USPS chief warns post offices could disappear, details DOGE cuts
The head of the U.S. Postal Service is looking to the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to help with cost-cutting and revamping the mail service.
In a letter to Congress, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said DOGE is helping as the agency enters a “historic level of transformational change.”
READ MORE: USPS announces changes to first-class mail, other services
The “specific initiatives” targeted by USPS and DOGE are “designed to improve overall operations, enhance the marketability of products and drastically reduce cost and grow revenue,” DeJoy wrote. The issues include USPS’s retirement plans, worker compensation costs, regulatory requirements, infrastructure challenges and battling counterfeit postage.
Of special note to lawmakers were DeJoy’s comments related to USPS facilities and the possibility of future closures.
DeJoy said there will be difficulties in renewing leases on almost 31,000 post office facilities around the country due to “ownership consolidation, urban development and general increases in rental rates when decades long leases expire and where landlords are well aware of the political difficulties (faced) when moving or consolidating a retail location.”
Over half the current post office locations cover their cost of operations, DeJoy said.
“Future lease renewals be even more difficult to support financially, he added.
DeJoy is moving ahead with some planned cuts, including the elimination of 10,000 jobs in the next 30 days through voluntary early retirement, AP reported. USPS currently employs about 640,000 workers.
It’s the second mass reduction of force in the last five years. In 2021, USPS cut 30,000 workers.
The service plans to cut 10,000 employees in the next 30 days through a voluntary early retirement program, according to the letter. The USPS announced the plan during the final days of the Biden administration in January but at the time didn’t include the number of workers expected to leave.
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Neither the USPS nor the Trump administration immediately responded to emails from The Associated Press requesting comment.
The agency previously announced plans to cut its operating costs by more than $3.5 billion annually. And this isn’t the first time thousands of employees have been cut. In 2021, the agency cut 30,000 workers.
As the service that has operated as an independent entity since 1970 has struggled to balance the books with the decline of first-class mail, it has fought calls from President Donald Trump and others that it be privatized. Last month, Trump said he may put USPS under the control of the Commerce Department in what would be an executive branch takeover.
The National Association of Letter Carriers President Brian L. Renfroe said in a statement in response to Thursday’s letter that they welcome anyone’s help with addressing some of the agency’s biggest problems but stood firmly against any move to privatize the Postal Service.
“Common sense solutions are what the Postal Service needs, not privatization efforts that will threaten 640,000 postal employees’ jobs, 7.9 million jobs tied to our work, and the universal service every American relies on daily,” he said.
DeJoy, a Republican donor who owned a logistics business, was appointed to lead USPS during Trump’s first term in 2020. He has faced repeated challenges during his tenure, including the COVID-19 pandemic, surges in mail-in election ballots and efforts to stem losses through cost and service cuts.