The US Postal Service isn't for sale
In delivering the mail to every home and business in America six days a week — all for the cost of a postage stamp — the US Postal Service carries out a central government function for the American people that should never be surrendered to private industry.
Less than three months into the new administration, President Trump and his 'special government employee,' Elon Musk, have taken unprecedented and unlawful action to commercialize American government and remodel public service into a for-profit venture. With the position of Postmaster General vacant, they are now setting their sights
Congress did not establish the agency as a profit-making operation but rather as a core public service whose origins date back to the Postal Clause of the US Constitution.
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Under the bipartisan
Today, the agency delivers the mail to more than
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UPS, FedEx, Amazon, and other private shipping companies that Trump and Musk believe will efficiently supplant the Postal Service are different. They do not operate under any universal service requirement to serve areas where delivery is not profitable. In fact, these businesses regularly rely on the Postal Service and city and rural letter carriers to complete 'last mile' delivery to military bases, rural addresses, post office boxes, and other remote or hard-to-reach areas associated with higher operational costs and other limitations. The National Association of Rural Letter Carriers has already reported that privatization would disproportionately impact an estimated
Moreover, outsourcing the Postal Service to the private sector would undermine consumer privacy. The profit-driven business models that typify private companies rely on the massive, backdoor collection of personal consumer data. Amazon alone is the subject of at least three recent class actions alleging that the company unlawfully collected the geolocation data of millions of consumers without customer knowledge or consent.
A private sector workforce is also not a civil service. The postal clerks, mail handlers, letter carriers, supervisors, and other public servants that make up the US Postal Service proudly take a federal oath of office that reflects their unwavering commitment to serving the American people. And like other employees across the federal government who have been denigrated by Trump and Musk since the president took office, postal workers report for front-line duty amid national security emergencies, global pandemics, and now the daily prospect that their public service will be contracted out to private competitors. Given their commitment to public service, it is not surprising that more than
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As a member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform for more than two decades, I have witnessed the public harm that stems from the outsourcing of core governmental functions to the private sector. The US Army's privatization of veterans' health care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center led to a dramatic decrease in on-site medical staff and deplorable conditions for our wounded warriors. A decision by the Defense Department to contract out ammunition acquisition to an unqualified private supplier led to the shipment of defective munitions and protective gear to US Special Forces in Iraq. FEMA's overreliance on a private vendor for its core hurricane relief responsibilities resulted in the delivery of only 50,000 meals for hurricane victims in Puerto Rico when 30 million were required by contract.
Trump and Musk clearly prefer a transactional approach to government that exclusively prioritizes profit and ultimately results in hawking Teslas on the White House lawn. They simply do not understand that public service goes beyond dollars and cents.
The Postal Service may not be a moneymaker, but the Constitution and Congress did not intend it to be. Its public service mission is why my mom, three aunts, two sisters, multiple cousins, and my brother-in-law signed up to work as postal clerks, city letter carriers, and postal union stewards.
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Fortunately, members of Congress on both sides of the aisle strongly oppose privatization of an agency that the American people consistently rank as their most trusted government institution. Bipartisan opposition is what forced Trump to abruptly abandon a postal privatization proposal that members deemed '
With the federal government up for sale under the Trump administration, we will fight privatization and ensure that Trump and Musk follow the law and keep their hands off our public Postal Service.
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