{"id":37553,"date":"2025-03-11T11:24:50","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T16:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=37553"},"modified":"2025-03-11T11:30:54","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T16:30:54","slug":"cloud-ernst-stamp-out-ev-waste-at-postal-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2025\/03\/11\/cloud-ernst-stamp-out-ev-waste-at-postal-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Cloud, Ernst Stamp Out EV Waste at Postal Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u20143\/10\/25 – DOGE<\/strong>\u00a0Subcommittee Member Congressman Michael Cloud (R-Texas) and U.S.\u00a0Senate\u00a0DOGE\u00a0Caucus Chair Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) are introducing the\u00a0Return to Sender Act<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0terminate and\u00a0claw back\u00a0$3 billion authorized in the\u00a0so-called\u00a0Inflation Reduction Act<\/em><\/a>\u00a0to help build an electric vehicle (EV) fleet for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).<\/p>\n

While the\u00a0initial order for 50,000 trucks<\/a>\u00a0was placed three years ago,\u00a0fewer than 100 trucks have been delivered<\/a>\u00a0as delays and cost\u00a0increases were allowed to run\u00a0rampant in this boondoggle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Biden administration\u2019s so-called\u00a0Inflation Reduction Act<\/em>\u00a0funneled billions into a failed USPS EV project that has delivered nothing but delays, defective trucks, and skyrocketing costs,\u201d\u00a0said Cloud.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cThree years later, taxpayers are still waiting while the Postal Service refuses to provide basic transparency on where the money went. The\u00a0Return to Sender Act<\/em>\u00a0takes back the $3 billion in taxpayer money that has been wasted in this project.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBiden\u2019s EV postal fleet is lost in the mail. The order needs to be canceled with the unspent money returned to sender, the taxpayers,\u201d\u00a0said Ernst.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cI am defunding this billion-dollar boondoggle to stamp out waste in Washington. Tax dollars should always be treated with\u00a0first class\u00a0priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more from Fox News\u00a0here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

From Fox News<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Charles Creitz | March 10, 2025<\/p>\n

EXCLUSIVE<\/strong>: Two top DOGE lawmakers are introducing a bill to claw back $3 billion authorized under former President Joe Biden\u2019s Inflation Reduction Act, which was designated to create an electric vehicle (EV) fleet for the\u00a0United States Postal Service (USPS)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A South Carolina defense contractor responsible for the 60,000-vehicle order was already \u201cfar behind schedule\u201d as of November. A Washington Post expos\u00e9 revealed that by then, fewer than 100 of these vehicles had been delivered to USPS.<\/p>\n

Citing that, Sen.\u00a0Joni Ernst, R-Iowa,<\/a>\u00a0DOGE Caucus chair, and Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, will be forwarding the \u201cReturn to Sender Act,\u201d seeking to recoup what is about 30% of the overall appropriation in Biden\u2019s law that was intended to be geared toward reducing inflation.<\/p>\n

The Postal Service<\/a>\u00a0was 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.<\/p>\n

One person involved in the production told the outlet that the \u201cbottom line [is] we don\u2019t know how to build a damn truck.\u201d<\/p>\n

That, along with a Post revelation that the government\u2019s deliveryman agreed to pay more for the trucks after the contractor increased its prices, appeared to lead Ernst and Cloud to announce their bill.<\/p>\n

The agreement forged between the\u00a0Postal Service<\/a>\u00a0and 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 expos\u00e9, its CEO told investors in October that Oshkosh \u201cis really happy where we are\u201d on the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cBiden\u2019s EV postal fleet is lost in the mail,\u201d said Ernst, chief sponsor of the legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cloud told Fox News Digital the Inflation Reduction Act continues to be proven to be a misnomer, and that in this respect it \u201cfunneled billions into a failed USPS EV project that has delivered nothing but delays, defective trucks, and skyrocketing costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThree 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,\u201d Cloud said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The text of the bill, which is less than one-page long, specifically directs \u201cunobligated balances of amounts appropriated or otherwise made available by sections 70002 and 70003 of Public Law 117\u2013169 (commonly referred to as the \u2018Inflation Reduction Act\u2019), as of the date of enactment of this Act are rescinded and those sections are hereby repealed.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a USPS spokesperson said the carrier\u2019s \u201cfleet modernization is a core component of our Delivering for America plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the start, USPS committed to purchase the most environmentally sustainable vehicles across the organization\u2019s 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,\u201d said public relations representative Kim Frum.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeliveries of new NGDVs to the Postal Service remain on track to the contracted schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u20143\/10\/25 – DOGE\u00a0Subcommittee Member Congressman Michael Cloud (R-Texas) and U.S.\u00a0Senate\u00a0DOGE\u00a0Caucus Chair Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) are introducing the\u00a0Return to Sender Act\u00a0to\u00a0terminate and\u00a0claw back\u00a0$3 billion authorized in the\u00a0so-called\u00a0Inflation Reduction Act\u00a0to help build an electric vehicle (EV) fleet for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). While the\u00a0initial order for 50,000 trucks\u00a0was placed three years ago,\u00a0fewer than 100 trucks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29060,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37553"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37556,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37553\/revisions\/37556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}