In the latest demonstration of Trump appointee idiocy, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has floated the ridiculous idea that USPS letter carriers—already stretched thin by massive workloads—should double as census takers for the 2030 count. The justification? Saving money by eliminating the need for temporary census workers. The reality? A logistical nightmare that exposes just how little thought went into this half-baked scheme.
For those unfamiliar with the demands of mail delivery, let’s lay it out plainly: some letter carriers are responsible for as many as 2,000 delivery points per day. That means handling mountains of mail, sorting packages, dealing with weather conditions, and meeting tight delivery windows—every single workday. Now Lutnick wants to throw in a federal data collection job on top of that? How, exactly, does he envision this working? Should mail carriers knock on doors, ask detailed census questions, and wait for answers in between dropping off Amazon packages?
And let’s not forget the legal and operational issues. The USPS is independent from the Commerce Department for a reason. Merging its functions with census work is not only unprecedented, but it could also violate the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, which keeps the USPS from being tangled in government overreach. Then there’s the ever-present risk of politicization—do we really want census data collection handled by a service that’s already been under fire for funding cuts, privatization attempts, and election-year manipulation?
This proposal isn’t just impractical—it’s dangerous. Census data collection is already a fragile operation, requiring specialized training, security protocols, and legal protections. Turning mail carriers into makeshift enumerators could undermine accuracy, slow down delivery times, and open the door to even more dysfunction in the census process.
If this is the best idea Lutnick has to cut costs, he should resign immediately. The census is far too important to be left in the hands of a guy who clearly doesn’t understand how either the USPS or data collection actually work.
