The United States Postal Service (USPS) plan to cut 10,000 workers now that U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy signed an agreement with the General Services Administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
DeJoy notified Congress of the agreement in a letter Thursday, Fox News reported.
The postmaster general said the Postal Service has a “broken business model that was not financially sustainable without critically necessary and core change.”
“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 wrote in the letter. “Fixing a heavily legislated and overly regulated organization as massive, important, cherished, misunderstood and debated as the United States Postal Service, with such a broken business model, is even more difficult.”
The agreement includes a budget cut of billions of dollars.
With the help of DOGE, the USPS will start addressing “big problems” at the agency that has a $78 billion-a-year budget. Lately, the USPS has struggled with economic issues. The USPS and DOGE want to identify the agency’s downfall and achieve “further efficiencies.”
Some of these issues include mismanagement of the agency’s retirement assets and Workers’ Compensation Program.
“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.
However, not everyone is on board with the plan.
U.S. Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-Va.) expressed concern how this will affect communities across the U.S. as well as Musk’s involvement.
“The only thing worse for the Postal Service than DeJoy’s ‘Delivering for America’ plan is turning the service over to Elon Musk and DOGE so they can undermine it, privatize it, and then profit off Americans’ loss,” Connolly said in a statement.
He added: “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.”
Brian L. Renfroe, president of National Association of Letter Carriers said in a statement any help is welcome, but they are against privatization.
“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.
There are about 640,000 workers currently in the USPS’s employ.
The cuts are expected to take place in the next 30 days and will include a voluntary early-retirement program, according to the letter.
