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According to the GAO, USPS continues to face declining mail volume and rising operating costs.
ATLANTA — A federal watchdog is raising new concerns about the financial future of the U.S. Postal Service and whether it can continue providing services many Georgians rely on every day.
From prescriptions and bills to ballots, the Postal Service plays a critical role across the state; it’s a sentiment 11Alive heard frequently during our Postal Problems investigation last year:
“People depend on the United States Postal Service and have … forever,” a resident shared.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office highlights a persistent challenge: How USPS can maintain required services while remaining financially solvent.
“So USPS is unique,” David Marroni with the GAO told 11Alive. “It’s supposed to operate almost like a business, be financially self-sustaining, but it has not been able to do so for years.”
Marroni said the agency faces competing demands that have long strained its finances.
“So you have a fundamental tension right now between the services that USPS is required to provide to the American public and its ability to finance those services,” he said.
The concerns are not new. 11Alive has previously reported on tense congressional hearings amid service issues in Georgia as the Postal Service worked to implement its 10-year ‘Delivering for America’ plan.
According to the GAO, USPS continues to face declining mail volume, rising operating costs, increased competition in package delivery, and growing retiree health and pension obligations.
The report noted the Postal Service has attempted to address those pressures by raising stamp prices, redesigning its transportation network, and consolidating processing operations into regional processing and distribution centers, including one in Palmetto, Georgia.
“Actions have been taken both by the Postal Service and Congress for a number of years now to try and get things in order, but there’s still a lot of work to do,” Marroni said.
He said further action from Congress may be necessary.
“They did pass postal legislation in 2022, but it’s gonna be important for them to again engage and look at what do we expect from the postal service and how do we expect to fund it,” Marroni said. “Because that balance has to be restored soon or the postal service is going to run out of cash.”
In its report, the GAO recommends USPS release more long-term financial projections to increase public accountability. The watchdog agency also raises questions about whether Congress should revisit the Postal Service’s business model, including what level of service is required and how self-funded the agency should be.
The Postal Service rejected the recommendation to publish long-term financial projections, saying it already did so with its 10-year plan and faced pushback when projections fell short. In response to other concerns USPS raised regarding the report, the GAO told 11Alive it stands by the report and its findings.