Rep. Huffman Statement on USPS Announcement to Expand Electric Vehicle Order

July 20, 2022

Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) releases the following statement after the United States Postal Service (USPS) announced they intend to expand their electric vehicle purchase order by at least fifty percent:

“For over a year, Postmaster General DeJoy stubbornly insisted on buying over 40,000 new internal combustion vehicles that would get an embarrassing 8.6 mpg, even as USPS’ private sector competitors were aggressively moving their delivery fleets to 100% clean, reliable EVs.  Modifying the USPS purchase order to include 40% electric vehicles is a step in the right direction, but it’s not good enough,” said Rep. Huffman. “Postmaster General DeJoy is still attempting to spend billions of dollars mostly on polluting, built-for-obsolescence vehicles.  He is still pretending that OshKosh, a military contractor that has never made an electric vehicle, can competently design and produce thousands of them.  And he is still thumbing his nose at our national climate goals, including President Biden’s executive order directing all federal agencies to fully electrify their vehicle fleets.  I will keep working to make sure USPS fully electrifies its fleet with a competent EV manufacturer so that we can save billions in fuel and maintenance costs, slash carbon pollution, and help supercharge America's transition to zero-emission vehicles.”  

Rep. Huffman has been a leader on electrifying the USPS Postal Fleet since his first term in Congress. He has advocated to include funding for USPS vehicle electrification in yearly appropriations bills since 2014. Additionally, he has introduced legislation to provide the funding needed to transition to electric vehicles, such as the FLEET Act, first introduced in 2014, as well as the more recently introduced Postal Vehicle Modernization Act of 2021. This legislation, would require at least 75% of the new USPS fleet electric or zero emission and provides $6 billion to enable the Postal Service to reach that 75% electric vehicle target. Budgetary provisions from that bill were included in the reconciliation package that passed out of the House last fall.

Following the announcement of the USPS’ NGDV contract with Oshkosh in 2021, Rep. Huffman has taken several actions to push for investigation into the contract and increase the number of electric vehicles:

  • Huffman joined Representative Marcy Kaptur in a House Resolution calling on the Biden administration to halt the contract until an investigation can be conducted. He also led a letter to the USPS Board of Governors requesting they halt the contract until the three vacancies on the Board of Governors are filled.
  • This February, Rep. Huffman joined with Congressional colleagues in a bicameral letter calling on the USPS to change the procurement plan to dramatically increase the electrification of the mail delivery fleet.
  • In March he sent a letter with members of the House Oversight Committee to the U.S. Postal Service Inspector General Tammy Whitcomb requesting that the IG initiate an investigation into the Postal Service’s compliance with NEPA when issuing the contract for NGDV.
  • In April, he joined the House Committee on Oversight and Reform in a hearing to examine the errors and discrepancies at the heat of the USPS’s decision to purchase mostly gas-powered vehicles as part of the contract.

 

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