GAO – U.S. Postal Service: Action Needed to Fix Unsustainable Business Model

What GAO Found

In 2021, the United States Postal Service (USPS) introduced a 10-year strategy designed to improve its poor financial condition while fulfilling its statutory mandates. USPS has taken many actions to try to increase revenue and reduce expenses since this strategy was introduced, such as increasing prices and redesigning its transportation network and processing operations. As part of its strategy, USPS also requested the federal government to take action. Congress partially fulfilled this request via the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022. This act canceled $57 billion of USPS’s missed payments, among other things.

However, USPS’s financial condition remains poor. While USPS has increased revenue, its total expenses continue to outpace total revenue leading to further losses (see fig.). In addition, USPS’s unfunded liabilities and debt have steadily increased since fiscal year 2022. USPS projects that if it made all its required payments toward its unfunded liabilities in full, it would run out of cash as early as fiscal year 2026. USPS updated its strategic plan in 2024, but this plan did not include financial projections showing how near-term results from the updated plan’s actions could increase revenue or reduce expenses. Without financial projections, USPS does not have targets to show progress or to effectively communicate how its actions will restore USPS’s financial sustainability.