Louis DeJoy, the Postmaster General of the United States, plans to reduce 10,000 employees and billions of dollars. According to a letter sent on Thursday to members of Congress, DeJoy will work with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to cut the Postal Service’s budget.
DOGE will help USPS address “big problems” in the $78 billion agency that has struggled to stay afloat over the past few years. In an effort to assist the Postal Service in identifying and achieving “further efficiency,” the agreement includes the General Services Administration.
USPS cited such issues as mismanagement and Workers’ Compensation Programs, as well an array of regulations that were described in the letter as “restricting the normal business practices.”
DeJoy wrote: “This is a coordinated effort with ours because while we have achieved a lot, there is still much to be done.”
Critics of this agreement are concerned that the negative effects will be felt throughout America. The letter was sent to Virginia Democrat Rep. Gerald Connolly, who said that turning over the Postal Service under DOGE will result in its privatization and deterioration.
He said that “this capitulation would have catastrophic consequences for Americans, especially those who live in rural areas and are hard to reach, and who depend on the Postal Service to deliver their mail, medication, ballots and more every day.”
USPS employs approximately 640,000 people to deliver mail from the inner cities, rural areas, and even remote islands.
According to the letter, the service intends to reduce 10,000 employees within the next 30 days through a voluntary program of early retirement.
The agency announced previous plans to reduce its operating costs by over $3.5 billion per year. This is not the first time that thousands of workers have been laid off. The agency laid off 30,000 employees in 2021.
The service, which has been an independent entity since its inception in 1970 and has struggled with the declining first-class mail to balance its books, has fought against calls for privatization from President Donald Trump. Trump suggested last month that he might put USPS under the control of the Commerce Department, which would be a takeover by the executive branch.
In response to the letter sent on Thursday, Brian L. Renfroe, President of the National Association of Letter Carriers, said that they would welcome any help in solving some of the biggest problems of the Postal Service but were firmly opposed to any attempt to privatize it.
He said: “Common-sense solutions are needed by the Postal Service, not privatization attempts that threaten the jobs of 640,000 postal workers, 7,9 million jobs linked to our work and the universal service on which every American depends daily.”
DeJoy is a Republican who donated to Trump and owned a logistics business. He was appointed as the USPS’s new leader during Trump’s first term in 2020. During his tenure, he has had to face many challenges, such as the COVID-19 epidemic, a surge in the number of mail-in ballots, and attempts to reduce losses by cutting costs and services.