After the signing of an agreement between the postal service and the Department of Government Efficiency, the budget for the agency will be adjusted
Connolly argued that this privatization would harm millions of Americans, especially those in rural and hard-to-reach areas, who rely on the mail for receiving letters, medications, votes, and more. He criticized that the privatization would only benefit people like Trump followers and Tesla owners.
Despite Connolly's criticisms, the current postal service is far from efficient, and a complement with private administration could bring great benefits to an agency that also has large debts.
Meanwhile, the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Brian Renfroe, expressed that although they support any effort to address the Postal Service's issues, they do not maintain a unified stance on privatization.
The Postal Service currently employs about 640,000 people responsible for making deliveries, from cities to rural areas and even remote islands.
In addition to the staff reduction, the Postal Service plans to cut its operating costs by more than 3.5 billion dollars annually. This is not the first time the Postal Service has made staff cuts. In 2021, 30,000 jobs were reduced.
Since its independence in 1970, the Postal Service has struggled to balance its finances due to the decline in first-class mail. Trump even proposed placing the Postal Service under the control of the Department of Commerce in an attempt to take executive control of the institution and be able to lighten its liabilities while making its service more efficient.
The general director of the United States Postal Service, Louis DeJoy, informed Congress members on Thursday that he signed an agreement with the General Services Administration and the Department of Government Efficiency of Elon Musk to adjust the Postal Service's budget.
This initiative comes after the Postal Service decided in January to reduce 10,000 jobs through an early retirement offer for eligible workers.
In a letter sent to Congress, DeJoy lamented that the Postal Service's business model was "broken" and not financially sustainable without essential and necessary changes.
According to DeJoy, fixing such a large and crucial organization, which had experienced losses close to 100 billion dollars and was projected to lose another 200 billion, was a difficult task. Additionally, the Postal Service faces heavy legislative regulation that limits its normal business practices.
The agreement with DOGE seeks to help the Postal Service address these "big issues" in an agency with liabilities of up to 78 billion dollars a year that has struggled in recent years to stay afloat.
The goal of the agreement is to identify and achieve "greater efficiencies" in the Postal Service's operation, which has faced issues such as poor management of retirement assets and the workers' compensation program, as well as a series of restrictive regulatory requirements.
However, the agreement has caused some criticism, especially from Democratic lawmakers, like Representative Gerald Connolly, who expressed concern that handing the Postal Service over to DOGE could lead to the privatization of the institution and the loss of a vital service for Americans.
