- US Senate DOGE Caucus members have introduced a bill that seeks to cancel $3 billion in Inflation Reduction Act funding for EV contract for the USPS.
- The Postal Service had adopted an incremental approach to phasing in electric models into its next-gen fleet, which will eventually replace the decades-old Grumman mail delivery vans.
- The effort to electrify the USPS fleet has faced criticism even from EV supporters, who point out its slow and piecemeal pace as well as high costs.
Autoweek – 3/17/25 – The plans of the United States Postal Service to phase in EVs into its fleet over an extended period of time, first announced in 2021, did not exactly overwhelm ZEV supporters with excitement.
The incremental approach of the USPS envisioned replacing some of its vintage Grumman delivery vehicles with a newly designed but still internal-combustion-engined Oshkosh delivery vehicle that could be converted to EV power at some point in the future, along with purchases of off-the-shelf EVs from more familiar automakers as charging infrastructure permitted.
Even this admittedly modest plan saw a measured if not glacial rollout, with the USPS opening the first set of charging stations only in January 2024 at an Atlanta depot.
The launch of the charging stations was merely the first step of a 10-year plan, dubbed Delivering for America, that would see some off-the-shelf EVs including the Ford e-Transit along with conventionally powered and electric Oshkosh Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDVs).
Now, even these incremental efforts are facing scrutiny from lawmakers aligned with the new administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
US Senate DOGE Caucus Chair Joni Ernst (R-IA) and DOGE Subcommittee Congressman Michael Cloud (R-TX) have introduced a bill, dubbed the Return to Sender Act, that proposes to terminate the $3 billion that had been allotted under the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act to electrify a part of the USPS fleet, citing delays and other issues in the program. Read more at Autoweek .
Return to Sender Act
DOGE lawmakers look to defund Biden’s anemic-paced $3B EV postal truck ‘boondoggle’
EXCLUSIVE: Two top DOGE lawmakers are introducing a bill to claw back $3 billion authorized under former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which was designated to create an electric vehicle (EV) fleet for the United States Postal Service (USPS).
A South Carolina defense contractor responsible for the 60,000-vehicle order was already “far behind schedule” as of November. A Washington Post exposé revealed that by then, fewer than 100 of these vehicles had been delivered to USPS.
Citing that, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, DOGE Caucus chair, and Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, will be forwarding the “Return to Sender Act,” seeking to recoup what is about 30% of the overall appropriation in Biden’s law that was intended to be geared toward reducing inflation.
The Postal Service was to receive an initial order of 50,000 EV delivery trucks from defense contractor Oshkosh within the next three years, but only 93 had been produced by November, according to the Post.
One person involved in the production told the outlet that the “bottom line [is] we don’t know how to build a damn truck.”
That, along with a Post revelation that the government’s deliveryman agreed to pay more for the trucks after the contractor increased its prices, appeared to lead Ernst and Cloud to announce their bill.
The agreement forged between the Postal Service and the manufacturer ultimately finalized a $77,692 cost per EV truck for about 28,000 vehicles. While the company did not comment at the time of the exposé, its CEO told investors in October that Oshkosh “is really happy where we are” on the project.
“Biden’s EV postal fleet is lost in the mail,” said Ernst, chief sponsor of the legislation.
“The order needs to be canceled with the unspent money returned to sender, the taxpayers. I am defunding this billion-dollar boondoggle to stamp out waste in Washington. Tax dollars should always be treated with first-class priority.”
Cloud told Fox News Digital the Inflation Reduction Act continues to be proven to be a misnomer, and that in this respect it “funneled billions into a failed USPS EV project that has delivered nothing but delays, defective trucks, and skyrocketing costs.”
“Three years later, taxpayers are still waiting while the Postal Service refuses to provide basic transparency on where the money went. The Return to Sender Act takes back the $3 billion in taxpayer money that has been wasted in this project,” Cloud said.
In February, Ernst also cited the USPS EV project in her Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act that targets disclosures of government projects costing 10 figures or more over-budget, and/or five years behind schedule.
The text of the bill, which is less than one-page long, specifically directs “unobligated balances of amounts appropriated or otherwise made available by sections 70002 and 70003 of Public Law 117–169 (commonly referred to as the ‘Inflation Reduction Act’), as of the date of enactment of this Act are rescinded and those sections are hereby repealed.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a USPS spokesperson said the carrier’s “fleet modernization is a core component of our Delivering for America plan.”
“From the start, USPS committed to purchase the most environmentally sustainable vehicles across the organization’s entire fleet, consistent with financial and operational considerations, with the understanding that both the electrification and delivery schedule for the fleet could change with additional vehicle acquisitions, our improving financial condition, and our evolving operational strategy,” said public relations representative Kim Frum.
“Deliveries of new NGDVs to the Postal Service remain on track to the contracted schedule.”
