Congress must tie any USPS bailout to real reform

The U.S. Postal Service just announced a projected loss of $1.95 billion for the second quarter of 2026 — its fifth quarterly loss in a row after 19 consecutive years in the red. Postmaster General David Steiner has warned that USPS could run out of cash by early 2027 without help from Congress. But no matter what lawmakers decide to do, any legislation should also enforce accountability, accessibility and affordability requirements to keep USPS from squandering yet another effort by Congress to financially stabilize the agency.

The instinct in Washington will be all too familiar: Raise the USPS borrowing authority, tolerate yet another round of steep price increases and call it a rescue. While it’s clear that Congress must take action soon to keep USPS from going broke, now is not the time for another blank check. That’s because USPS doesn’t have a revenue problem; it has a spending problem. Without holding USPS accountable, any financial relief from Congress will just be a band-aid on a gaping wound, setting the stage for a massive taxpayer bailout.

When former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy unveiled the 10-year Delivering for America plan in 2021, he projected USPS would break even by fiscal year 2023 thanks to aggressive, frequent rate increases, operational cost cuts and a pivot to packages over mail. Yet instead of breaking even, USPS has lost more than $30 billion since the Delivering for America plan was launched — even after the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 eliminated $120 billion in liabilities. And although the stated intent of the reform law was to prevent the need for large rate increases, DeJoy plowed ahead with frequent stamp hikes, raising prices seven times in five years at rates above inflation — a move that the Postal Regulatory Commission has said reduced mail volume and revenue.

DeJoy’s Delivering for America plan has only produced higher prices for consumers and has done scarcely nothing to control spending. And despite the Delivering for America plan’s failures, the USPS Board of Governors and Postmaster General Steiner are continuing down the same path, even though the Postal Service is hemorrhaging cash and customers.

Cuts should, and could, be made without compromising universal service and affordability. USPS operating costs increased by nearly 10 percent between 2021 and 2025. Lower-cost, part-time positions declined, but full-time staffing increased by 37,783 from 2020 to 2024, and only fell by about 2,000 since then. Meanwhile, USPS total factor and labor productivity has fallen to the lowest levels in the modern agency’s history, as the one-to-three-day service standard for First Class mail increased to five days.

In recent testimony before Congress, Postmaster General Steiner advocated for raising the stamp price to nearly $1. Higher prices are not the answer. In fact, they are contributing to the Postal Service’s financial woes. As the Postal Regulatory Commission, the agency charged with USPS oversight, explained in a January report, the shift to twice-a-year rate increases accelerated mail volume decline and revenue losses by pricing out both consumers and business. With each price hike above inflation, the Postal Service cannibalizes the mail, which is still its biggest revenue source.

Steiner also asked Congress to raise the Postal Service’s borrowing authority, which is currently capped at $15 billion — a limit that has already been met. Given that USPS is facing $8 billion in projected losses this year, even doubling its borrowing authority isn’t likely to even carry it through 2027.

Privatization is also not a panacea. While European countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands have privatized their mail delivery, they’ve experienced widespread service deterioration and rising costs. It also wouldn’t work in the U.S. due to the sheer size of our country. No private courier could, or would, deliver mail for all Americans.

If DeJoy’s Delivering for America plan taught us anything, it’s that raising rates and borrowing more money isn’t a path to solvency for the Postal Service without cost control and productivity requirements. A CPI-based price cap, for example, would require USPS to improve efficiency and live within its means. Any service reductions must be required to provide guaranteed savings and the Postal Regulatory Commission’s oversight should be strengthened to ensure USPS improves efficiency and cost discipline. USPS could break even and improve profitability over the next five years if it cuts costs by just 2 percent annually.

Any private bankrupt entity would be expected to restructure before borrowing more. Congress should expect nothing less from the Postal Service, otherwise American taxpayers will be left holding the bag (of mail).

Kevin Yoder is a former Republican congressman from Kansas and executive director of Keep US Posted, a nonprofit advocacy group of consumers, nonprofits, newspapers, greeting card publishers, magazines, catalogs and small businesses.