Postmaster General David Steiner has told members of Congress that the U.S. Postal Service could be forced to cut a day of mail delivery due to budget woes.
In written testimony to the House subcommittee on Government Operations, Mr. Steiner said that “from the historic peak volume of 213 billion pieces per year in 2006 to 109 billion pieces today, we have lost over 104 billion pieces per year … if all of that lost volume was paid at the current price of a stamp, which is 78 cents, that’s about 81 billion dollars.”
Mr. Steiner said the agency’s financial shortfall is exacerbated by anti-monopoly regulations, retirement and workers’ compensation benefits, restrictions on where U.S. Postal Service retirement funds can be invested, a hard $15 billion borrowing limit and the need to deliver to every address six days a week.
Currently, Mr. Steiner said, 71% of U.S. Postal Service delivery routes are “financially underwater” and 58% of post offices do not make enough money to cover their operating costs. He expects the U.S. Postal Service to run out of money within a year; the agency had net losses of $9 billion in fiscal year 2025.
Cutting the number of delivery days from six to five, Mr. Steiner said, would save between $2.9 billion and $3.5 billion each year.
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