The U.S. Postal Service is eyeing another overhaul after a $9 billion yearly loss.
New Postmaster General David Steiner said USPS must be more efficient and that it still has a “significant systemic annual revenue and cost imbalance.”
“To correct our financial imbalances, we must explore new revenue opportunities and public policy changes to improve our business model,” he added.
USPS, which lost $9.5 billion in the prior year, has lost more than $100 billion since 2007 despite significant restructuring and legislative reforms.
The U.S. Congress in 2022 provided the Postal Service with about $50 billion in financial relief over a decade.
USPS is seeking reforms, including changes to retiree pension benefit funding rules, diversification of pension assets, raising the statutory debt ceiling, and workers’ compensation administration reform.
USPS SEEKS TO RAISE PRICES
Separately, USPS on Friday proposed raising prices for various products, not including first-class mail. USPS proposed a 6.6% increase for Priority Mail, 5.1% for Priority Mail Express, 7.8% for USPS Ground Advantage and 6% for Parcel Select.
Amber McReynolds, who was re-elected chair of the Postal Board of Governors Friday, said “long-standing and unnecessary restrictions” are weighing down USPS’s bottom line.
She said there is an “urgent need for executive and legislative action” to ensure the postal service can be financially sustainable for the long-term.
In February, Republican President Donald Trump called USPS a “tremendous loser for this country,” and said he was considering merging the Postal Service with the U.S. Commerce Department, a move Democrats said would violate federal law.
Under White House pressure, the previous USPS chief, Louis DeJoy, resigned in March. He was one of many officials forced out under Trump.
DeJoy led efforts to drastically restructure the money-losing USPS for nearly five years, including cutting forecast cumulative losses over a decade to $80 billion from $160 billion. Mail volumes fell 5% in the 12 months ending September 30 to the lowest level since 1967.
The price of first-class mail stamps rose this year to 78 cents from 73 cents but USPS in September opted not to raise prices in January. Stamp prices are up 46% since early 2019, when they were 50 cents.
The USPS, an agency with 635,000 employees, reduced its workforce by 10,000 workers this year through a voluntary retirement program.
