Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick proposed delegating the United States Postal Service to run the U.S. census over the Commerce Department.
Lutnick said every ten years when the census is conducted, the Commerce Department spends $40 million and hires 625,000 employees. He told Fox News’s Brett Baier that USPS already has the tools and personnel to conduct the operation.
“What department do we already have that already employs 625,000 people? It’s got cars, already has gas, and goes to every household,” Lutnick said in reference to the USPS. “Let’s use the assets of the government to make us better and save us money.”
He said postal service workers can count how many people live at the houses they visit rather than have employees hired for the census to do the same. Along with that suggestion, he said postal workers could also take on some responsibilities of the Social Security Administration, such as delivering paperwork when somebody dies.
Lutnick previously supported the idea of dissolving USPS leadership to bring the agency under the Department of Commerce. The Census Bureau is already part of the Commerce Department.
During his confirmation hearing, Lutnick vowed that the census would count all people in the United States regardless of immigration status. President Donald Trump had previously pushed for undocumented immigrants to be excluded from the count.
“I promise you, we will count each whole person,” Lutnick said at his confirmation hearing in response to a question from Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI). “That’s what the Constitution says, and we will stick right to it.”
POSTMASTER GENERAL LOUIS DEJOY ANNOUNCES INTENT TO EXIT USPS
The suggestion comes as the Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced his imminent departure from USPS and Trump has suggested he would like to privatize the government agency.
Late last year, Trump said his team was “looking” at the idea of privatizing the agency, an idea he floated during his first term. Trump, however, does not have the authority to dissolve USPS on his own. The establishment of post offices is an explicit authority granted to Congress in the Constitution.