The head of the U.S. Postal Service says the USPS is going to need some more money before the end of the year if the agency continues to make required retirement and other payments to the government.
Speaking at a House Oversight subcommittee meeting, Postmaster General David Steiner told Congress that without a hike in stamp prices, permission to borrow more money –along with other reforms – the postal service could run out of money by October or November.
“We’re in a crisis,” Steiner told lawmakers.
According to a report from Reuters, Steimer said if the service defaults on some payments as it has in recent years, it will be out of money in less than a year. “If we stretch those out we’re looking at more like February,” he told lawmakers.
He laid out options for the USPS to cut costs: ending six-day-a-week deliveries, closing post offices or raising first-class mail stamp prices to $1 or more, up from the current $0.78.
USPS is waiting for a report from consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal, which was hired to help with planning for all scenarios, Reuters reported. “When you have less than 12 months of cash available, you have to look at everything,” Steiner said.
Reuters first reported in December that Steiner believed USPS will run out of money as soon as early 2027. The service has reported net losses of $118 billion since 2007 as first-class mail, its most profitable product, has fallen to its lowest volume since the late 1960s, according to the report.
Republican Representative Pete Sessions, who chaired the hearing, said he would work with USPS to address concerns but said he does not support raising stamp prices. “We’re going to have to make tough decisions,” Sessions said, according to the report.
