The U.S. Postal Service delivers to 156 million addresses six and even seven days a week. It is consistently rated the most-trusted federal agency by the public, and it handles an astonishing 47 percent of the world’s mail.
Yet misinformation exists about the Postal Service, often creeping into media commentary, such as a Washington Examiner op-ed that ran May 22. Liam Sigaud not only mischaracterized the overall situation at the USPS, but also sought to use the agency’s recent quarterly financial report to make a political argument for downgrading postal services provided to the American public.
In fact, that report demonstrated what we’ve consistently pointed out: the USPS’s underlying business vitality and importance to the public, as well as the need to address two public policy matters beyond USPS control.
First, absent the 2016 rollback in stamp prices, which reduced postal revenue by about $2 billion annually, the Postal Service would have had an impressive operating profit of about $700 million for the first half of fiscal 2018. It’s important to note that this involves only earned revenue; by law, USPS gets no taxpayer money for its operations. The rollback, the first since 1919, makes little financial sense because the Postal Service already has the industrial world’s lowest rates.
Fortunately, the Postal Regulatory Commission is in the midst of a legally mandated review of the postage rate-setting system, which currently is based on an economy-wide measurement of consumer goods that doesn’t fit a transportation and delivery provider.
Meanwhile, Congress should address the pre-funding mandate it imposed in 2006, which requires the USPS — alone among all public and private entities — to prefund future retiree healthcare benefits decades into the future. That unique burden costs the Postal Service several billion dollars a year.
These facts may not have served the political aim of Sigaud’s commentary, but in terms of understanding USPS finances, they’re worth readers’ attention.
Based in the Constitution, because the Founders understood its role in uniting this vast nation, the Postal Service is the country’s only universal delivery network. It also remains the center of civic life in small towns and rural areas throughout the United States.
Moreover, it is a vital part of the U.S. economy, serving as the centerpiece of the $1.4 trillion national mailing industry, which employs 7 million Americans in the private sector.
USPS also is the largest civilian employer of military veterans, with more than 113,000 veterans in the postal workforce. Nearly one of every four letter carriers is wearing his or her second uniform in service to our nation.
Every day, letter carriers save lives, stop crimes in progress, rescue people from wrecked cars, put out fires or find missing children — because they care about the neighborhoods and families they serve, know when something’s not the way it should be and often are first on the scene.
And letter carriers hold the nation’s largest one-day food drive on the second Saturday each May (including the most recent, on May 12), collecting tens of millions of pounds of food to feed the one in six Americans facing issues of hunger. Those 50 million include many children, senior citizens and veterans. In last year’s 25th annual drive, letter carriers collected 75.3 million pounds of food — bringing the amount of food distributed to local food banks, pantries and shelters over the past quarter-century to 1.6 billion pounds.
Given all this, the USPS’s popularity with the public is unsurprising. A Pew Research poll in February found that the Postal Service led government agencies with an extraordinary 88 percent favorability rating (including 87 percent among Republicans). Nor is it surprising that the USPS enjoys strong bipartisan support among legislators from both metropolitan and rural areas, including many conservatives.
If policymakers in Washington make commonsense decisions on the pre-funding and rate-setting issues, this national treasure can continue to provide Americans and their businesses with the industrial world’s most affordable delivery network.
Fredric Rolando is president of the National Association of Letter Carriers.
