Latest news with #PostalReorganizationAct
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US Postal Service changes to mail delivery have started in Florida. Here's what to know
Changes have started in the United States Postal Service that will affect millions of customers across the country. The moves are designed to improve efficiency and cut costs, but some people might not get certain types of mail as quickly as they're used to. In March, then-U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said he signed a deal with the Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Elon Musk, to assist the agency in addressing "big problems." The first phase of the plan started on April 1. The USPS announced "refinements to service standards," which the agency said in a release are estimated to save the Postal Service at least $36 billion over the next ten years. "USPS has already achieved $2.2 billion in annual transportation cost reductions by streamlining networks and optimizing air and surface options," the release said. "Additionally, it has decreased work hours by 50 million — translating to $2.5 billion in annual savings, by enhancing plant productivity and closing unnecessary facilities. "At the same time, the Postal Service has increased revenue by $3.5 billion annually by adapting product offerings amidst significant declines in First-Class Mail volume," the USPS said. The second phase of the plan is set to roll out later this year. The organization relies on the sales of stamps and postage along with other products and services to fund operations. The USPS is independent, does not use tax dollars for operating expenses, and is meant to be self-financing. However, the USPS has been struggling since the organization was hit by a couple of laws. First, in 1970, the Postal Reorganization Act required the postal service to serve all Americans while also breaking even, suggesting it should operate as a business rather than the government service it had been for nearly 200 years. Then it was hamstrung by a bipartisan 2006 law that was meant to tweak some regulations and policies to help with falling revenue but a demand from the Bush administration, included a requirement to set aside billions each year to cover future retiree health and pension benefits for employees past, present and future. The law also restricted the USPS from offering any new services other than the ones it already offered. The Postal Service Reform Act, passed with bipartisan support in Congress in 2022 and signed by former President Joe Biden, dropped the mandate to refund future retiree benefits and allowed the USPS to create "non-postal services" in partnership with state and local government, like fishing licenses and subway passes. The change may have been too little, too late. Since electronic communication became more popular, the USPS has seen a sharp decline in first-class mail. USPS revenue has dropped 80% since 1997, and volumes are the lowest since 1968, Reuters reported. It cost $9.5 billion in 2024 and is expected to cost another $6.9 billion in 2025, according to reporting from Government Executive. According to Pew Research Centers, the USPS is the second-most popular federal agency: 72% of Americans like it, coming in second behind the National Park Service (76% in favor) and ahead of NASA (67%). President Donald Trump is critical of the service, which delivers to 163 million addresses nationwide and employs 530,000 workers. He has floated the idea of merging it with the Commerce Department. That would halt the USPS's independent status and put it under his administration's control. "It'll be a form of a merger, but it'll remain the Postal Service," Trump said. "And I think it'll operate a lot better than it has been over the years. It's been just a tremendous loser for this country." The Washington Post, citing postal sources, said the plan would "probably violate federal law." The Postal Service operates 303 facilities in Florida as of October 2024. Here's what you need to know about confirmed changes to USPS services and mail delivery. The department had been exempt from the DOGE cuts that have slashed thousands of jobs in several federal agencies, but DeJoy reportedly told Congress in a letter that USPS would cut 10,000 jobs over the next month through a voluntary early retirement program. The reduction plan was announced in January and is different than the federal employee buyout offer announced for most civilian federal employees. According to a news release from the American Postal Workers Union, workers who opt to retire early can get a one-time $15,000 incentive paid in two parts. DeJoy said the deal with DOGE and the General Services Administration will help with "identifying and achieving further efficiencies." The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, said Trump wanted to merge the USPS under his administration and planned to fire the governing board of the postal service via executive order. The White House said no such order existed, but Trump did confirm that the merger was being considered. Musk has said he wants to see it privatized. