A United States Postal Service (USPS) worker wearing a mask delivers mails during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York, the United States, April 13, 2020. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)

"I came to the Postal Service to make changes to secure the success of this organization and its long-term sustainability. I believe significant reforms are essential to that objective, and work toward those reforms will commence after the election," says Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18  -- The chief of U.S. Postal Service (USPS) said Tuesday his agency will suspend until after the election a series of cost-cutting reforms that raised concerns from critics about delays in mail delivery and possible disenfranchisement for voters.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has recently been under heightened scrutiny, including calls for testimony from both the House and the Senate, after he launched sweeping organizational changes to cope with the dire financial situation facing the USPS, with measures ranging from a ban on extra trips by postal workers for on-time delivery to crackdowns on overtime pay and shakeup in agency leadership.

"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 press release. "The Postal Service is ready today to handle whatever volume of election mail it receives this fall."

DeJoy also said that the USPS will expand its task force on election mail, and that effective Oct. 1, the agency "will engage standby resources in all areas of our operations, including transportation, to satisfy any unforeseen demand."

In further explanations, the postmaster general said he wants to "assure all Americans" that hours for retail services at USPS will not change, that mail processing equipment "will remain where they are," that no mail processing facilities will be closed, and that "overtime has, and will continue to be, approved as needed."