WASHINGTON — The below remarks are as prepared for delivery by Postmaster General and CEO David Steiner during the open session meeting of the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors on Aug. 7, 2025.
Thank you, Chairwoman McReynolds, and thanks to those in attendance and listening today.
Since this is my first open session of the Board of Governors, I would like to publicly thank the Board for entrusting me with the role of Postmaster General. It is a special honor, and I look forward to working with you as well as our management team, employees, customers, unions, and management associations.
I believe deeply in public service and in the mission of the United States Postal Service. Throughout my life, I have always admired this historic organization.
Prior to becoming the Postmaster General, I previously served on the Board of Directors for FedEx.
During that time, I experienced the Postal Service as a competitor, supplier, and customer. Through those different perspectives, I grew to appreciate the vital role it plays in binding our nation together.
Prior to that, I served as the CEO of Waste Management. As CEO, we developed a team that streamlined operations and drove profitability by focusing on our customers, all while relentlessly striving to improve the two most important aspects of any organization— employee safety and employee morale. Our USPS team will aim to foster similar outcomes, and many others, for the Postal Service.
Regarding the Postal Service, I have several key points I would like to articulate today.
First and foremost, the Postal Service needs to operate in a financially sustainable manner. This is not just a good idea, but it’s also required by law. We have faced significant challenges in the dynamically changing business environment that have put significant stress on our business model and have had a negative impact on the organization. But those obstacles from the past should not deter us from achieving financial sustainability.
We will strive to align our costs to revenue on a consistent, long-term basis. To do so, prioritizing strategies to drive operational efficiencies and generate sustained revenue growth will be key. We will also focus on being your provider of choice any time you ship a package.
Second, service is foundational to our success. Improved service for our customers—which in our case includes the entire American public—will lead to more volume and revenue, so service improvement will be a top priority for me and the management team, and we will remain committed to continuous improvement in our operational performance.
Third, our recent transformation and modernization efforts have brought the Postal Service closer to private sector logistics practices. Both the pricing and product strategies have improved our competitiveness. We will continue to aggressively pursue those strategies.
But we will need to do more to fully unlock strong revenue growth for the long term. As we unlock growth through better service, we will also reinvest that revenue back into our organization and into our people, empowering them with the tools and resources they need to succeed.
As part of that approach, I also aim to continue cultivating a positive employee experience because the hard-working women and men of the Postal Service are our greatest asset. They deserve to be part of a thriving organization, and I want our people to remain proud of their work and this organization at the end of every work day.
Lastly, the safety of our employees is paramount – whether our mail carriers on the streets or clerks and mail handlers in our retail outlets and plants. Each and every employee deserves to return home safe and sound. Employee wellbeing starts with a safer and healthier work environment through effective safety programs and improved risk management.
Since my first day as Postmaster General, I have been evaluating the strategies and programs of the strategic plan that’s in place. Although only three weeks into my tenure, my initial conclusion is that the 10-year plan positions the Postal Service to be on the right path. The strategy is sound. Now we have to execute.
But we can’t execute unless all of our team is working together. We all need to be rowing the oars in the same direction. That means getting buy in from all levels of the organization; holding each other responsible for executing the strategy; and sharing the rewards of the strategy with our employees. So, I intend to serve as a strong advocate for our employees and would ask each and every one of our employees to be a strong advocate for our customers. Together, we will identify lasting solutions and shape a stronger, better outlook for the Postal Service.
Before moving on to the quarterly results, I would like to recognize and thank our Deputy Postmaster General, Doug Tulino. Over the past four months, Doug has served as our Acting Postmaster General. He has kept this great organization humming and did a spectacular job filling that empty chair.
He engaged with operations management to resolve local service issues. He embodied the USPS commitment to delivery. He was a great ambassador for the Postal Service. And in my short time here, he has become a mentor and a friend.
