Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL), a U.S. Army veteran of the Iraq war, criticized comparisons between U.S. Postal Workers and military service members during a Monday hearing with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.
Steube raised the complaint at the start of his speaking time during a hearing Monday in the Democrat-controlled House Committee on Oversight and Reform. Steube said, “First of all, as a veteran who served in Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, to compare our postal workers to our service members in Iraq or Afghanistan, quite frankly to me is offensive.”
The Republican Steube offered his remarks after a Democratic congressman made comparisons between men and women in uniform and the postal service workers. Steube’s remarks came amid hearings over allegations President Donald Trump’s administration is seeking to slow the U.S. Postal Service ahead of the November election.
“Last time I checked the postal service drivers weren’t getting their vehicles blown up by IED’s or shot at as they drove around and delivered mail,” Steube continued. “So to try to compare our military service members who sacrificed on the battlefields across this world to our postal service members is frankly offensive as a person who served.”
Steube’s comments came after Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) praised the Postal Service’s work during major historic incidents such as the Civil War and the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and said “but for the good of the country, the postal unions continue to send their members into the post office to do their job to keep the country running.”
Lynch went on to note the House Oversight Committee investigates issues, “especially when it involves our sons and daughters in uniform. In this moment, it is our postal workers who happen to be our men and women in uniform. They are on the front lines of this pandemic. Throughout this pandemic, they’ve risked their own health and safety to deliver or try to deliver mail, medicines, and mail-in ballots to every American home and business, six days a week.”
During the hearing, DeJoy was questioned about changes to the Postal Service, which had prompted allegations of deliberate sabotage to the mail system. DeJoy took office in June as the new Postmaster General. Following an initial controversy about the removal of the Postal Services decision to remove some mail sorting machines, DeJoy said last week that he would pause the removals, which he said were part of a Postal Service modernization plan, until after the November presidential election.
Despite his decision to pause the Postal Service changes, DeJoy has testified before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Friday and was called again to testify before the House committee on Monday.
