph]
- Alarm over the plight of the Postal Service rose sharply late last week when the Washington Post reported that the agency had warned 46 states that voters could be disenfranchised by chronic, widespread mail delays. [Washington Post / Erin Cox, Elise Viebeck, Jacob Bogage, and Christopher Ingraham]
- Trump has been clear about why he opposes USPS funding. Last week, he told reporters that Democrats “need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” which, yes, is how mail-in voting works — Trump just seemingly doesn’t want it to happen. [Vox / Aaron Rupar]