Shoring up postal service: Voting 257-150, the House on Saturday passed a bill (HR 8015) that would prohibit the U.S. Postal Service from reducing service below levels in effect at the start of the year and require it to treat official election envelopes as first-class mail in this fall’s balloting. In addition, the bill would provide $25 billion requested by the postal service for coping with the coronavirus outbreak in the budget year starting Oct. 1. Until the pandemic has run its course, the bill would prohibit the USPS from delaying deliveries or increasing the backlog of undelivered mail; closing or consolidating any post office or reducing its business hours; denying overtime pay to USPS employees, or watering down measurements of whether service standards are being achieved.
A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.
Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd: Yes
Andy Kim, D-3rd: Yes
Criminalizing postal worker interference: Voting 182-223, the House on Saturday defeated a Republican motion to HR 8015 (above) stipulating it is a federal crime for any postal worker to tamper with election mail. The measure also sought to allocate funding in the bill to prioritize the delivery of prescription drugs, equipping mail personnel with protective gear and processing election ballots. A yes vote was to adopt the motion.
Van Drew: Yes
Kim: No
Source: Richard Thomas, Voterama in Congress
