USPS Asks Congress For Cash Rescue

The U.S. Postal Service is out of money. Postmaster General and CEO David Steiner told a Senate committee this week that USPS is borrowing from its employees' retirement funds just to keep the lights on, and warned that without congressional action the nation's mail and package network could collapse.

At a Glance

• USPS has nearly $31 billion in missed retirement and other required payments due by the end of fiscal year 2025, far exceeding its $8.9 billion cash on hand as of May 31, 2026.
• If the agency stopped deferring payments today, it would run out of cash before fiscal year 2025 ends.
• Without major changes, USPS projects its cash position could reach negative $125.9 billion by 2035.
• Six day universal delivery costs the agency $3.4 billion a year, with seven in ten of those routes running at a loss.
• Emergency spending freezes announced last month are expected to preserve $2.5 billion through the end of September.

What Steiner Told the Senate

In written testimony before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Steiner did not mince words. "The bottom line is that we are out of cash. We are borrowing from our employees' retirement funds to continue operations," he wrote, calling the agency's business model "broken" and demanding that Congress act to fix it.

The numbers behind that plea are stark. Even under the agency's base case scenario, in which USPS keeps deferring payments rather than settling them, its unrestricted cash position peaks at $17.5 billion in fiscal year 2031 and then swings to negative $3.4 billion by 2035, once retiree health benefit payments come due and the associated fund is exhausted. The worst case, with no deferrals and no reforms, puts that figure at negative $125.9 billion a decade from now.

Structural Problems Congress Has Left Unresolved

Steiner outlined several rules that prevent USPS from responding to its crisis the way a private company could. The agency's borrowing limit has been frozen at $15 billion for more than three decades, even as inflation and revenue have grown. Retirement fund investments are restricted to Treasury notes only. USPS is legally obligated to deliver to more than 170 million addresses six days a week. And prices are set by the Postal Regulatory Commission, not by the agency itself.

Universal six day delivery is the single biggest drag, costing $3.4 billion annually. Roughly 70 percent of those delivery routes lose money. Post offices are in similar shape: according to Reuters, about 58 percent of them operate at a loss.

Accumulated net losses since 2007 have now reached approximately $120 billion. That long decline tracks closely with the rise of digital communication, which gutted first class mail volumes and hollowed out what had been USPS's most profitable revenue stream.

What Steiner Is Asking For

As an immediate step, Steiner asked Congress to raise the agency's borrowing authority to between $30 billion and $40 billion, a level he said reflects both inflation and current revenue. He also called on lawmakers to resume a congressionally authorized public service reimbursement and to allow USPS to diversify how it invests its retirement funds.

Without those changes, Steiner warned, the agency could be forced to cut delivery days, close thousands of post offices, and raise the price of a First Class stamp.

Amazon and the Package Revenue Problem

The financial picture is complicated further by Amazon's decision to cut its USPS parcel volume by at least two thirds before its current contract expires. Package delivery had become one of the agency's growth areas, and losing a substantial share of that business removes a revenue cushion the agency can ill afford to lose right now.

To buy time, USPS announced last month that it had frozen non-essential spending and paused its employer side contributions to a federal pension program. Those two moves together are projected to preserve $2.5 billion in cash through the end of September.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why can't USPS just raise its own prices to cover the shortfall?

Postmaster General Steiner cited the Postal Regulatory Commission as a structural constraint: the agency cannot set its own prices freely the way a private company would. That pricing restriction is one of the reforms Steiner asked Congress to address.

What happens if Congress does nothing?

According to Steiner's testimony, the agency could be forced to cut delivery days, close post offices, and raise stamp prices. The worst case financial projection puts USPS's cash position at negative $125.9 billion by 2035.

How much does USPS currently owe in deferred obligations?

By the end of fiscal year 2025, USPS will have nearly $31 billion in missed payments on retirement and other required obligations, according to Steiner's Senate testimony.

What is USPS doing right now to conserve cash?

The agency announced last month that it froze non-essential expenditures and paused its employer side contributions to a federal pension program, steps expected to preserve roughly $2.5 billion through the end of September.

What Comes Next

The ball is now in Congress's court. Steiner's testimony sets up a direct confrontation between a federal agency in acute financial distress and a legislative body that has, by his account, left the core structural problems untouched for decades. Whether lawmakers act before the cash runs out is the question the Postal Service, and the 170 million addresses it serves, cannot afford to leave open much longer.