The United States Postal Service (USPS) announced Thursday that it was looking to cut 10,000 employees and had signed an agreement with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project to identify wasteful spending.
In a Thursday letter to Congressional leadership, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said that USPS made a deal with DOGE and the General Services Administration to bring on DOGE representatives “to assist us in identifying and achieving further efficiencies.”
“This is an effort aligned with our efforts, as while we have accomplished a great deal, there is much more to be done,” DeJoy wrote. “We are happy to have others assist us in our worthwhile cause. The DOGE team was gracious enough to ask for the big problems they can help us with.”
In the same letter, DeJoy listed several other cost-cutting measures he had taken since becoming postmaster general in 2021 when USPS was on the verge of bankruptcy. USPS has consistently lost money over the past 20 years and had to be rescued by a $107 billion taxpayer bailout in 2023.
“Over the last four years, the Postal Service has engaged in transforming from a battered government bureaucracy with substantial financial losses destined for collapse, to an organization that is aspiring and engaging in practices that will enable us to provide high quality service to the nation for decades to come and to have a financially viable future.”
These cuts, implemented beginning in fiscal year 2021, included slashing 30,000 positions and another expected 10,000 through a voluntary early retirement deal, mirroring DOGE initiatives at other federal agencies. He also said the agency had eliminated unnecessary ground and air transportation needs through better routing practices.
DeJoy said that much of the waste came from mismanagement of the organization’s self-funded retirement system and workers’ compensation program.
“Fixing a broken organization that had experienced close to $100 billion in losses and was projected to lose another $200 billion, without a bankruptcy proceeding, is a daunting task,” DeJoy said.
DeJoy pinned a number of the problems that have plagued USPS on the Postal Regulatory Commission, which he called an “unnecessary agency” that has “inflicted over $50 billion” in waste through “defective price models” and bureaucratic processes.
The Postal Regulatory Commission, an independent regulatory agency that oversees USPS, responded to DeJoy’s letter by calling his claims “false.”
“The Commission follows the law to ensure that USPS provides universal service to all Americans, including those in rural and remote locations, and also safeguards fair competition in package markets by preventing the Postal Service from abusing its monopoly position,” the commission said.
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