Throughout the transition, his staunch leadership and resolute devotion have been remarkable. So, thank you, Doug, for serving as a constant amid a tremendous amount of change.
And thanks for all that you have done, and I emphasize, will continue to do for the Postal Service.
In working with Doug, I learned about one of our executives who recently retired, former Chief Technology Officer Scott Bombaugh. I want to commend him for his 38 years of exemplary service. Although he retired just before my tenure began, I have heard from many others about some of his lasting contributions that I would like to share today.
As CTO, he drove efforts to modernize our processing and delivery infrastructure for mail and packages. Through Scott’s leadership, his team provided each new or redesigned facility with a standardized floor plan, operating plans, and state-of-the-art processing and material handling equipment.
That includes deploying more than 585 package sorting machines nationwide to accommodate growing package volumes.
I congratulate Scott on his distinguished career and wish him good health and happiness during his retirement.
In today’s Open Session, Luke Grossmann, our Chief Financial Officer, will review our financial results in more detail, but I would like to share two trends. Ground Advantage volume continued growing in the third quarter, and our non-election marketing mail volume also grew. Going forward, we will absolutely focus on opportunities to increase revenue and expand our market base, while controlling costs and removing redundancies from our operations and systems.
As for third quarter service performance, our Chief Performance Officer, Dr. Joshua Colin, will provide those results later in this meeting, but the good news is that our on-time service performance improved generally across all products. That is due to a renewed focus on service through cross-functional meetings into local challenges in addition to the recent service standards implementation. We saw improvement, but there is still a long way to go.
As I have learned from some of my deep-dive meetings these past few weeks, the Postal Service has been implementing new standards to better align to our network capabilities, especially since we are operating more precisely and efficiently with the ultimate goal of ensuring that the service we are providing is highly reliable and on time.
As for our product portfolio, our Priority Mail Next Day product continues to perform well. It has been well received by customers across the 62 markets where it is available. Our pipeline of Negotiated Service Agreements, or NSAs, for this product continues to grow. Similarly, as our transportation power lanes grow, we hope to expand Priority Mail Next Day across more markets. We will continue evolving our product portfolio and solutions to solve customer problems.
Speaking of evolution, the Postal Service has a vast history of evolving—more than 250 years. Founded on July 26, 1775, the American postal system was born during the American revolution to serve the nation as its first communications network, long before the invention of telegraphs, telephones, and televisions.
As the nation took shape, so did the institution that helped unite it through communications.
Over two and a half centuries, the Postal Service boldly embraced new technologies to deliver mail to a growing population. As the nation grew, so did its postal network, which over time leveraged nearly all modes of transportation—from horseback to steamboat to stagecoach to railcar to automobile or truck to airplane.
In fact, the Postal Service retains the largest physical and logistical infrastructure of any non-military government institution. Our organization proudly delivers more mail and packages than any other post in the world, serving more than 169 million addresses in the country—covering every state, every city, and every town.
Everyone in the U.S. and its territories has access to our postal products and services, while paying the same rate for a First-Class Mail postage stamp, regardless of their location.
For over 250 years, the Postal Service has been making connections between people, businesses, or both, as that is our public service mandate—to bind the nation together by providing delivery of mail and packages that is affordable, reliable, and secure.
Recently, we celebrated our historic milestone of 250 years on July 26. As part of that celebration, we held special events, released a coffee table book, branded merchandise, and two commemorative stamps. One stamp, honoring our first Postmaster General, Ben Franklin, and the other honoring 250 years of delivering for America. This is a commercial so go to your local post office and buy these!
Throughout this year and into America’s 250th anniversary next year, we will continue hosting events and sharing our story nationwide. As we continue evolving, we aim to provide another 250 years of unwavering service to you and the American public.
As I conclude my remarks, I would like to thank the Governors, the entire management team, our stakeholders, and the women and men of the United States Postal Service for their dedicated service to our customers and the American Public.
Thank you, Madame Chair.
