An inspector general report has cited some positives for USPS finances but also notes that its financial picture in recent years has benefitted from several special infusions of funding from Congress that it called “unique events.”
As in other prior reports, the latest one charts financial pressures on the USPS over the last 25 years including the decline in First Class mail revenue amid increasing electronic communications; an obligation under a 2006 law to pre-fund future health care expenses for its retirees; and a cap under that law on what it could charge for “market-dominant” products such as First-Class mail, periodicals and marketing mail. One result was that by 2012, the USPS started defaulting annually on the prefunding obligation, it said.
