WASHINGTON. Nov. 12, 2026. The U.S. Postal Service has asked Congress for $2 billion in support and reimbursements, and its chief has warned that the agency will have to make deep cuts if lawmakers do not act, starting with retail post offices and slower mail, Reuters reported.
Reuters reported that Postmaster General David Steiner made the warning on Tuesday at a meeting of the Postal Board of Governors, the same day the Postal Service released its results for the fiscal year that ended on September 30. Zark News has not yet seen an original transcript of Steiner's remarks, so his comments are reported here as Reuters described them. The financial figures below come from the Postal Service's own release.
What the Postal Service is asking for
According to Reuters, the $2 billion would cover requirements that Congress has imposed on the Postal Service without funding them. Steiner told the board that Congress has three choices: change the retirement funding rules and other mandates that weigh on the agency, pay for those obligations, or accept a smaller Postal Service with reduced service.
He said the agency could also be forced to slow mail delivery, and that fully developed contingency plans for the possible reductions would be ready by March, according to Reuters.
In its own results release, the Postal Service listed the changes it wants from Washington. It asked Congress to raise its borrowing limit of $15 billion, a cap that has not moved since 1992, so it can reach the capital it needs to compete with private delivery companies. It also wants changes to the rules that decide how pension costs are shared between the Postal Service and the Treasury, permission to invest pension and retiree health money in market based instruments, meaning a wider mix of investments such as stocks and bonds, and private sector style rules for workers compensation. It repeated its request that Congress either drop parts of its business model that lose money by law, or help pay for them with modest appropriations, meaning money voted by Congress.
The numbers behind the request
The Postal Service lost $6.5 billion in fiscal 2026. That is a large loss, but it is $2.5 billion smaller than the $9.0 billion it lost the year before, and it came in a year when the agency raised prices and cut costs.
Operating revenue rose 3.0 percent to $82.9 billion. The growth came mainly from USPS Ground Advantage, its economy package service, from strength in Marketing Mail, and from price increases on First-Class Mail and Marketing Mail, along with a temporary transportation related charge on some package services.
The controllable loss was $2.4 billion, down from $2.7 billion a year earlier. Controllable loss is the Postal Service's own measure of the loss on the parts of the business its managers can influence. It leaves out costs set by law and by actuarial estimates, meaning expert estimates of future pension costs, such as pension funding charges, which the agency says it cannot control.
The long term problem sits underneath the improvement. Fewer people send letters every year. First-Class Mail volume fell 5.1 percent, a drop of 2.2 billion pieces, and only price increases kept its revenue growing. Package revenue rose 5.1 percent even as package volume fell 5.3 percent. In plain terms, the Postal Service is charging more to move less mail.
Total operating expenses were $89.4 billion, slightly lower than the year before, helped by a fall in workers compensation expense and lower retirement expenses. The agency said it cut 19 million work hours during the year and consolidated parts of its transportation network. It also said plainly that price increases have been, and will remain, part of its plan.
A cash problem deferred, not solved
Part of this year's breathing room came from not paying bills that will still come due. In April 2026 the Postal Regulatory Commission gave the agency temporary relief from required pension payments. The Postal Service also suspended some of its regular retirement contributions and deferred about $2.6 billion this year. Its own release notes that the pension obligations will eventually have to be paid, and that these measures are not long term solutions.
That is the heart of Steiner's case to Congress. The agency is largely self funded and pays for itself out of the stamps and shipping fees it sells, a model set by Congress in 1970. It has now lost money for years on end. Reuters noted that its net losses since 2007 add up to more than $120 billion, even after Congress gave it about $57 billion in financial relief over a decade in a 2022 law.
Steiner, who took over the agency in July 2025, told Congress earlier this year that the business model is broken, according to Reuters. His earlier requests for help met pushback from fiscal hawks in the Senate.
What happens next
The decision now sits with Congress. The new Democratic led Congress that takes office in January will have to decide whether to help, according to Reuters. Lawmakers can change the mandates, fund them, or let the Postal Service shrink to fit its income.
For the public, the practical question is what a smaller Postal Service would look like. On the table, based on the remarks Reuters reported, are fewer retail post offices and slower mail delivery. Reuters reported that Steiner's fully developed contingency plans for the possible reductions would be ready by March.
