The head of the U.S. Postal Service announced in a letter to Congress Thursday that the agency would cut 10,000 workers as part of an agreement with Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
In the letter obtained by The Associated Press, outgoing Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said that he reached an agreement with Musk to identify and achieve “further efficiencies” at USPS.
“This effort aligns with our initiatives; while we have accomplished a great deal, there is much more to be done,” he said. “I ask that you please engage with the Postal Service, our DOGE representatives, and the Federal agencies that need to adapt to the critically necessary changes involved and to correct for the deficiencies of the past that can and must be corrected.”
USPS has long faced financial struggles, losing more than $100 billion since 2007 but reporting a fourth-quarter profit of $144 million last month.
Despite Musk targeting and dismantling various federal agencies since President Donald Trump began his second term, DOGE had not yet aimed at USPS, which employs nearly 635,000 workers.
It’s possible that this latest move is simply the first step toward privatization of USPS, which Musk and Trump have advocated for despite warnings from the American Postal Workers Union president that this would “end universal service.”
A person drops off a mail-in ballot at a dropbox on May 21, 2024.
Over the years, Trump has repeatedly tried to defund the agency. He once argued for gutting USPS because it would make it harder for people to vote by mail, a practice that remains a target of Republican derision.
More recently, Trump was reportedly toying with signing an executive order to dissolve the governing board of USPS and merge the agency with the Department of Commerce.
Though the plan proposed by DeJoy is comparatively less harmful, it still represents a significant blow to USPS workers and operations.
In his letter to Congress, DeJoy—a Trump appointee who has faced criticism for his management of the agency—indicated that USPS had already reduced its workforce by 30,000 since the 2021 fiscal year but planned to cut another 10,000 employees in the next 30 days through a previously announced voluntary retirement program.
DeJoy also highlighted several challenges that he claimed were affecting USPS, including “management of retirement assets and its workers' compensation program by other government agencies, unfunded mandates, and burdensome regulatory requirements.”
DeJoy’s collaboration with DOGE has already drawn opposition from some Democrats.
“This capitulation will have catastrophic consequences for all Americans—especially those in rural and hard to reach areas—who rely on the Postal Service every day to deliver mail, medications, ballots, and more. Reliable mail delivery can’t just be reserved for MAGA supporters and Tesla owners,” Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee that oversees USPS, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Brian Renfroe, the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, told The New York Times that he was “skeptical of DOGE.”
“We will be in wait-and-see mode,” he said, adding that any new cuts at the Postal Service would “almost directly result in challenges providing the service that we provide every single day.”
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