US Post Officer Louis DeJoy told Congress he had signed an agreement with Elon Musk's Doge Government Reform Team to provide support to money-losing agencies to work to address “big problems.”
USPS, an independent government agency with 635,000 employees that lost $9.5 billion last year, is exempt from cutting DOGE-oriented federal employees.
Dejoy told Congress in a letter that Reuters saw that USPS plans to cut 10,000 workers next month through a voluntary early retirement program that USPS first announced in January.
The post office has cut 30,000 jobs since 2021.
Dejoy said the agreement with Doge and the General Services Administration allows the government reform team to “help identify and achieve further efficiency. The Doge team was elegant enough to seek the big issues they could help us.”
Doge works across the government to cancel contracts and reduce institutions.
Dejoy cited many issues, including the management of retirement assets by other government agencies and its workers' compensation programs, unsubscribed delegations, and burdensome regulatory requirements.
Dejoy has led a dramatic effort to rebuild the post office over the past five years, reducing its forecast losses from $160 billion to $80 billion over the past decade.
He said the Postal Regulation Commission is “an unnecessary institution that has caused more than $50 billion in damage to postal services by managing flawed pricing models and bureaucratic processes that have been decades ago.”
Rep. Gerald Connolly, a top Democrat on the committee that oversees the USPS, said DeJoy allowed Doge to “invade” the agency, suggesting Doge would “weak it, privatize it, and make profits from American losses.”
GSA and Doge did not immediately comment.
Last month, two media outlets reported that President Donald Trump was preparing to issue an executive order to fire the Postal Service Commission.
The White House denied the plan, but Trump said the move Democrats said they were violating federal law and that he is considering a merger between the Post Office and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Musk, the top adviser to Trump's billionaire, said last week he thought USP should be privatized.
Commerce Secretary Howard Luttonick says that by conducting a US census on workers and handling the tasks performed by 20,000 Social Security employees, postal services will help reduce department costs.
Postal Services adopts new service standards that save at least $36 billion over a decade.
Postal Services have lost more than $100 billion since 2007.
Last month, it reported a profit of $144 million for the fourth quarter.
As electronic communications grow, agencies have been hurt since 1997 by an 80% decline in top-notch mail volumes.
Currently, the volume is at its lowest level since 1968.
Dejoy announced last month that he plans to retire in about five years.