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has suggested that postal workers could carry out the U.S. census and handle tasks performed by Social Security employees as cost-cutting measures. Newsweek reported the merger, if it goes through, could close offices, slow delivery, limit days of delivery, increase costs and lead to layoffs. Reduced delivery would likely hit rural areas hardest. Some areas could get "2-3-day turnaround service within regions and specific local areas," according to the postal service. Some post offices could have delivery extended by a day. The information provided didn't say which ones could expect delayed mail delivery caused by changes to regional transportation schedules. "Under the new approach, while most mail will retain the same service standard, some mail will have a faster standard, and some will have a slightly slower standard. For First-Class Mail, the current service standard day range of 1-5 days is staying the same, while the day ranges for end-to-end Marketing Mail, Periodicals, and Package Services are being shortened. All Mail will benefit from more reliable service," a USPS news release reads. The postal service said, "all packages will benefit from more reliable service." The 2-5 day range for USPS Ground Advantage will stay the same. However, some shipping products will have a slower delivery range going forward. Five-digit zip code add-ons are meant to streamline sorting and delivery as compared to the current three-digit pairs. USPS already has a map online that will let customers see how long it will take to deliver mail from one zip code to another. Customers can also look up service standards at Service standards will be "refined" for: First-Class Mail. Periodicals. Marketing Mail. Package Services (Bound Printed Matter, Media Mail, and Library Mail). USPS Ground Advantage. Priority Mail. Priority Mail Express. The next changes are set to take effect on July 1. More information will be released closer to that date. That would require congressional approval. The Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 made the Postal Service an independent agency under the executive branch. USPS is directed by a Board of Governors appointed by the president and approved by Congress. The president can make nominations, but doesn't have direct oversight. Contributing: George Petras, John Bacon, Phaedra Trethan, David Shepardson This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: USPS changes will affect mail delivery in Florida. Here's how
Chicago Tribune
23-03-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Politicians join postal workers to oppose Trump administration plans to strip USPS of independence
Over a hundred people gathered in Federal Plaza midday Sunday to protest the Trump administration's plans to move the postal service under the U.S. Department of Commerce and calls for privatizing the agency. Throughout the rally, postal workers — accompanied by some of their children — donned red shirts that said 'Fight like hell' and sang along to songs like 'Not Like Us' by Kendrick Lamar. Many held signs that said 'We are not for sale' and 'Hell no to privatization.' They were joined by workers from other industries as well as local and state politicians. President Donald Trump's administration plans to move the Postal Service under the Department of Commerce, which would strip the agency of its independence. In recent years, as it's sometimes struggled to stay afloat, the Postal Service has also fought calls from Trump and others that it be privatized. Postal workers warn that privatization would cut jobs and lead to reduced services and higher prices, which would particularly affect people in rural areas. 'Do you think privatizing the Postal Service is a good idea or a bad idea?' U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin asked the crowd, which yelled back, 'Bad idea.' 'We need you to not only show up at this rally, but to show up for the Postal Service, which has been there for America for 250 years,' Durbin said. 'I got three words I want to leave you with: … Fight like hell.' The Post Office was created during the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1775, when Benjamin Franklin became the first postmaster general. In 1872, Congress named it an executive branch department. But that changed after an eight-day postal strike over wages and benefits in 1970, when President Richard Nixon signed the Postal Reorganization Act, which made it an independent, self-financing agency called the U.S. Postal Service. Today, the USPS employs about 640,000 workers tasked with delivering mail, medicine, election ballots and packages across the country, from inner cities to rural areas and even far-flung islands. Postal workers remained on duty during the coronavirus pandemic, when the American Postal Workers Union says more than 200 employees died. 'The USPS has always been a trusted partner to small business owners,' said Lake County Treasurer Holly Kim, who recounted a story of how her parents relied on USPS for their small business. 'It's a lifeline, and it serves every person in this country, whether you're in the middle of downtown Chicago or you're in the most rural back road in Illinois.' DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek shared that sentiment. 