WASHINGTON — The head of the U.S. Postal Service told lawmakers that it would be “out of cash in less than 12 months” unless the agency is allowed ot borrow more money and charge more for postage.
“In about a year from now, the Postal Service would be unable to deliver the mail if we continue the status quo,” postmaster David Steiner told the Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations, The New York Times reported.
He called it a “critical juncture,” Business Insider said.
USPS, which is an independent agency, had net losses of $9.5 billion in 2024, $9 billion in 2025, and so far this year has lost nearly $1.3 billion.
The debt limit for the USPS is $15 billion currently.
He blames the challenges on people sending less mail. In 2006, it delivered 213 billion pieces, but now it is only about 109 billion, Steiner said.
Amazon is also planning to cut the number of packages it sends through the USPS, The Wall Street Journal reported.
It wants to cut the number by two-thirds by the fall, according to the newspaper.
USPS delivered more than a billion items for Amazon last year, accounting for about 15% of packages delivered by the agency.
The Postal Service is expected to be self-sufficient, the Times said.
It is also required by federal regulations to deliver mail to every rural or urban address six days a week, according to Business Insider.
Steiner said that the increase in borrowing authority will give the agency time to decide the next steps to reverse its financial challenges, but it can’t just be cuts to service or jobs.
“We can do anything you want,” Steiner said, according to Business Insider. “But someone has to pay for it.”
One idea he suggested was raising the price of a first-class stamp to 90 to 95 cents, up from the current 78-cent price, CBS News reported.
“As you all know, there are only three things that any company can do to improve financial performance — sell more products, raise prices or cut costs,” Steiner said. “On the pricing side, we need to look for higher prices on both our package and mail products.”
He said the 12-to 17-cent increase “would largely solve our controllable loss” and that the 78-cent price is the lowest “in the industrialized world.”
France charges about $3 while the U.K. charges about $2.50, while mail travels about 600 miles at its longest point, smaller than Texas, CBS News reported.
Steiner said the USPS delivers mail from “the tip of Puerto Rico to the tip of Alaska for 78 cents.”
The hearing came about five years after it introduced its Delivering for America plan, under a previous postmaster, to adjust its business model and reverse 14 years of losses totaling $87 billion, the Times said. Business Insider said the USPS has not been profitable since 2006.
The USPS does not get tax dollars from the government; it primarily survives on revenue from sales. It has, however, had some federal relief recently.
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