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The agreement between the U.S. Postal Service and the Department of Government Efficiency to slash the workforce could have “catastrophic consequences for all Americans,” Democrats have warned.
Rep. Gerald E. Connolly of Virginia has pushed back on the Postal Service’s deal, made on Wednesday by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, allowing Elon Musk’s team to help in “identifying and achieving further efficiencies.”
The roughly 635,000 workers at the agency have not been targeted by DOGE until now. However, under the new agreement, DeJoy said that the agency will reduce the workforce by 10,000 in the next 30 days through its voluntary early retirement program. DeJoy added that the workforce has shrunk by 30,000 since the 2021 fiscal year.
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“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, the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, said in a scathing statement. “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.”
DeJoy has been in the role since President Donald Trump’s first administration and was criticized for the sweeping changes and cuts he implemented at the Postal Service during the Biden administration.
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“Last night I signed an agreement with the General Services Administration and DOGE representatives to assist us in identifying and achieving further efficiencies,” DeJoy confirmed in the statement, released Thursday. “This is an effort aligned with our efforts, as while we have accomplished a great deal, there is much more to be done. We are happy to have others to assist us in our worthwhile cause. The DOGE team was gracious enough to ask for the big problems they can help us with.”
Brian L. Renfroe, the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, said that the union was “closely monitoring the situation” and it will “fight like hell” to protect the rights of its members.
Renfroe conceded that some changes at the agency were necessary but fired a warning shot at DOGE if they went down the “misguided” privatization path.
“As DOGE attempts to tackle these or any other issues at the Postal Service, it is important that they know what our members do and who they are,” Renfroe said. “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.”
