The United States Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, has suggested that postal workers of the United States Postal Service (USPS) take on the responsibility of conducting part of the population census, including going to households across the United States to “count the population.” He stated that this could save billions of federal dollars.
Lutnick made his remarks during an interview with Fox Business on Wednesday, February 26th, pointing out that the government spends $40 billion every 10 years on conducting the population census.
Currently, the population census is conducted by the specialized U.S. Census Bureau once every decade, with the next census scheduled for 2030. Each household receives an invitation to participate in the census via phone, internet, or mail.
Lutnick questioned, “Don’t we already have a department in place for this, with 625,000 employees? It already has vehicles, fuel, and can go to every household.” He was referring to USPS. He added, “We should utilize government assets to save money.”
In reality, USPS has been operating at a deficit. In the fiscal year ending in September 2024, USPS reported a $9.5 billion loss, with the previous fiscal year seeing a net loss of $6.5 billion. By the end of 2024, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability reported that USPS’s financial situation was still “not good.”
Former President Trump stated on Friday, February 21st, “We’ve lost a lot of money on USPS, we don’t want to lose that much money anymore. We want a USPS that operates well and doesn’t lose a lot of money. We’re considering doing this in a merger form, but it will still be postal service, and I think it will operate better.”
According to NBC News, Lutnick had discussed dissolving USPS and merging it into the Department of Commerce with the President-elect last December; the Census Bureau is a part of the Department of Commerce.