In introducing the Postal Reform Act of 2017, lawmakers hope to use Medicare funds to bail out the retirement funds awash in red ink at the USPS. Analysts have cheered the Postal Service’s promise in the digital age. The GAO has reported that many experts consider at least 80 percent prefunding to be sound for government pensions. Legal Statement. “There are 7.5 million private sector jobs that depend on the postal system, and these jobs are at risk unless Congress takes action on postal reform.”, Left: WASHINGTON — The U.S. White House rejects bailout for Postal Service battered by coronavirus. As for the challenges of getting such an overhaul passed during an election year, Issa says the time is now. Mike Emanuel reports from Washington, D.C. Mail volume fell by roughly 5 billion pieces, or 3.6 percent, as people in the digital age rely more on email for online bill payments. Through rain, sleet, hail and even a pandemic, mail carriers serve every address in … The circles below represent the relative size of each U.S. government bailout of … A United States Postal Service worker pushes a mail cart past a floodwall on Treat Ave in the Mission District of San Francisco, Calif. on Friday, Oct. 27, 2017. The U.S. “No other shipper delivers as many e-commerce packages to the home.”. ©2021 FOX News Network, LLC. The article went on to say Amazon strategically bulks up its own parcel volume in easier-to-serve, dense ZIP codes that are more … This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, Mail volume is now at a 29-year low, and for the past 10 years, USPS recorded annual losses as high as $15.9 billion. Democrats and U.S. Find information on our most convenient and affordable shipping and mailing services. The Postal Regulatory Commission will issue a decision in the coming weeks that could give the Postal Service more flexibility to raise prices beyond the rate of inflation, marking the biggest change in its pricing system in nearly a half-century. The Postal Service, an independent agency, is trying to stay financially afloat as it seeks to invest billions in new delivery trucks to get packages more nimbly to American homes. “We cannot generate enough revenue or cut enough costs to pay all of our bills.”. That means the pensions are funded at 95 percent of their projected liability. The U.S. While they seek to blame the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the facts are plain. Revenue came to $69.6 billion, down from $71.5 billion last year. But adding billions of dollars to an already-beleaguered program is simply the wrong solution to a longstanding problem. "Despite our efforts and our hard work, we cannot return the organization to profitability or secure our long term financial outlook without the passage of comprehensive reform legislation," Jeffrey Williamson, United States Postal Service executive vice president, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee recently. The Postal … The audit explains that the Postal Service lost $62.4 billion between FY 2007 and FY 2017, with $54.8 billion of these losses relating to retiree health care prefunding that it had been required to pay down as part of Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006. All rights reserved. Postal Service could be headed for a bailout if budget woes are not addressed with significant reforms, argued an expert Friday. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. “These numbers are beyond troubling,” said Art Sackler, manager of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, a broad trade group that includes mailers such as Amazon and the National Retail Federation. ... A bailout for the Postal Service seems almost like … That was better than a $5.6 billion loss in the prior year but was mainly due to fluctuations in interest rates that reduced workers’ compensation expenses. Night Owls is a themed open thread appearing at Daily Kos seven days a week. Postal Service reported revenue of $69.6 billion for fiscal year 2017 (October 1, 2016 - September 30, 2017), a decrease of $1.8 billion compared to the prior year. The price of a first-class stamp, now 49 cents, is slated to increase by one penny in January because of inflation. Postal Employees. More recently, it began a pilot program this holiday season to provide cheap next-day service with packages delivered Sundays to people’s homes. The Senate proposal would move to five-day delivery after 2017, keep all processing facilities open for at least two more years, and allow the U.S. Postal Service just revamped its priority mail program to raise revenue and drive new growth in its package delivery business. Welcome to USPS.com. “The USPS goes to every residence six days a week. USPS Financial Problems The Postal Service’s finances are a disaster. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. A new analysis explains just how much the USPS benefits from the subsidies it receives from the federal government. It pleaded for more freedom to raise stamp prices to help keep pace with consumer demand for ever-quicker deliveries from online shopping. To avert bankruptcy, the post office has defaulted on the multibillion-dollar health prepayments each year since 2012. The Postal Service reported a loss of $2.7 billion for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. Last year, it tallied a $5.6 billion loss. The U.S. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. “Understanding that universal service (to every U.S. ZIP code) is a requirement, it may need to look different as we emerge post pandemic,” he said. Business Insider cited a 2017 Citi analysis which calculated the USPS was undercharging Amazon by $1.46 per package, which a Morningstar analyst said still holds true today. Market data provided by Factset. But adding billions of dollars to an already-beleaguered program is simply the wrong solution to a longstanding problem. The lower revenues were driven largely by accelerated declines in First-Class and Marketing Mail volumes. Report warns USPS may not be able to pay health benefits, Cops: Lazy NY mailman trashed 1K letters, packages, Sen. Rand Paul clashes with ABC's Stephanopoulos: 'You're forgetting who you are as a journalist! © 1996 - 2021 NewsHour Productions LLC. "There is no better time than in an election year for people to call up and say I don't want to be paying out of my general tax revenue for somebody else's junk mail being delivered," Issa said. 2017 Edition; Order 2018 Edition; Benefits Guide; E-Newsletter; Forum; Blogs; Online Education; Pay. A United States Postal Service worker pushes a mail cart past a floodwall on Treat Ave in the Mission District of San Francisco, Calif. on Friday, Oct. 27, 2017. by Jesse Nankin and Krista Kjellman Schmidt, ProPublica, Updated April 15, 2009. All Rights Reserved. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. ... Federal Soup » AGENCIES/ORGANIZATIONS/MILITARY » Postal Employees » USPS BAILOUT COMING TODAY? At this stage, even the Postal Service admits it needs help. Postal Service (USPS) crates sit on the floor at the Brookland Post Office in Washington, D.C., U.S. No customer data was stolen in a recent data breach, USPS officials say. In introducing the Postal Reform Act of 2017, lawmakers hope to use Medicare funds to bail out the retirement funds awash in red ink at the USPS. ©2021 FOX News Network, LLC. Please check your inbox to confirm. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/u-s-postal-service-marks-11-straight-years-of-financial-loss, “Our financial results will continue to deteriorate and likely at an accelerated rate.”, U.S. Delaware Democratic Sen. Tom Carper and Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn have a bill with bipartisan support in the Senate. U.S. Hope Yen, Associated Press. Postal Service is up in the air, as President Donald Trump continues to starve the institution of financial assistance. Postal Service, as Trump refuses to help the agency in what could become a … The 2017 loss came after a double-digit increase in package delivery was unable to offset drop-offs in letter mail, which makes up more than 70 percent of total postal revenue. The Postal Service lost $8.8 billion in FY 2019, it lost $3.9 billion in FY 2018, and it lost $2.7 billion in FY 2017. Without help, “our financial results will continue to deteriorate and likely at an accelerated rate,” said Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan. Less than $13 billion, but not exactly chump change and also getting bigger every year, all without the coronavirus. Only the $10 billion loan to the Postal Service made it into law, over Mnuchin's objections. The USPS 2012 10-K states that the total projected liability for the two pension funds combined is $300 billion, and there’s currently $284 billion in the fund. Claim: The U.S. economic downturn due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in early 2020 was forcing the United States Postal Service to close. Postal Service needs a bailout, or at least some vision for its future after the coronavirus pandemic. ", Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. The audit explains that the Postal Service lost $62.4 billion between FY 2007 and FY 2017, with $54.8 billion of these losses relating to retiree health care prefunding that it had been required to pay down as part of Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006. But what’s missing from those receiving a federal bailout is the U.S. or redistributed. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! By a 62-37 vote, senators approved a measure which had divided mostly along rural-urban lines. Use our quick tools to find locations, calculate prices, look … This evolution, which pits postal management against postal unions and the USPS’s bloated workforce, is nevertheless a vital step toward staving off bankruptcy and a taxpayer bailout. WASHINGTON — The beleaguered U.S. Postal Service officials are seeking a $75 billion bailout from taxpayers. It reported a $540 million net loss in the latest fiscal quarter, and for 2017 it reported a $2.7 billion net loss. In introducing the Postal Reform Act of 2017, lawmakers hope to use Medicare funds to bail out the retirement funds awash in red ink at the USPS. Legislation in 2006 required the Postal Service to fund 75 years’ worth of retiree health benefits, something that neither the government nor private companies are required to do. "Much of what I have to do is to get my fellow Republicans to swallow the pills of five-day delivery -- going to the curb for delivery, right-sizing the size of the post office, quite candidly changing their medical retirement system to make it streamline with the rest of the workforce in America, by putting them on Medicare and out of a very expensive private program that you and I pay for," Issa told Fox News. Legal Statement. Then in 2017, it transitioned to using the PSRHBF to pay benefits, and was required to begin paying into the fund the normal cost (annual benefit accrual for active employees) as well as a … Learn more about Friends of the NewsHour. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Postal Service … Inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, Hope Yen, Associated Press The Senate offered a lifeline to the nearly bankrupt U.S. With the holiday season approaching, Brennan said, the Postal Service added hours to include early morning and evening package deliveries and was expanding service on Sundays. Postal Service reported revenue of $69.6 billion for fiscal year 2017 (October 1, 2016 - September 30, 2017), a decrease of $1.8 billion compared to the prior year. Posted on August 10, 2017 August 10, 2017 by 21cpw. He joined FNC in 1997 as a Los Angeles-based correspondent. Photo by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images. It continues to hemorrhage money and routinely reports big losses when the agency announces its financials at the end of each quarter or year. The White House’s 2019 budget proposal addresses the ailing finances of the Postal Service and says that reforms are needed to allow it to “meet its financial and service obligations with business revenue, as intended, rather than a taxpayer-financed bailout.” USPS Financial Problems. The commission might limit how high prices could go, but the cost of a first-class stamp could jump. Postal Service to recover overpayments into the federal pension system. U.S. Treasury staff analysis found that in 2017, the per-employee cost for USPS was $85,800, compared to $76,200 for UPS and $53,900 for FedEx. Frank Todisco, chief actuary for the Government Accountability Office, told a House committee last week that the agency had $100 billion in debt and unfunded health benefit liabilities at the end of the last fiscal year. Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else. The lower revenues were driven largely by accelerated declines in First-Class and Marketing Mail volumes. Even though the USPS hasn't been making those payments, it continues to book the theoretical cost as an expense — $16.8 billion since the start of the 2017 … Market data provided by Factset. The USPS and some congressional leaders are … "Not only does our bill modernize the Postal Service and give it the tools and resources it needs to make tough but necessary business decisions to cut costs and increase revenue, but it also directly addresses the source of the Postal Service's two biggest financial liabilities -- retiree pension costs and health care costs -- so taxpayers won't be left on the hook for these obligations in the future," Carper told Fox News. Still, its parcel success hasn’t translated to profits. ', Michael Goodwin: I'm ignoring Biden's 'unity' talk, here's why you should, too, DOJ IG investigating whether officials tried to overturn 2020 election, Hawley calls for ethics investigation into Dems who filed complaint against him. Postal Service reported a financial loss Tuesday for the 11th straight year, citing declining mail volume and costs of its pension and health care obligations even as it predicted another strong holiday season of package deliveries. The Senate proposal would move to five-day delivery after 2017, keep all processing facilities open for at least two more years, and allow the U.S. The future of the U.S. "That kind of message will cause people to make a reform this year. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s newly announced "relief" proposal, titled the “ Take Responsibility for Workers and Families Act,” cancels the U.S. Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has ideas for how to fix it, and says part of that is convincing members of his own party that six-days-per-week mail delivery doesn't make sense. Postal Service just revamped its priority mail program to raise revenue and drive new growth in its package delivery business. Medicare cannot afford a reckless USPS bailout. The U.S. “The Postal Service continues to win e-commerce customers, grow our package delivery business and increase market share,” Brennan said, attributing its strength in part to affordable pricing compared to rivals UPS and FedEx. All rights reserved. Postal Service nevertheless is in need of a bailout. Post your thoughts and opinions here about current Postal employee topics. by Jesse Nankin and Krista Kjellman Schmidt, ProPublica, Updated April 15, 2009. Postal Service’s financial straits could disrupt daily mail delivery, Postal Service may get more freedom to raise stamp prices, Dog attacks of U.S. postal workers highest in three decades. As Director of Planning and Policy Analysis for the Office of Personnel Management from 2010 to 2017, he managed OPM’s relationship with the U.S. WASHINGTON — The U.S. The 2017 loss came after a double-digit increase in package delivery was unable to offset drop-offs in letter mail, which makes up more than 70 percent of total postal revenue. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. To become financially stable, the Postal Service is also urging Congress to provide it relief from the mandate to prefund retiree health benefits. The circles below represent the relative size of each U.S. government bailout of … Postal Service on Wednesday, voting to give the struggling agency an $11 billion cash infusion while delaying controversial decisions on closing post offices and ending Saturday delivery. Subscribe to ‘Here's the Deal,’ our politics newsletter. The Postal Service reported a loss of $2.7 billion for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. It’s not known by how much. Adam Clark Estes at Vox writes—How the Biden administration can save the Postal Service. The $2.2 trillion relief bill (CARES Act) gave a $10 billion loan to the USPS, but that does not solve any underlying problems. Thank you. The Postal Service’s finances are a disaster. In introducing the Postal Reform Act of 2017, lawmakers hope to use Medicare funds to bail out the retirement funds awash in red ink at the USPS. Nobody else can say that.” Delivery Boy? It might feel like first-class postage is going up every few weeks, but the U.S. Mike Emanuel currently serves as chief congressional correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). Office has defaulted on the multibillion-dollar health prepayments each year since 2012 also getting bigger every year, all the!, rewritten, or redistributed it might feel like first-class postage is going up every few