The Trump administration wants to use the U.S. Postal Service to conduct the U.S. Census.

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick says the move would save taxpayers money by eliminating the need for his department to hire hundreds of thousands of temporary workers every 10 years to get a national head count.

Mr. Lutnick said the government has paid $40 billion every 10 years on the census to hire people and pay for their daily expenses — rental cars, gas and food — to fan out across the country and count how many people are here.

“What department do we already have that already employs 625,000 people? It’s got cars, already has gas, and goes to every household,” Mr. Lutnick said on Fox News Wednesday, alluding to the Postal Service. “Imagine saying to your postman: Can you count the people in the house? What day could you do the census? Monday? Can he double check it on Tuesday? How about Wednesday?

“So we can only save $40 billion, or $4 billion a year, and will do a better job,” Mr. Lutnick said.

The Government Accountability Office has said the 2020 Census, which was impacted by COVID-19 protocols, cost almost $14 billion — jumping from $6.5 billion in 2000.

The Postal Service employs 635,000 people.

The Trump administration has prided itself on outside-the-box thinking in its quest to upend the status quo by streamlining government and cutting waste, fraud, and abuse from federal spending.

Mr. Trump announced plans this week to roll out a new “Gold Card” visa program that would allow “very high-level people” a path to citizenship after they pay about $5 million.

Mr. Trump also has floated the idea of folding the Postal Service into the Department of Commerce.

“We want to have a post office that works well and doesn’t lose massive amounts of money,” Mr. Trump said after swearing-in Mr. Lutnick this month. “We’re thinking about doing that. And it’ll be a form of a merger, but it’ll remain the Postal Service, and I think it’ll operate a lot better.”

Mr. Lutnick said the Postal Service could also save taxpayers more money by shouldering the responsibility of delivering Social Security forms to homes with newborns.

“They can go to your house and give you the form for Social Security, and the 20,000 Social Security Officers that we have — we don’t need them,” he said. “We can actually do real customer service.”

“Let’s use the assets of the government to make us better and save us money,” he said.

• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.