USPS wants Congress to loan them more money to avoid going broke by 2027

Postal chief says money runs out soon

The U.S. Postal Service could run out of money to pay workers and vendors by February 2027. Postmaster General David Steiner made the warning in interviews with Reuters and the Associated Press in early March.

He said Congress needs to lift the agency’s $15 billion borrowing cap, a limit that has not changed since the early 1990s. Without that fix, USPS would need to borrow more from the U.S. Treasury just to keep running.

A waste industry CEO took the job

Steiner became the 76th Postmaster General in July 2025.

Before that, he ran Waste Management, the country’s largest waste hauler, and sat on the board of FedEx. He replaced Louis DeJoy, who left after finishing a five-year commitment.

Steiner has said he didn’t fully understand how bad the financial problems were until he stepped into the role. The numbers he found were worse than anything he expected.

Mail volume dropped by half in 15 years

Americans just don’t send as much mail as they used to.

Annual volume has fallen from about 220 billion pieces to roughly 110 billion as people shifted to email, online banking, and digital payments.

At current stamp prices, that drop equals about $86 billion in lost revenue over 15 years.

USPS posted about a $9 billion net loss in fiscal year 2025, a small improvement from roughly $9.5 billion the year before. The agency has piled up about $120 billion in net losses since 2007.

A decades-old cap limits borrowing

Congress set USPS’s borrowing limit at $15 billion in the early 1990s and has never raised it. Adjusted for inflation, that cap would top $30 billion today.

The agency maxed it out years ago and can only borrow from the U.S. Treasury, not from private banks or capital markets. Steiner called lifting the cap the easiest first step lawmakers could take.

It wouldn’t fix everything, but it would buy time.

USPS hires a restructuring firm

USPS brought in consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal to map out every possible scenario. All options are on the table, including cuts to service and staffing.

Steiner told Reuters the agency could be out of cash within 12 months without changes. He said USPS can’t sit around waiting for outside help and needs its own backup plans ready.

The agency reported about $80.5 billion in operating revenue against nearly $89.8 billion in expenses last fiscal year.

Steiner pushes Congress on several fronts

Steiner wants more than just a higher borrowing cap. He’s also pushing Congress to let USPS raise stamp prices enough to cover its losses.

Right now, a first-class stamp costs 78 cents. Steiner has said bumping it to 95 cents could help stabilize things.

He also wants Congress to reform pension and retiree health benefit rules, including letting the agency invest in more than just Treasury bills. Workers’ compensation reform is on his list too.

A pricing board controls stamp costs

Even if Steiner wants higher prices, he can’t set them on his own.

The Postal Regulatory Commission, an independent body Congress created, controls pricing and hasn’t approved the kind of increases Steiner wants.

Postal officials point out that U.S. stamp prices rank among the lowest in wealthy nations. But the advocacy group Keep Us Posted has pushed Congress to tie any price hikes to service quality.

That tension makes a quick fix unlikely.

Congress gave some relief in 2022

Congress passed the Postal Service Reform Act in 2022.

The law ended a rule that forced USPS to prefund retiree health benefits decades into the future, a requirement no other federal agency or private company faced.

That mandate had been draining billions from the agency every year since 2006. The law also required future USPS retirees to sign up for Medicare.

Even with that relief, annual losses kept growing.

Millions of Americans depend on mail

USPS delivers to more than 170 million addresses six days a week.

Millions of people count on it for prescription drugs, government checks, bills, and legal documents. Rural communities depend on it the most because private carriers often skip remote areas.

Election ballots travel through USPS in states that use mail-in voting. If the agency can’t pay its workers, mail delivery across the country could grind to a halt.

The Trump administration floated a merger

President Trump suggested in 2025 that USPS could merge with the Department of Commerce.

Under former Postmaster General DeJoy, USPS signed a deal with the Department of Government Efficiency to cut jobs and spending. Employee unions organized protests over concerns about the agency’s independence.

Congress created USPS as an independent agency back in 1970, separate from the White House.

Steiner heads to Congress on March 17

Steiner plans to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives on March 17. He will warn lawmakers about the cash crisis and push for legislative fixes.

He put it bluntly: without action, there may be no Valentine’s Day cards delivered in February 2027. As of early March, members of Congress who oversee the Postal Service had not publicly responded to his warnings.

A bipartisan Congressional Postal Service Caucus launched in July 2025 to work on reforms.

The clock is ticking for USPS

If Congress doesn’t act, USPS may have to make deep cuts to service or staffing. The restructuring plan from Alvarez & Marsal will lay out options for every scenario.

Steiner has said the agency can’t simply cut its way to stability and must also grow revenue. USPS launched an online bidding platform in January 2026 to open its last-mile delivery network to more customers.

What happens next depends on Congress, the Postal Regulatory Commission, and the Trump administration.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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