'There's simply no other way to reach our citizens.' Kaczmarek said DuPage County has started mailing ballots to over 98,000 citizens for an upcoming election. 'By the end of the week, we were receiving calls, 'Thank you so much. I got my ballot in the mail.' Don't just thank us,' she said. 'Thank the brothers and sisters of the United States Postal Service.' Hundreds of cities across the United States also held rallies Thursday opposing the Trump administration's plan as part of a national day of action organized by the American Postal Workers Union, which called the plan an 'illegal hostile takeover.' Earlier this month, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced plans to cut 10,000 employees and billions of dollars from the Postal Service budget, which he plans on doing with the assistance Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. Musk has also previously said he supports privatizing USPS. USPS initially announced the plan to cut service employees through a voluntary early retirement program during the final days of the President Joe Biden's administration in January but at the time didn't include the number of workers expected to leave. DeJoy, a Republican donor and previous owner of a logistics business, was appointed to lead the U.S. Postal Service during Trump's first term in 2020. He has faced repeated challenges during his tenure, including the pandemic, surges in mail-in election ballots and efforts to stem losses through cost and service cuts. He announced a 10-year turnaround plan last year. In February, DeJoy said he plans to step down and asked the Postal Service Board of Governors to begin looking for his successor. Mayor Brandon Johnson, who attended Sunday's rally, emphasized the importance of protecting the postal service. 'It was the U.S. Postal Services and the hardworking people of this country that secured our democracy during the American Revolution. It was also the postal workers that made sure that the message of abolitionists got across the world,' Johnson said to the crowd on Sunday. 'It is going to be the workers that protect our democracy in 2025 and beyond,' he added.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Hands off the Post Office': Protestors gather in Green Bay to speak out against potential privatization of U.S. Postal Service
GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) – , groups are gathering nationwide to protest calls to privatize or bring it under the control of the Commerce Department. On Thursday afternoon, members of the National Association of Letter Carriers and other postal workers gathered in Green Bay to protest the cuts that have already hindered service. Trump signs executive order to dismantle Department of Education Former Postal Union President Kelly Heaney who has been with the union for 28 years, said that they take a lot of pride in delivering to houses everyday, but these cuts have hindered public trust. 'That trust will make it so they can privatize the Post Office, middle income will be lower income and workers will get benefits cut, it's really sad to see,' Heaney said. Heaney added that these cuts include potential job losses in the thousands, from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy sent to Congress. 'They want to cut 10,000 jobs, and all of the jobs they're cutting are from people that do the work behind the scenes,' Heaney said. These job cuts also could coincide with several billions of dollars being cut from the budget, which Heaney says could heavily impact rural areas. 'We're the only agency that delivers to every house in America up to seven days a week, if you order express,' Heaney said. 'Without that service, medicine is delayed, bills are delayed and timely gifts can be delayed.' Jennifer Ewald, the local union President said they wanted to bring public awareness to the issue of possible privatization of the Postal Service, which could increase costs. 'This is a nationwide event, and it's important because it's our public service,' Ewald said. 'If we went private, you may not have daily mailing service and the costs of mail would increase exponentially.' A report from February also suggested that President Donald Trump may put the U.S. Postal Service under the Commerce Department's control, making it an executive branch takeover. Over 130 local crisis programs throughout northeast & central Wisconsin, receive donations to improve hygiene , as Congress named it one in 1872, about 97 years after the Post Office was first created, with Benjamin Franklin as the first postmaster general. However, postal strikes in 1970 resulted in the Postal Reorganization Act, signed by former President Richard Nixon, whose action made it an independent, self-financing agency which we know today as the U.S. Postal Service. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DeJoy Lets DOGE Into the Postal Service
