House approves extra Postal Service funding

Democratic lawmakers want to give the U.S. Postal Service a $25 billion bonus to help it manage mail-in voting in the upcoming U.S. general election. But Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, President Donald Trump, and many Republicans in Congress say the agency could manage without the extra cash. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called lawmakers back from their August recess to debate and vote on the bill, which passed Saturday by a vote of 257-150. Twenty-six Republicans voted for it.

What happens next? The GOP-led Senate likely will not consider the bill, and Trump has said he would veto it. “This is all another HOAX by the Democrats,” Trump tweeted on Saturday. The legislation also would prevent DeJoy from making substantive changes to the mail system—which he already promised not to do until after the election. At a Senate committee hearing on Friday, DeJoy said the Postal Service was “fully capable and committed to delivering the nation’s election mail securely and on time.”

Dig deeper: Read Kyle Ziemnick’s report in The Stew about why the election has intensified debates over the Postal Service.