'I have a lot of other needs': postmaster general defends spending billions on gas trucks instead of electric

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who was widely criticized for sweeping changes he made at the U.S. Postal Service in advance of the 2020 election, is defending his management decisions while promising to expedite delivery of mail-in midterm elections ballots.

In a lengthy interview with The Washington Post, the Donald Trump appointee said he had to make "uncomfortable" changes to adapt the service to changing consumer habits. Those changes significantly slowed mail delivery, leading to allegations that DeJoy - who has donated heavily to conservative Republican political candidates - was doing Trump's bidding to try to suppress voting.

The former logistics executive says, "Despite all this stuff, I never really feel any stress about it." He emphasized that the changes he implemented were necessary to USPS from insolvency.

DeJoy was asked if he is committed to taking "extraordinary measures" to ensure that 2022 midterm ballots will be delivered promptly.

"The answer is yes," he said. "It has never been in question. We always use the extraordinary measures. We don’t need a judge to tell us, we don’t need a nonprofit to tell us. We use our best efforts to make sure every ballot that we get our hands on will get delivered. We have done it. It shows in the results. So we’ll continue to do that."

The postal executive also defended not dipping deeply into the service's approximately $24 billion of cash on hand to buy more than the 10,019 electric trucks he recently committed to purchase. "I have a lot of other needs," DeJoy said. "I got 500 plants I need to address. I have 30-year-old IT. I have to spend a couple billion dollars to get my IT relevant. I have to spend a few billion dollars, at least, to get my plants relevant."