House Government Operations Subcommittee looks at ‘the route forward for the USPS’

Jun 24, 2025

NNA Alert — June 24, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Lynne Lance, executive director, lynne@nna.org

For the first time in at least three years, House Oversight Government Operations Subcommittee members heard from customers about the devastating effects of the Delivering for America Plan. Witnesses representing traditional mail products, packages and outside advocacy groups for taxpayers and the parcel industry were united in criticizing the excessive rate increases and service degradation that has occurred over the last four years. Only the head of the National Association of Letter Carriers expressed any support for the plan but also condemned its network changes and service reductions.

NNA advocate Rafe Morrissey attended the committee meeting today on behalf of its community newspaper members.

Overall, the meeting was amiable. High points for NNA members included the following:

  • Strong support for the last mile delivery
  • Encouragement to pause the failing Delivering for America plan. All the groups representing customer stakeholders rejected the intentional degradation of service at the center of the DFA approach.
  • Strong opposition to the July increase.
  • Widespread support for allowing the USPS to reduce its obligation for retiree benefits under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS)and investing existing assets in private funds.

Subcommittee members listened attentively to the testimony and not surprisingly, Democrats expressed opposition to privatization and Republicans were interested in cost cutting opportunities. Mailing industry witnesses expressed support for public-private partnerships as a soliton to reduce costs while leveraging the USPS’s last mile network. Chairman Pete Sessions (R-TX) was clear that privatization is not on the table for the USPS but solutions for its sustainability should be found. He expressed his intention to do so promptly.

All these issues are favorably addressed in the USPS SERVES US Act which NNA supports and endorsed in its statement for the hearing. The bill would permit the private investment but more importantly, empower and direct the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) to prevent rate increases far above inflation and service reductions that have been so detrimental.

NNA strongly encourages members to run the op-ed we distributed last week encouraging support for USPS SERVES US and improvements to stop the spiral of failure at USPS.

With a new leader, David Steiner, taking the helm of the USPS on July 14, 2025, this is a critical moment for Congress to tackle the problems that are crippling the USPS. As we noted in our statement,

“The oversight committees should look more deeply and critically at the Delivering for America plan and look critically at the actions of the PRC. If the financial reforms from the Postal Service Reform Act continue to be squandered, a costly bailout or subsidy will be the only option left to secure the stability of the USPS.”

OP-ED available for reprint: https://nna.org/pub/doc/6-19-Op-Ed-USPS-final.docx