On July 19, 2017, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs (HSGAC) held a hearing titled, “The Postal Service’s Actions During the 2016 Campaign Season: Implications for the Hatch Act.” During testimony from both the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), it was revealed that the USPS violated federal law, the Hatch Act, during the 2016 campaign cycle.
The Postal Service Reform Act Does Not Deliver
It is no secret that the United States Postal Service (USPS) is broke and broken. The agency’s low standards of delivery are rarely achieved, it has billions in losses and unfunded liabilities, and it has failed to adapt to changing markets. Reforms are essential, but H.R. 756, the Postal Service Reform Act, falls short of what is needed.
USPS Board of Governors Now Empty
On December 8, 2016, Chairman James Bilbray of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Board of Governors served his final day, leaving the board with no independent governors for the first time in its short history. As of this writing, only the Postmaster General and the Deputy Postmaster General make up the members of the “independent” […]
USPS Poorly Manages Owned Properties and Gas Rights
On September 20, 2016, the United States Postal Service (USPS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a report titled “The Oversight of Oil and Gas Mineral Rights.” The report sought to assess USPS’ oversight of their oil and gas mineral rights. What should surprise no one, the OIG found that there is significant room […]
Return to Sender: The Postal Service Reform Act of 2016
Even to the most neutral observer, the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) financial condition is dire. Notwithstanding it $18 billion annual advantage over other private sector companies (exemption from income; state local sales; and property tax exemption; power of eminent domain; monopoly control over mailboxes; and a $15 billion line of credit from the U.S. Treasury) the USPS has posted more than $50 billion in losses since 2007 and faces $125 billion in unfunded liabilities. Regardless of how the USPS arrived at this position, there is a broad consensus that reform is needed.
Inspector General: “Image is Everything” and USPS Facilities are Lacking
On August 29, 2016, the Office of the Inspector General (IG) for the United States Postal Service (USPS) released an audit report on USPS facilities in the Capital Metro Area. The Capital Metro Area, which includes Atlanta, Baltimore, Greensboro, Richmond, and surrounding areas, is home to 2,600 postal facilities (USPS leases and owns more than […]
Postal Workers Protest Privatization of USPS, and Other Wishful Reforms
On August 23, 2016, postal workers held a rally on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) during the American Postal Workers Union’s convention in Orlando, Florida. The union has come out against the TPP because they believe the agreement would ban postal banking and other non-postal activities while leading to the privatization of the postal service and […]
USPS and the Next Gen Vehicle
The United States Postal Service isn’t known for its whiz-kid, early adoption of shape-shifting technology innovations. While the private sector has been screaming along, birthing cutting-edge, disruptive technologies in the communications, transportation, and logistics sector, the USPS has remained mired in its top-heavy, sclerotic, analog, bricks-and-mortar past. For example, the USPS has been preparing to procure […]
United States Postal Service Fails Despite Advantages
The United States Postal Service (USPS) is one of the largest employers in the United States, with 625,113 employees. But the agency’s financial results are not quite as impressive. The USPS lost $5.1 billion in 2015 and the cost of labor has increased while the size of the workforce has shrunk. Nonetheless, the USPS Office of the Inspector General (IG), which is required to uncover and expose waste and abuse, declared in an April 16, 2016 report that the USPS is “doing better financially than sometimes reported in the media.”
USPS Saves Less than Predicted from POStPlan
A recently released Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) “Post Office Structure Plan” (POStPlan) has failed to achieve the savings first predicted by USPS in 2012. The POStPlan aspired to save money by reducing the retail hours of 13,000 offices (66 percent of all post offices) and staffing them with non-career or part-time employees; the plan offered reassignment or separation incentives of career employees. USPS estimated that this plan would save the agency $500 million annually, but POStPlan savings have only reached $337 million annually.