USPS Postmaster Louis DeJoy has spoken out about massive changes coming to the mail agency after he struck a deal with Elon Musk.
DeJoy admitted the Postal Service’s defeat following years of financial loss as the agency prepares to cut 10,000 workers to make up for the problems – leaving customers expecting mail chaos and delivery delays.
The postmaster general signed a deal with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and the General Services Administration to fix the agency’s budget, he said in a letter to Congress on Thursday.
In DeJoy’s letter, he shared his disappointment with the Postal Service’s system, calling it 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,” he wrote.
“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.”
DeJoy said USPS plans to get rid of 10,000 workers in the next month through a voluntary early retirement program.
The program was first announced in January.
The US government agency currently has 635,000 employees – and this isn’t the first time workers faced extreme cuts.
In 2021, the agency cut 30,000 employees.
Because the USPS is an independent government agency, it has been kept safe from Doge’s federal employee cuts that started earlier this year.
Now, the layoffs will happen over the next 30 days.
DeJoy spoke about his plans to reform the agency with Musk’s help in the 10-year Delivering for America program, which he first introduced in 2021.
“The Doge team was gracious enough to ask for the big problems they can help us with,” DeJoy wrote.
He asked Congress to help with the issues that were out of his control, including retirement assets and workers’ compensation.
The changes come as worries grow that the agency could be privatized after President Donald Trump expressed interest in a merger.
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. 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.”
Louis DeJoy
If the USPS joined forces with the Department of Commerce, residents in certain areas could potentially be left with no access to delivery, experts warned.
Customers would be forced to drive to pick up their packages.
However, DeJoy insisted in his letter that the Postal Service is headed for better days as they plan to cut costs.
“The Postal Service once faced the immediate threat of insolvency, which would have required a taxpayer bailout,” DeJoy wrote.
“Now, the Postal Service is instead finally experiencing an unprecedented period of growth and innovation.”
DeJoy has already said he plans to step down after leading the agency for five years. It’s unclear when he’ll leave his post.
