Congressional Republicans are looking to pull the plug on former President Joe Biden’s initiative to “electrify” the U.S. Postal Service’s delivery vehicle fleet, a piece of the previous administration’s Green New Deal agenda.
In December 2022, the Biden-Harris administration proudly touted the USPS’s announcement that it would be investing $9.6 billion to put the fleet of Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDV) on the road with $3 billion in funding coming from Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act, but as is often the case with renewable energy schemes, it has failed to deliver.
BREAKING NEWS: USPS Intends To Deploy Over 66,000 Electric Vehicles by 2028, Making One of the Largest Electric Vehicle Fleets in the Nation. https://t.co/7N6GpTkFlt pic.twitter.com/6rPiBHSrh9
— U.S. Postal Service (@USPS) December 20, 2022
Despite its vow to put 66,000 new battery electric delivery vehicles on the road by 2028, the actual number is coming up far short with only about 250 electric vehicles already produced, according to a the New York Post which reported on the costly “boondoggle” in July amid GOP efforts to cancel the initiative and give the money back to taxpayers.
“Biden’s multi-billion-dollar EV fleet for the USPS is lost in the mail, and more than $1 billion is postmarked to order more,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) said in a post to X last month. “I am working to cancel the order and return the money to the sender, the American people.”
Biden’s multi-billion-dollar EV fleet for @USPS is lost in the mail and yet, they’ve postmarked over $1 billion for more orders.
The rescissions package is a great start, but I am fighting to make DOGE a lifestyle in Washington and stamp out waste like this on a regular basis. https://t.co/TEyvNSKw4G
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) July 18, 2025
In June, the Senate parliamentarian rejected a GOP measure in President Donald J. Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” that would have required the USPS to sell off the new electric vehicles and revoke the remainder of the money.
National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association President Donald Maston argued that Republicans in Congress would actually be wasting money if they canceled the EV program now.
“I think it would be shortsighted for Congress to now suddenly decide they’re going to try to go backwards and take the money away for the EVs or stop that process because that’s just going to be a bunch of money on infrastructure that’s been wasted,” Maston said, according to The Hill.
Ernst defended efforts to end the Biden-era boondoggle, saying that “it didn’t make sense for the Postal Service to invest so heavily in an all-electric force.”
“You always evaluate the programs, see if they are working. But the rate at which the company that’s providing those vehicles is able to produce them, they are so far behind schedule, they will never be able to fulfill that contract,” the senator said during a recent appearance at the Iowa State Fair, referring to Wisconsin-based Oshkosh, which landed a federal contract to deliver the EVs.
“For now,” Ernst added, “gas-powered vehicles — use some ethanol in them — I think is wonderful.”
Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX), who co-sponsored the effort to claw back the EV money, also blasted the boondoggle, which he says “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 a March statement.
“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,” a USPS spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital earlier this year.
“Deliveries of new NGDVs to the Postal Service remain on track to the contracted schedule,” the spox added.
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