Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s announcement that he is suspending changes to the postal system until after the November election was met with skepticism by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro.

The announcement Tuesday afternoon came as Shapiro and Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson were announcing a pair of multi-state federal lawsuits designed to halt changes they charged would have a negative impact on everything from mail-in voting to medications sent monthly to millions of veterans.

Shapiro and Ferguson said they have no intention of backing down based DeJoy’s statement.

“A Tweet or a statement or a press release is one thing, but we need to see binding action to reverse these changes,” Shapiro said.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy reversed course, saying that all changes being made to the Postal Service would be suspended until after the election. But Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro says he wants “to see something binding from the postmaster general.” pic.twitter.com/9xIZspiGNJ

— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) August 18, 2020

DeJoy, a major Republican campaign contributor and political ally of President Donald Trump, was appointed to head the Post Office this summer. He has come under fire for changes critics claim were politically motivated to slow the mail and raise questions about mail-in balloting.

Shapiro said the changes — included closing mail processing centers — were illegal because DeJoy did not go through required procedures, including soliciting input from experts and stakeholders, issuing public notice and holding public hearings.

Shapiro, a Democrat, has been a leader in a coalition of states’ attorneys general who have taken on the Trump administration on dozens of issues. He said sometimes just the act of filing suit has been sufficient to prompt the administration to rollback changes.

Noting that some changes were underway when he took office, DeJoy vowed to maintain service levels, provide enhancements beginning in October and suspend all changes until after the election.

“To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded,” DeJoy said in a statement released by the Postal Service. “The United States Postal Service will play a critical role this year in delivering election mail for millions of voters across the country.”

Trump’s frequent attacks on the postal system and his suggestion last week that he would starve it of funds to handle a surge in mail-in balloting this fall served to heighten the controversy that has been brewing for weeks.

It has prompted an outcry of support for the post office rarely seen in other times.

DeJoy, who is scheduled to testify Friday before Congress, is expected to face harsh scrutiny.

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, said he’s anxious to question DeJoy. He characterized meddling with the post office to influence an election as the height of corruption.

Casey joined Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday to decry changes in the postal service. He said his office received 15,000 letters “over a period of a couple of days” this summer about problems with slow mail, including prescription drugs and bill payments. And he’s concerned about providing adequate support for mail-in balloting in the midst of the pandemic.

Chuck Pugar, president of the Pittsburgh Metro Area Postal Workers Union, which represents some 2,000 postal workers across the region, said his members worry about the viability of the post office.

“They want to maintain that level of trust and reliability they‘ve been providing,” Pugar said. “… After 20 years of being in the cross hairs and now struggling to make it under the burdens of the Postal Enhancement Act and the covid hits and now all these rumors about the new Postmaster General and the president saying the Post Office is a joke and poorly run, it’s rough.”

“The general consensus is there is plenty of public support, but how far will that carry us?” he continued. “Will that get Congress to give us the $25 billion we need? Is that going to stop the new postmaster from gutting customer service?”

Casey vowed to continue scrutiny of the the post office.

“This is going to require continue vigilance because President Trump right now is like a person in political quicksand and he keeps reaching out for any kind of branch he can grasp,” he said.

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