For Immediate Release
Contact: Curtis Kalin (ckalin@cagw.org)

May 11, 2018
 

(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) expressed frustration that the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) broken business model reared its ugly head again following the release of the second quarter financial report for fiscal year (FY) 2018.  The agency reported a loss of $1.3 billion, more than double the $562 million for the second quarter of FY 2017.

CAGW Vice President for Policy and Communications Leslie Paige said in a statement: 

“Even a 1.4 percent increase in revenue could not help USPS escape its rapidly escalating losses.  Taxpayers and ratepayers hope that President Trump’s USPS task force will recommend the type of market-oriented solutions that are necessary to solve USPS’s fiscal woes, while rejecting any effort to expand USPS into non-postal industries, like banking.  The financial hemorrhaging at the agency will continue until rigorous reforms are instituted to right-size USPS’s debts and address tens of billions in unfunded liabilities.  In the end, Congress will be required to step in to make permanent reforms to the USPS’s business operations, otherwise taxpayers are at an increased risk for a postal bailout.”

Background:

• USPS is in the midst of its 12th consecutive year of financial losses, totaling $66 billion.
• The Government Accountability Office has consistently placed USPS on its High Risk List.
• The agency has reached its statutory debt limit of $15 billion and has more than $120 billion in unfunded liabilities.
• On July 11, 2017, USPS agreed to an across the-board pay raise and added benefits. 
• A March 2015 report by Sonecon CEO Robert Shapiro found that USPS has an $18 billion advantage over similar private sector companies.  Even with these enormous financial benefits, massive losses persist.

CAGW is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.