August 24, 2020

Katie Porter Reveals Just How Little Louis DeJoy Knows About the Mail

Tom Williams/CNP/Zuma

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About five hours into Louis DeJoy’s congressional testimony Monday, Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) lobbed the postmaster general a softball.

“What is the cost of a first-class postage stamp?” she asked.

“Fifty-five cents,” DeJoy said.

Then things got tricky. “What about to mail a postcard?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” DeJoy said.

Porter took the line of questioning one step further, asking DeJoy the cost of mailing a greeting card in a square envelope. DeJoy, grinning, said, “I’ll submit that I know very little about a postage stamp.”

DeJoy, a Republican Party megadonor, has served as the chief executive officer of the United States Postal Service for 70 days after a career in the private sector. His predecessor, Megan Brennan, worked for the USPS for about 28 years before she was appointed postmaster general, having started her career as a mail carrier in 1986. Her predecessor, Patrick R. Donahoe, worked for the Postal Service for 35 years.

Porter further revealed that DeJoy did not know how many people had voted by mail in the last presidential election. “I’m concerned about your understanding of this agency,” she said, “and I’m particularly concerned about it because you started taking very decisive action when you became postmaster general. You started directing the unplugging and destroying of machines, changing of employee procedures, and locking of collection boxes.”

In response to Porter’s questioning, DeJoy insisted that he was not responsible for the major operational changes Porter mentioned—changes that have apparently led to major mail delays. “If you did not order these actions to be taken, please tell the committee the name of who did,” Porter said.

DeJoy’s response? “I do not know.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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