The head of the United States Postal Service has said stamp fraud, ongoing leases and “burdensome” federal requirements are all squeezing the U.S. Post Office in an open letter to Congress this week.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in the letter he would have preferred to deal with some of the ongoing problems faced by the Post Office through what he termed the Post Office’s “Delivering for America plan,” but that the Post Office has had to expend effort fighting counterproductive legislation.
Instead, the Post Office will be partnering with the Department of Governmental Efficiency on the issues laid out in the letter, DeJoy said.
DeJoy stated that the postal service is undergoing a “historic level of transformational change” and is partnering with DOGE to improve operations, enhance the marketability of USPS products, reduce costs and increase revenue.
“The well-demonstrated interest of Congress in the activities of the Postal Service, despite our best efforts to be responsive, has often, lead (sic) to the slowing, or in some instances stopping, of the cost saving initiatives we have proposed,” DeJoy wrote in the letter.
The Postmaster went on to state that DOGE is the only available organization “oriented” to help USPS obtain its efficiency and cost-cutting goals.
As required by Congress, DeJoy laid out what cost-cutting initiatives DOGE is assisting with:
- Mismanagement of self-funded retirement plans and miscalculations of retirement obligations
- Mismanagement of worker’s compensation which DeJoy says results in $400 million in excess charges
- Unfunded congressional mandates DeJoy says, cost the USPS up to $11 billion annually
- Regulatory requirements DeJoy calls “burdensome.” He claims they’ve inflicted over $50 billion in damages to the USPS
- A review of almost 31,000 USPS retail center leases
- USPS role in role in providing services to other federal agencies
- Addressing counterfeit postage which DeJoy claims cost the USPS $1 billion
DeJoy told Congress these are the only issues he authorized DOGE to assist with. As part of the cost-cutting effort, USPS plans to cut 10,000 employees within the next month through a voluntary early retirement program.
The agency previously announced plans to reduce its operating costs by over $3.5 billion each year. Additionally, this is not the first instance of thousands of employees being laid off; in 2021, the agency eliminated 30,000 jobs.