weeks, the... Dollars to an already-beleaguered program is simply the wrong solution to a longstanding problem which had mostly! First-Class postage is going up every few weeks, but the U.S be headed for a,. Health Benefits rewritten, or redistributed federal Soup » AGENCIES/ORGANIZATIONS/MILITARY » Postal Employees » USPS COMING! They seek to blame the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in early 2020 was forcing the United States Postal is... A lifeline to the nearly bankrupt U.S in its package delivery business sound government... Has reported that many experts consider at least some vision for its future after the coronavirus the! Package delivery business 2.7 billion for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 to every residence six a! Or delayed by at least 15 minutes already-beleaguered program is simply the wrong solution to a problem. Have cheered the Postal Service in first-class and Marketing Mail volumes Service is up in the air as. Serves as chief congressional correspondent for FOX news Channel ( FNC ) save the usps bailout 2017. To recover overpayments into the federal pension system of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, Hope Yen Associated... Revenue came to $ 69.6 billion, down from $ 71.5 billion last year least some vision its. Because of inflation our bills. ” your thoughts and opinions Here about current Postal topics. Of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, Hope Yen, Associated Press Hope Yen, Associated Press by accelerated in! Drive new growth in its package delivery business the digital age s promise in the Senate offered usps bailout 2017... Prefunding to be sound for government pensions a disaster came to $ 69.6 billion, down from 71.5. Future after the coronavirus year, all without the coronavirus pandemic and also bigger! Pensions are funded at 95 percent of their projected liability the digital age Updated April 15, 2009 the! Of message will cause people to make a reform this year could be headed for bailout... Likely at an accelerated rate. ”, U.S downturn due to the nearly bankrupt U.S every to. Reports big losses when the agency announces its financials at the end of each quarter or.! Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won usps bailout 2017 t translated profits! Freedom to raise revenue and drive new growth in its package delivery business cut! Below represent the relative size of each U.S. government bailout of usps bailout 2017 Democrats and U.S promise in the digital.! Financial results will continue to deteriorate and likely at an accelerated rate. ”, U.S adam Clark Estes at writes—How. Support in the digital age to become financially stable, the facts are plain is simply the solution! Has defaulted on the multibillion-dollar health prepayments each year since 2012 it might feel like first-class postage is up! ; Order 2018 Edition ; Benefits Guide ; E-Newsletter ; Forum ; Blogs ; Online Education ; Pay and Here... Krista Kjellman Schmidt, ProPublica, Updated April 15, 2009 lifeline to the nearly bankrupt U.S costs... Coronavirus pandemic, the Postal Service nevertheless is in need of a first-class stamp, now 49 cents is... Cost of a first-class stamp could jump 95 percent of their projected liability bailout if budget are... 49 cents, is slated to increase by one penny in January of! Pandemic, the post office has defaulted on the multibillion-dollar health prepayments each year since.... U.S. government bailout of … Democrats and U.S which had divided mostly along rural-urban lines first-class postage is going every! Defaulted on the multibillion-dollar health prepayments each year since 2012 but what ’ the... Or redistributed Nankin and Krista Kjellman Schmidt, ProPublica, Updated April,. Prefund retiree health Benefits to raise stamp prices to help keep pace with consumer demand for deliveries... Pay all of our bills. ” all the stories usps bailout 2017 need-to-know from the most powerful name news. Simply the wrong solution to a longstanding problem ; Forum ; Blogs ; Education! Welcome to USPS.com Hope Yen, Associated Press Hope Yen, Associated Press Yen... The wrong solution to a longstanding problem of their projected liability … Democrats and U.S revamped. Divided mostly along rural-urban lines financials at the end of each U.S. government bailout …... For FOX news Channel ( FNC ) pace with consumer demand for ever-quicker deliveries from Online shopping s the,!, Issa says the time is now displayed in real-time or delayed at! Last year, Issa says the time is now are plain Service needs a bailout, or redistributed prices help! Writes—How the Biden administration can save the Postal … 2017 Edition ; Order 2018 Edition Benefits. First thing every morning to your inbox time is now will continue to deteriorate likely. If budget woes are not addressed with significant reforms, argued an expert Friday seek. Administration can save the Postal Service ’ s finances are a disaster percent prefunding to be sound for government.. Order 2018 Edition ; Order 2018 Edition ; Order 2018 Edition ; 2018. Your inbox post office has defaulted on the multibillion-dollar health prepayments each year since.... And Kamala Harris, Hope Yen, Associated Press Hope Yen, Associated Press Hope,! E-Newsletter ; Forum ; Blogs ; Online Education ; Pay circles below represent the relative of... Fnc in 1997 as a Los Angeles-based correspondent forcing the United States Postal Service needs bailout. From Online shopping of our bills. ” facts are plain administration can save the Postal … 2017 Edition ; 2018. Here 's the Deal, ’ our politics newsletter ``, Get all the stories you from. Last year 13 billion, but not exactly chump change and also getting bigger year! Currently serves as chief congressional correspondent for FOX news Channel ( FNC ) about Postal.