Author’s note: This article was written just a few hours before PMG DeJoy announced his immediate departure. Though he and his perspective may be gone, the issues he raised remain, as is DOGE and its campaign, so what will be done by Congress or others that will impact the USPS remains very much yet to be seen.
It should come as no surprise to armchair political observers that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has spent time with the president’s Department of Government Efficiency. Though DeJoy might be expected to keep such meetings quiet, in this case, he actually announced his conversation, and what was agreed, in a three-and-a-half page letter sent March 13 to the leadership of the House and Senate and the respective committees with USPS oversight.
Typically, DeJoy recited – again – the many faults he found with the agency when he arrived, and listed seven areas in which his 10-year Plan has led to “impactful” accomplishments. Then, in the middle of the third page, he stated that he has engaged DOGE to help him tackle challenges “that have been intractable even though they have needed to be addressed for over a decade. Please review the following:
• “The mismanagement of our self-funded retirement assets and the actuarial miscalculations of our retirement obligations… They result in several billion dollars a year in burdensome additional charges not common in private industry.
• “The mismanagement of our Workers’ Compensation Program resulting in approximately $400 million dollars a year in excessive charges when compared to private industry practices.
• “The unfunded mandates imposed on us by legislation. These well-intended laws that have been passed since we were created as a self-funding agency for the most part require the Postal Service to perform costly activities without providing any supporting funding… This amount is estimated to cost between $6 billion and $11 billion annually.
• “Our burdensome regulatory requirements restricting normal business practice. The Postal Regulatory Commission is an un-necessary agency that has inflicted over $50 billion in damage to the Postal Service by administering defective pricing models and decades old bureaucratic processes that encumber the Postal Service.”
Apparently, his letter caused enough concerned reactions that he wrote a second letter to Congress on March 17 trying to explain further. After a page-and-a-half of his usual complaints and comments, he gave “a more detailed description and listing of the activities for which I have sought their help.” Those included retirement plans (CSRS correction and revaluation, investing pension and RHB assets, OPM mis-billing); workers compensation costs; unfunded Congressional mandates; regulatory requirements; retail center lease renewals; leveraging the postal infrastructure for federal agencies; and counterfeit postage. All totaled, he listed hundreds of billions in potential savings or revenue if his sought-after solutions were realized. But…
While leveraging DOGE to get action from Congress may seem desirable, there’s no guarantee that the result would be what DeJoy wants. Lawmakers may decide against the USPS regarding the CSRS liability and how retirement funds should be invested; the current political thinking might not favor having the Treasury refund billions to the USPS.
The complaint about workers’ comp reflects DeJoy’s dislike for it not being within his control. Of course, he could enhance safety training and ensure safer employee practices that would reduce the injuries leading to worker’ comp claims, but DeJoy prefers to find fault with how the system works instead.
Since he’s been at the Postal Service, Louis DeJoy has never openly criticized the universal service obligation or highlighted the problematic mandate to both provide expected public services while being financially self-supporting. However, it’s questionable whether even DOGE can get legislators to enact any measure that would reduce universal access to postal services, enable the closure of unprofitable post offices, or impact unionized postal carriers by permitting fewer delivery days. Above all, legislators want to be re-elected, and alienating constituents by supporting unpopular measures isn’t prudent.
As for his plaints about the PRC, DeJoy has never accepted that the USPS is a statutory monopoly, and that its monopoly power is appropriately limited by a regulator. His allegations about the PRC inflicting “over $50 billion in damage” – money he presumably could have raised through postage rates had he been able to price postal products and services as he wishes – simply reflects his rejection of any regulation over monopoly power in the marketplace.
At the end of his second letter, DeJoy perhaps unwisely chose to criticize Congress for not correcting the situations he listed earlier:
“… Now, as leaders in Congress, it probably has not escaped your notice that several of the identified initiatives require legislative action… This has long been the hypocrisy of the Congressional demand for service expansion and the concurrent demand for profitability…”
How Congress will react remains to be seen but, whether his arguments are valid or not, and whether the PRC and Congress are the impediments he portrays them to be, some observers would allege he makes two mistakes.
First, regardless of the validity of his claims, he might not want to advocate measures that potentially could result in billions in outflow from the Treasury while a conservative government is seeking ways to cut spending.
Second, perhaps most important, DeJoy can’t stop himself from finding fault with whomever disagrees with him, laying blame for the situations he sees as problematic, and then poking in the eye the legislators whose help he seeks. Undoubtedly, he doesn’t think of it this way, but his lack of tact and fundamental business diplomacy will not help him or support the achievement of his goals.
Leo Raymond is Owner and Managing Director, Mailers Hub.
This article originally appeared in the May/June, 2025 issue of Mailing Systems Technology
