Overview
- PRC vice chair Robert Taub told lawmakers on June 4 that a recent regulator waiver and other actions have extended the time before the Postal Service might run out of cash by several years.
- The April waiver allowed USPS to temporarily stop employer payments into the Federal Employees Retirement System, saving roughly $2.5 billion through September and potentially up to about $15 billion through 2030 if extended.
- After warning in March that cash could run out within about a year, USPS has frozen nonessential spending, paused some pension payments, hired restructuring advisers, and proposed raising first-class stamp prices to 82 cents starting July 12.
- Commissioners and members of both parties criticized the Delivering for America plan for failing to stop losses and for slowing mail in rural areas, and they pressed Congress to decide whether to accept reduced service levels or fund current nationwide delivery standards.
- USPS has reported roughly $120 billion in net losses since 2007 driven by falling first-class mail volume, which means Congress must either clearly define the universal service obligation and fund it or face years of structural deficits that could change how and how often Americans get mail.