AG Ferguson sues Trump administration over USPS service cuts

Washington and a coalition, totaling 14 states, filed a federal lawsuit challenging cutbacks President Donald Trump’s administration is making to the U.S. Postal Service.

The postmaster general suspended those changes today, but Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Gov. Jay Inslee are continuing the fight.

Washington's lawsuit comes after the postmaster general ordered changes that could slow the delivery of the mail — then sent letters to the states, warning that mail-in ballots might be delayed.

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“It’s kind of upsetting to see these high service standards we hold ourselves to — we’re just not able to follow that if we’re following these new rules,” said  Vice President  David Yao, Seattle Postal Workers Union.

The lawsuit charges that sorting machines have been removed or outgoing mail processing stopped in Wenatchee, Yakima, Tacoma and Seattle.

And while the mail-in election is a prime concern, Ferguson has also been hearing from veterans who get their medicines by mail.

“How scared they are that they are seeing their meds coming to them later and later and later, and they depend on those meds for their health.,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson is leading a 13 -state, cross-country coalition that is suing Trump and his hand-picked postmaster general to stop the changes.

Ferguson said the administration didn't follow the extensive process laid out in federal law before making the Postal Service cuts.

“What this administration’s going to need to do from our perspective is get back to square one,” he said.

Today, Postmaster Louis DeJoy announced he was suspending the changes just 15 minutes after Ferguson announced the lawsuit.

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“The fact that within 15 minutes of being on a phone call to announce this lawsuit, the post master general says, ‘You know what? We’re going to back down.’ I think is an indication that we’ve already had some success.”

The lawsuit points out Trump's hostility to routine mail-in voting.

“If we don’t make a deal, that means they can’t get the money. That means they can’t have universal mail -in voting,” Trump said last week.

Inslee responded, “Donald Trump has said he’s going to rob the bank of Democracy by slowing down the mailing process so that we cannot have universal mail elections and voting in this country.”

Cox Media Group