DOGE to work with USPS to find efficiencies, DeJoy says

The U.S. Postal Service will partner with the Elon Musk-backed Department of Government Efficiency as it continues to implement reforms to stabilize its finances and streamline its operations, the agency told congressional leaders on Thursday. 

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy signed an agreement with DOGE and the General Services Administration on Thursday, the soon-to-depart agency chief said, explaining the two federal entities will help USPS achieve efficiencies. DeJoy has been on a crusade since he took office in 2020 to eradicate wasteful layers in the Postal Service’s structure and delivery network, while increasing prices and slowing service, to put the agency on firmer financial footing. 

DeJoy’s efforts have been met with skepticism from lawmakers in both parties, stakeholders and its regulator and the addition of DOGE—which has spearheaded President Trump’s efforts to slash spending and workforces across government—will likely add voices to that chorus. GSA has also played a key role in the Trump administration’s cost cutting efforts through moves to drastically downsize the federal government’s physical footprint, largely eliminate the use of purchase cards and issuing widespread layoffs to its own workforce. 

“Last night I signed an agreement with the General Services Administration and DOGE representatives to assist us in identifying and achieving further efficiencies,” DeJoy said in his letter to congressional and committee leaders of both parties. “This is an effort aligned with our efforts, as while we have accomplished a great deal, there is much more to be done.” 

DeJoy said he flagged to DOGE longstanding issues with the issues the Postal Service has dealt with, including overpayments into its retirement fund and for its workers’ compensation obligations, mandates issued by Congress without accompanying funding and restrictions placed on its pricing and operations by the Postal Regulatory Commission. Those issues will require legislative fixes, something DeJoy and his predecessors have long sought. 

“I ask that you please engage with the Postal Service, our DOGE representatives, and the federal agencies that need to adapt to the critically necessary changes involved and to correct for the deficiencies of the past that can and must be corrected,” DeJoy said to the lawmakers. 

The postmaster general sought to defend his legacy, noting the costs he has removed from the postal system, the network changes he is implementing and his drive to reduce workforce costs. DeJoy is in the midst of implementing a controversial plan to consolidate mail processing operations, move mail sorting away from individual post offices and to allow mail that would normally get picked up each evening to instead sit overnight for pickup the following morning. He has said his Delivering for America plan would take 10 years to implement, though he has already missed his targets to demonstrate profitability. 

USPS did, however, turn a profit in the first quarter of fiscal 2025. 

“While I recognize that changing the way we serve the nation has been difficult for many of you,” DeJoy said, “I ask that you reflect for a moment on the magnitude of the problem that we had to attack for the good of the country, and to ask yourself how else we could fix a broken business model and whether it could be accomplished without fundamentally changing the way we conduct our business?”

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that has jurisdiction over the Postal Service, quickly criticized the new partnership. 

“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. “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.”

Trump has long taken an interest in the Postal Service and often feuded with the agency’s leadership in his first term. Prior to taking office this year, Trump suggested he might seek to privatize USPS entirely—resurrecting a proposal from his first term. More recently, Musk himself has suggested USPS should be privatized. Trump was considering signing an executive order to fold USPS into the Commerce Department, The Washington Post reported earlier this year, though that plan never came to fruition. 

Trump suggested last month that the Postal Service would continue to exist even if it was no longer a standalone agency. USPS’ independence is written in statute, so a change would likely require congressional action. 

“It is the Postal Service,” Trump said. “I mean, we’re leaving the Postal service.”