{"id":47890,"date":"2026-03-18T22:31:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T22:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/the-usps-is-nearing-a-financial-breaking-point-postmaster-general-warns-we-were-thrown-an-anchor\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T22:31:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T22:31:16","slug":"the-usps-is-nearing-a-financial-breaking-point-postmaster-general-warns-we-were-thrown-an-anchor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/the-usps-is-nearing-a-financial-breaking-point-postmaster-general-warns-we-were-thrown-an-anchor\/","title":{"rendered":"The USPS is nearing a financial breaking point, postmaster general warns: &#8216;We were thrown an anchor&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69baff0debc245a53a8119b8?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A mailman reaches into the back of a small, white USPS truck.\"\/><figcaption>USPS is running out of cash, the Postmaster General warned during congressional testimony.<\/p>\n<p>Jakub Porzycki\/NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>The USPS could run out of cash within a year, David Steiner warned.<\/li>\n<li>Steiner said the agency may need to raise its borrowing limit or increase prices to stay afloat.<\/li>\n<li>USPS risks losing a significant share of its Amazon shipping business.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The head of the US Postal Service is warning lawmakers that the agency would run out of cash within the next year unless Congress steps in.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, David Steiner, the postmaster general, called the situation a &quot;critical juncture&quot; during a House Oversight hearing.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;In about a year from now, the Postal Service would be unable to deliver the mail if we continue the status quo,&quot; Steiner said. &quot;I like to say that we got thrown overboard and into the water. But, instead of tossing us a life jacket, we were thrown an anchor.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>The agency is federally mandated to deliver mail to every address \u2014 rural or urban \u2014 across the US, six days a week.<\/p>\n<p>USPS hasn&#039;t turned a profit since 2006.<\/p>\n<p>Last fiscal year, the 250-year-old agency said it lost $9 billion, following a $9.5 billion loss in the fiscal year 2024. The agency&#039;s debt limit, meanwhile, rests at $15 billion.<\/p>\n<p>To help address the problems, Steiner, who took over as USPS&#039;s top role last year, proposed increasing the agency&#039;s borrowing authority and raising stamp prices.<\/p>\n<p>USPS isn&#039;t designed to operate like a typical profit-driven company, Amrou Awaysheh, the associate professor of operations and supply chain at Indiana University, said. It&#039;s designed instead to deliver important packages \u2014 including prescriptions, mail-in ballots, and letters \u2014 to all residents.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Private carriers frequently hand off the &#039;last mile&#039; to USPS in these places because the routes aren&#039;t profitable for them,&quot; Awaysheh told Business Insider. &quot;If USPS has to pull back, there is no obvious private player ready to match its universal coverage at the same prices.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Steiner said part of the agency&#039;s financial challenges stems from Americans sending fewer letters.<\/p>\n<p>He pointed to a dramatic long-term decline in mail volume. At its peak in 2006, USPS delivered 213 billion pieces annually.<\/p>\n<p>That has plunged to about 109 billion today \u2014 a drop he said represents roughly $81 billion in lost revenue at current stamp prices. Right now, he reported that 71% of USPS delivery routes are losing money.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69bb1784d387710cb9e460cd?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A line of USPS trucks from the back outside of a brick building.\"\/><figcaption>USPS said fewer Americans are sending mail. It&#039;s lost more than $18 billion since 2024.<\/p>\n<p>: Spencer Jones\/GHI\/UCG\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&quot;No company could weather that much revenue loss,&quot; Steiner said.<\/p>\n<p>USPS is also facing the possibility of losing a significant portion of its package business with Amazon, its largest customer.<\/p>\n<p>According to a person familiar with the matter, USPS could lose at least two-thirds of its Amazon shipping volume by the fall.<\/p>\n<p>An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement that it &quot;wanted to increase our volumes with the USPS,&quot; but the agency &quot;abruptly walked away at the eleventh hour.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>USPS didn&#039;t immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Losing Amazon&#039;s high volume, high-frequency stream will be difficult to replace in a competitive market,&quot; Donnafay MacDonald, the retail industry research director at Info-Tech Research Group, told Business Insider. &quot;The issue at hand is the effect this has on USPS per unit costs, as relatively lower volumes usually lead to increased per unit costs.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Steiner said on Tuesday that his agency needs to bring in more cash \u2014 and added that it won&#039;t get there just by making more cuts to services or jobs.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;We can do anything you want,&quot; he said. &quot;But someone has to pay for it.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>USPS is running out of cash, the Postmaster General warned during congressional testimony. Jakub Porzycki\/NurPhoto via Getty Images The USPS could run out of cash within a year, David Steiner warned. Steiner said the agency may need to raise its borrowing limit or increase prices to stay afloat. USPS risks losing a significant share of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47891,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-47890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}