Postmaster General David Steiner appeared in a congressional hearing this week, telling the panel, “At our current rate, we’ll be out of cash in less than 12 months.”
The Postal Service suffered losses of $9 billion last fiscal year and $9.5 billion in 2024, according to CNN.
A Wednesday press release from the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform stated, “The Postal Service’s already-troubled financial situation is getting worse.”
It’s an uphill battle in such a digital age.
As practices like writing checks and letters have declined, the postal service has felt the consequences.
“If all of that lost volume was paid at the current price of a stamp ($0.78), that’s about $81 billion of lost revenue. No company could weather that much loss,” Steiner said.
Steiner assumed the role of postmaster last May, but the 10-year plan introduced in 2021 by his predecessor to tackle the postal service’s financial challenges has not yet succeeded in reversing its losses, according to CNN.
Proposed solutions
Steiner called for stamp prices to be raised from 78 cents to 95 cents, saying this “would largely solve our controllable loss,” as reported by CNN.
Aside from that, Steiner advocated for two things: increased borrowing authority and operational independence or compensation.
“If we can do either of those, I can promise unparalleled service for the next 250 years,” he said.
He also said increased borrowing authority would buy them time, “time that we can use to best determine what the postal service should do to best serve the American public.”
Steiner pleaded with Congress to have them directly fund the cost of the Universal Service Obligation so the agency doesn’t have to subsidize public service with dwindling postage revenue.
Government and congressional response
David Marroni, director of physical infrastructure for the U.S. Government Accountability Office, said, “There are no easy solutions.”
“USPS and Congress have taken significant actions” in the past, he said, but ultimately Marroni feels the postal service’s current model is not sustainable.
Both sides agreed on the importance of addressing the agency’s funding woes, but disagreed on how much Congress should be involved.
This is both a short-term and long-term concern for government officials.
“Congress may need to provide some financial relief to help the USPS avoid running out of cash. At the same time, it’s essential that Congress also address the long-term issues with the USPS business model,” Marroni said.
Further, Chairman Pete Sessions expressed skepticism about whether the USPS could pay back any new debt taken on from additional government loans.
“One thing that is clear about all of this is we cannot let the United States Postal Service die,” Rep. Kwesi Mfume, D-Md., said.