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Tong takes action on USPS reform efforts

During a Facebook conversation between state Rep. Maria Horn (D-64) and Connecticut Attorney General William Tong on Wednesday, Aug. 26, Tong said the Trump administration’s recent actions concerning the United States Postal Service (USPS) could be viewed as a constitutional crisis.

The administration, in the person of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, has been implementing a series of reforms it says are designed to increase the efficiency of the USPS.

There has been substantial pushback, not least from some 20 state attorneys general, including Tong, who have filed multiple lawsuits against the administration.

The USPS, Tong said, is not a business but a service.

And it is mandated by the Constitution.

Tong said the USPS “literally holds this country together.” He said that it’s not just about mail-in or absentee ballots, but about medications, school information and commerce.

When a president “uses the power of his office to undermine another federal function, what do you do about that?” he asked.

Tong said the Constitution is “one gigantic honor system.”  He described Congress and Washington, D.C., in general as “broken” by partisanship.

And in such a climate, “these fights devolve to the states.”

That’s why he and other states’ attorneys general filed suit against President Donald Trump, DeJoy and the USPS itself, to “undo the damage done” and to ensure the USPS will be ready for what is expected to be a unusually large number of absentee and mail-in ballots in the Nov. 3 general election.

Patrick L. Sullivan
Senior Reporter
Patrick Sullivan has been a reporter for The Lakeville Journal since 2004, covering everything from town meetings to local characters and the outdoors. He grew up in Northern Virginia but spent summers on Mount Riga in Salisbury, giving him a lifelong connection to the Northwest Corner. A graduate of Denison University, Patrick is also the author of Tangled Lines, the newspapers’ popular fly-fishing column—making The Lakeville Journal, as far as anyone knows, the only newspaper in Connecticut with a regular fly-fishing columnist. He once received a fan letter from England, which he considers sufficient evidence that his work has achieved international acclaim.

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