U.S. Postal Service Stonewalls FOIA Requests

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Issues & Insights

The U.S. Postal Service is in dire fiscal straits, having lost more than $100 billion over the past 15 years. That could be hard to guess given the agency’s exorbitant spending habits. America’s mail carrier is spending nearly $10 billion to purchase 100,000 delivery vehicles, more than half of which will be electric. While periodic fleet upgrades can be sensible policy, committing to a majority-electric fleet is a needlessly expensive choice for taxpayers and consumers.

But rather than level with the American people and explain its extravagant spending decisions, the USPS has gone into full CIA mode and insists on redacting basic information about its purchases even after a Freedom of Information Act request from the Taxpayers Protection Alliance Foundation (TPAF). The agency should embrace transparency and find a more sensible way to spend Americans’ hard-earned dollars.

In early fleet planning discussions, the USPS seemed reasonably reluctant to pursue electrification. This changed, though, when Postmaster General Louis DeJoy realized he could use electric vehicles as a bargaining chip for more federal funding. In a February 2022 news release directed at Congress, the postal executive stated that procurement plans included, “an initial order plan for 5,000 electric vehicles, and the flexibility to increase the number of electric vehicles introduced should additional funding become available. Absent such funding, we must make fiscally responsible decisions that result in the needed introduction of safer and environmentally cleaner vehicles for the men and women who deliver America’s mail.”

Lawmakers listened, and handed the USPS $3 billion in taxpayer money as part of the Inflation Reduction Act passed later that year