The U.S. Postal Service plans to seek money from Congress to help fund its operations, an unusual request by an agency that’s working to stem an ongoing financial crisis.
The mail carrier plans to request a “relatively modest” appropriation in an upcoming legislative plan that it will submit to lawmakers, Postmaster General David Steiner said Friday during remarks at the USPS’s board meeting. The USPS plans to recommend that the appropriation be revisited periodically to account for inflation, and could be reduced in the future as the agency becomes more profitable, he said.
Seeking money from lawmakers highlights the depths of the postal service’s financial woes. The agency has historically been funded by revenue generated by its own operations, without regular appropriations from Congress.
The agency has raised prices and been aggressive in efforts to control expenses, Steiner said, but the USPS faces “a continuing and urgent financial crisis” as it provides universal mail service across the US.
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