A mail truck is seen ouside a post office near Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, on Feb. 5, 2025. Credit - Patrick T. Fallon—AFP via Getty Images Louis DeJoy is letting DOGE into the Postal Service. On Thursday, the Postmaster General told congressional leaders that he signed an agreement with Elon Musk's cost-cutting operation, allowing it to help the USPS save money and remove bureaucratic bottlenecks, according to a copy of the letter obtained by TIME. 'This is an effort aligned with our efforts,' DeJoy wrote, 'as while we have accomplished a great deal, there is much more to be done.' But America's most beloved and beleaguered government agency won't be subject to the same hostile takeover as other federal departments. The Trump Administration has spared the Postal Service, an independent body that funds itself and has roughly 640,000 employees, from DOGE-inflicted pressure to shrink its workforce. Instead, DeJoy essentially sicced the Department of Government Efficiency on Congress. He assigned Musk's adjutants to review what he describes as structural problems created by legislation passed in the 1970s. Referring to the Postal Reorganization Act, DeJoy said the agency's retirement assets and workers compensation program were 'mismanaged' by other federal departments. He cited unfunded mandates imposed on the USPS that cost between $6 billion and $11 billion annually, such as offering six-day mail delivery and maintaining post offices in remote areas. Perhaps most controversially, he called the Postal Regulatory Commission, which oversees the Postal Service and approves price increases, an "unnecessary agency' that has lost the agency more than $50 billion. 'The DOGE team was gracious enough to ask for the big problems that they can help us with,' DeJoy wrote to legislators. There is a certain irony to the DeJoy-DOGE arrangement. Since taking the helm in 2020, DeJoy has embarked on a 10-year plan to make the agency profitable and more efficient. He renegotiated contracts for air and ground transportation, saving the USPS $10 billion annually. He reduced the headquarters workforce by 20 percent, saving more than $200 million annually. He built new processing centers and centralized the delivery network. On Capitol Hill, he collaborated with Democrats and Republicans to rescind a 2006 law that required the USPS to pre-pay the next 50 years of health and retirement benefits for all of its employees—a rule that no other federal agency was forced to follow. Those changes led to the Postal Service making a $144 million profit in the final quarter of 2024, its first profitable period in years. Since then, he has done more to trim the USPS budget. Through a voluntary early retirement program launched in January, the agency is expected to shed 10,000 workers next month. In other words: DeJoy has been doing the purported work of DOGE before DOGE came around. It hasn't all been smooth sailing. The Postal Service still lags with on-time delivery and meeting its own service standards. DeJoy remains a controversial figure on both sides of the aisle; in December, he covered his ears during a House Oversight Committee hearing when a Republican member criticized his leadership of the agency. Read more: Louis DeJoy's Surprising Second Act While DeJoy once predicted the USPS would break even by 2023, it lost $9.5 billion last year. Postal Service leaders argue they are only halfway through a ten-year plan. DeJoy's transformations, they say, have put the agency on a path toward profitability, beating out FedEx and UPS, and preserving its ability to reach every American in every corner of the country. But DeJoy won't be overseeing the effort much longer. Last month, he told the USPS Board of Governors to start looking for a successor, ending a five-year tenure running the agency through the COVID-19 pandemic, three elections that relied heavily on mail voting, and the implementation of a dramatic restructuring. It's not clear what will come next for one of the only government agencies enshrined in the Constitution. President Donald Trump has floated proposals such as privatization and folding the USPS into the Commerce Department. Musk, for his part, has also called for privatizing the Post Office. 'I think logically we should privatize anything that can reasonably be privatized," he told a conference this month. That remains unlikely. Either of those moves would require congressional authorization, and there's no indication that majorities in either chamber would support that kind of disruption to a popular government agency that delivers to more than 167 million addresses every day. A collaboration between DeJoy and DOGE could offer an alternative. As a logistics expert and major Trump donor before becoming Postmaster General, DeJoy has credibility with the Musk-led initiative that others don't. Rather than work against them, he's working with them. The endgame may be to convince Congress to save the USPS from alternatives that most would rather avoid. 'Fixing a broken organization that had experienced close to $100 billion in losses and was projected to lose another $200 billion, without a bankruptcy proceeding, is a daunting task,' DeJoy wrote to lawmakers. 'Fixing a heavily legislated and overly regulated organization as massive, important, cherished, misunderstood, and debated as the United States Postal Service, with such a broken business model, is even more difficult.' Contact us at letters@
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump is pushing to make USPS private – here's why it could harm his base
