USPS could run ‘out of cash in 12 months,’ postmaster general says

Recently appointed Postmaster General David Steiner said he expects the United States Postal Service to run out of cash by 2027 without Congress’s help.

In recent interviews with Reuters and the Associated Press, Steiner said that unless Congress lifts the agency’s statutory debt limit of $15 billion, which was enacted in 1990, USPS may not ​be able to pay its vendors or employees by February 2027. The agency would need to borrow more money from the U.S. Treasury to continue operations.

If more funds are not provided, the results would be ⁠detrimental to the agency, he added.

“We are out of cash in 12 months if we don’t do anything different,” Steiner told Reuters on March ‌5. “I do not want to be in a position where ​we’re six weeks out from running out of cash, and we say, ‘Oh heck, what are we going to do?’”

On March 17, Steiner will testify before the U.S. House of Representatives and speak about USPS’s financial woes, Reuters reported. The postmaster general’s remarks come on the heels of President Donald Trump’s ⁠push to privatize the agency.

USA TODAY contacted USPS on Friday, March 6, ‌but has not received a response.

Trump has ‌pushed to revamp USPS

Last year, Trump said he was considering merging the USPS, currently an independent agency, into the Commerce Department, according to previous USA TODAY reporting. The ⁠agency would then be under the authority of the executive branch.

“We want to have a post office that works well and doesn’t lose massive amounts of money. And we’re thinking about doing ‌that,” Trump said at the time.

USPS’s financial woes

Since ‌2007, USPS has lost money almost every fiscal year, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Net losses from fiscal years 2007 through 2024 have totaled about $109 billion, the watchdog agency said.

During the 2024 fiscal ⁠year, USPS delivered 112 billion pieces of mail, a loss of 101 billion pieces, ​or nearly 50%, from the peak ⁠of 213 ​billion at the end of fiscal year 2006, according to the Postal Regulatory Commission.

The reduction in mail pieces is expected to continue largely because transactions and other communications are moving more online, according to a USPS facts sheet.

The Postal Regulatory Commission said USPS generally receives no ⁠tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. Despite being a government agency, it does not appropriate annual funds from the federal government.

The issue is coming to ⁠a head, Steiner suggested. He added he didn’t know the extent of the agency’s issues until he was appointed in May 2025.

“We have to have a conversation with the American public,” he told the Associated Press. “If you want us to deliver everywhere, every day, we’ll do ⁠it. That’s not a problem. But who is ‌going to pay for it?”

Steiner formerly served as the chief executive ​officer of Waste Management, ‌a $20.4 billion revenue waste and environmental services company in North America. He worked at the corporation ​from 2024 to 2016.