USPS requests $75B amid pandemic to recover from ‘steep’ drop in mail volume

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USPS requests $75B amid pandemic to recover 
from ‘steep’ drop in mail volume

By Jory Heckman | @jheckmanWFED

April 9, 2020 4:55 pm


Postmaster General Megan Brennan warned the House Oversight 
and Reform Committee last year the 
Postal Service would run out of cash by 2024 without 
legislative and regulatory reform.

But with a sharp drop in mail volume during the coronavirus pandemic, 
Brennan told committee members in a virtual briefing Thursday 
that USPS will “run out of cash this fiscal year” without further 
financial assistance.

Brennan said that USPS now expects a $13 billion revenue loss 
tied “directly to COVID-19” this fiscal year. Over the next 18 months, 
that loss would approach $22 billion and would exceed $54 billion 
within the next decade, “threatening our ability to operate.”

“We are at a critical juncture in the life of the Postal Service.  
At a time when America needs the Postal Service more than ever, 
the reason we are so needed is having a devastating effect on 
our business,” Brennan said. “The Postal Service relies on the 
sale of postal products and services to fund our operations, and 
these sales are plummeting as a result of the pandemic. 
The sudden drop in mail volumes, our most profitable 
revenue stream, is steep and may never fully recover. ”

While the Postal Service received $10 billion in additional borrowing 
authority under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and 
Economic Security (CARES) Act, the agency’s Board of Governors
 is asking Congress for $75 billion in total financial relief in the 
next coronavirus spending bill.

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The board has asked for $25 billion in emergency appropriations, 
an additional $25 billion line of credit from the Treasury Department 
and yet another $25 billion for “shovel-ready” projects to modernize 
the agency’s aging vehicle fleet and facilities.

The proposals go beyond what committee members — including 
chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and government operations 
subcommittee chairman Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) — proposed 
in the House version of the $2 trillion spending deal.


“The Postal Service is holding on for dear life, and unless Congress 
and the White House provide meaningful relief in the next stimulus bill, 
the Postal Service could cease to exist,” 
Maloney said in a statement Thursday.

While USPS is considered an “essential service” during pandemic, 
Connolly said the Trump administration has yet to give postal employees 
the resources and protections commensurate with this emergency designation.

“We cannot allow the Postal Service to collapse,” Connolly said in a statement. 
“To do so would deepen our nation’s economic crisis and eliminate an 
important lifeline to the 1 million individuals who receive lifesaving 
prescription deliveries and eviscerate the very infrastructure we need 
to administer the upcoming elections.”

National security subcommittee chairman Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) 
noted that postal employees have delivered essential medical supplies 
and protective equipment during the pandemic, while 
Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.) noted that USPS provides essential 
infrastructure for the 2020 census and for mail-in ballots 
during an election year.