USPS Board of Governors Announced a Loss of $1.7 Billion for FYQ3 —Proving that Three Stamp Increases in 12 Months Are Hurting USPS & its Customers
WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 9, 2023) – Keep US Posted—a nonprofit advocacy group of consumers, nonprofits, newspapers, greeting card publishers, magazines, catalogs and small businesses—is warning that recent unprecedented postage increases are not only draining American wallets, but that they are clearly not benefitting The U.S. Postal Service. The warning from Keep US Posted comes as USPS delivered a loss of $1.7 billion in its third quarter 2023 financial report.
“Despite record postage rate increases, the U.S. Postal Service is still losing billions more than expected,” said Keep US Posted Executive Director and former Congressman Kevin Yoder (R-Kans.). “With three unprecedented postage hikes in 12 months, USPS has kicked off runaway 'stampflation, yet as we see from today’s financial results, these stamp hikes are a drain on the entire postal network, not just on consumers. When the USPS received more than $120 billion in relief from Congress just last year, the American public cannot, and should not, continue to shoulder Postmaster General DeJoy’s hike-and-spend model, especially when his strategy is threatening to run the Postal Service into the ground.”
Yoder continued, “DeJoy’s stated intent has been to use stamp increases to bring in additional revenue, yet each hike drives down mail demand at a progressively faster rate and increases internal costs, meaning less revenue for USPS, no matter how much more a stamp costs. Congress passed the bipartisan Postal Service Reform Act in 2022 intending to prevent these excessive postage increases by bringing financial solvency to the Postal Service, yet USPS, under DeJoy’s leadership, has ignored the benefits of the postal reform law. The American people need Congress to step in now and bring additional oversight to the USPS rate strategy, otherwise we could be looking at a situation where a federal bailout is necessary.”
In May, Keep US Posted submitted analysis to Congress challenging the U.S. Postal Service’s plans to continue increasing postage rates twice per year. Commissioned by the Greeting Card Association, a Keep US Posted member organization, the analysis exposes serious flaws in the Delivering for America plan’s projections and calls into question the viability of excessive postage rate increases. Specifically, the report notes that mail volumes were better than forecast initially when rate increases were moderate, but the recent pattern of twice-a-year, large rate increases have led to a perilous loss of mail. The May economic analysis, including a letter with top findings, is available here: https://a7e48fd9-ebbb-4ed4-a00c-560567a5d282.usrfiles.com/ugd/a7e48f_92bcdf23d66c4e9080f3e669901e1b5b.pdf
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ABOUT KEEP US POSTED
Keep US Posted is a nonprofit advocacy group of consumers, nonprofits, newspapers, greeting card publishers, magazines, catalogs and small businesses —all united in the belief that a reliable, affordable U.S. Postal Service is essential to our way of life and should be protected. Keep US Posted supports alternatives to current and future efforts to slow the mail and increase postage rates. To learn more about the organization and to get involved, visit www.KeepUSPosted.org.