If President Donald Trump manages to privatize the U.S. Postal Service, the move could widely harm members of his base. Millions of Americans in rural areas depend on the agency for prescription drugs, checks, online purchases and election ballots. In hard-to-reach parts of the country, delivery is often accomplished by the Postal Service instead of large corporations like UPS, FedEx or Amazon due to high fuel costs, labor intensity and increased distances. The Postal Service provides a vital function in an arena not generally attractive to private companies because of high costs and a drive for adequate profits to cover them that much of many communities couldn't shoulder Unlike private entities, the federal agency is legally required to deliver mail to every U.S. address at reasonable rates, resulting in the agency shouldering high operating costs. Privatization would mean that those costs would be passed onto people in rural areas, 63 percent of whom voted for Trump, while 88 percent of the land served by the agency is in rural territory. In recent days, the president has flirted with the idea of terminating the agency's bipartisan 11-member leadership board and merging the Postal Service with the Department of Commerce, according to The Washington Post, in what may be a first key step toward privatization. The president is expected to issue an executive order cementing the change this week, potentially violating federal law, the newspaper reported. Typically, such actions would need to be passed by Congress. The White House has denied an executive order is in the works. The Independent has emailed the White House for comment. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office last Friday, Trump said: 'We want to have a post office that works well and doesn't lose massive amounts of money ... It's just a tremendous loser for this country. Tremendous amounts of money are being lost. We think we can do something that will be very good.' The Postal Service has lost roughly $11 billion within the last two years. Agency leaders claim the losses stemmed from factors outside of management control, specifically unfunded retiree pension liabilities and non-cash workers' compensation adjustments. Some 700,000 retirees rely on agency pension benefits. That number is higher than the Postal Service's 500,000 active members. In fiscal year 2023, the agency spent $10 billion on retirement, totaling 11.7 percent of its operating expenses. While federal agencies receive annual congressional appropriations to fund retiree pensions and health care benefits, the Postal Service is supposed to cover the costs through revenue, and receives no direct tax dollars, under the Postal Reorganization Act, passed by Congress in 1971, which made the Postal Service an independent, self-financing agency. These costs and competition in the delivery sector, are two of the main reasons why the Postal Service is losing money, says Monique Morrissey, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute think tank. She anticipates the Trump administration will back away from privatizing the agency once officials realize the harm it would do to rural voters. 'Members of Congress in rural states are very aware of the fact that commerce is dependent on the Postal Service and if they [consumers] really had to pay their share of postage, it wouldn't be cost-effective and small businesses would just move out of the state,' Morrissey said. 'It would be catastrophic.' Privatizing the agency wouldn't necessarily make it more profitable or help it run more efficiently either, she noted. 'There's no real good reason for privatizing the Postal Service,' Morrissey continued. 'And you never are going to get rid of the need to regulate it.' The Postal Service is an efficient agency if Republican lawmakers factor out high retiree costs, she argues. In 2024, USPS reported operating revenue increased from $1.4 billion to $79.6 billion due to strategic pricing and continued growth in shipping and packages. Currently, residents in urban areas subsidize the costs of rural postal services, but it's unknown if that would continue under privatization. At least 63 percent of post offices in rural areas did not cover their costs in 2022, according to the Office of Inspector General. 'It would be a death spiral in many rural areas,' Morrissey said. 'Because the real cost of delivering to somebody who lives in an isolated, wooded area somewhere is 100 times what they're actually paying for a stamp.' In a news release issued last week, the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, which represents 130,000 career and non-career rural letter carriers, said it was 'deeply concerned' by the president's reported plans. Dismantling the Postal Service for 'the sake of profits not only threatens the integrity of a cherished institution, it could also radically change the way Americans receive deliveries, determining who does, and does not get service,' the group's leaders said. 'Any attempt to weaken or privatize the USPS is an attack on the backbone of American communities — a move that will leave our rural citizens, our union members, and our common values exposed to the impulses of profit-driven interests,' she added. The agency's leadership board has reportedly retained counsel to fight the forthcoming executive order.
