Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said he wants the U.S. Postal Service to help conduct the next U.S. Census.
He said it would be a cost-saving "genius move" because postal carriers already reach households daily.
Lutnick told Breitbart News that using postal workers could avoid the traditional buildup of a large temporary census field force.
"The job of the census is to go to everybody’s house, and count everybody, 340,000,000 people," he said.
"So, the census, we’d hire 500,000 people, we’d train them, rent them cars, give them gas, and they’d go out and try to find people.
Which department of the United States of America already has 500,000 people, already has cars, and goes to everybody’s house every day? Oh, the post office!"
"So, here’s the genius move — we are hiring the post office to do the census."
"I don’t have to hire 500,000 people, I don’t have to teach them where everybody lives," Lutnick added.
Lutnick said his department has funding to pay for the approach and said they would be "doing a test on April 1" of 500,000 people.
The U.S. Census Bureau has announced a 2026 Census Test tied to preparations for the 2030 head count, and the agency has said the test includes evaluating use of the Postal Service "in various capacities typically performed by Census Bureau field workers."
The bureau has also said the test’s reference day is April 1, 2026, and a Federal Register notice describing the operational test says USPS staff will support in-field enumeration during the test.
In the Breitbart discussion, Alex Marlow and John Carney pressed Lutnick on public cooperation, and Carney suggested residents would be more likely to respond to a familiar mail carrier.
Lutnick agreed and said he doubts people would open the door for a stranger, but would be more receptive to "the postman" confirming household information.
Lutnick’s staffing comparison echoes earlier census hiring plans.
Ahead of the 2020 census, the Census Bureau said it launched recruitment to hire approximately 500,000 temporary workers.
Separately, the Census Bureau estimated the U.S. population at 341.8 million as of July 1, 2025, a figure slightly above the 340 million Lutnick cited.
The Postal Service’s workforce is also larger than the 500,000-employee figure Lutnick cited in his remarks.
In its fiscal year 2025 Form 10-K, USPS reported that its workforce totaled about 624,000 as of Sept. 30, 2025, including about 531,000 career employees and about 93,000 pre-career employees.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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