USPS Postmaster Warns of Cash Exhaustion in 12 Months

Postmaster General David Louis Steiner warned a House Oversight subcommittee on Tuesday that the United States Postal Service faces an imminent financial collapse, projecting it will exhaust its cash reserves in less than 12 months without congressional intervention to expand borrowing authority and enact reforms.

Steiner, who assumed the role last July, delivered written testimony outlining the agency's dire straits during a hearing of the Subcommittee on Government Operations. He emphasized that the USPS, an independent federal entity reliant on revenue from stamps and services rather than taxpayer funds, has incurred net losses totaling approximately $118 billion since 2007. These deficits stem primarily from a sharp decline in first-class mail volume, the agency's most profitable segment, which has plummeted from a peak of 213 billion pieces in 2006 to 109 billion in fiscal year 2025. At current pricing, this drop represents an estimated $81 billion in lost revenue, Steiner stated.

The USPS has already reached its statutory borrowing limit of $15 billion, set by Congress in 1992 and unchanged despite inflation and revenue shifts. Without access to additional funds from the...