Post office loses another $1.9 billion

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service said Friday it lost $1.9 billion over the last three months and warned that losses would continue to mount without help from Congress.

The loss for the financial quarter ending March 31 was narrower than a $3.2-billion loss for the same period last year, thanks to slightly higher revenues and lower payments towards health benefits for workers who will retire in the future.

But the Postal Service continues to lose money at a rapid pace due to a decline in mail volume and a congressional requirement that it make advance payments to cover expected health care costs for future retirees — something no federal agency does.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said the agency is considering its options, including negotiations with unions to reduce labor costs and another possible increase in prices. “Everything has to be on the table,” Donahoe said.

Over the past six months, the Postal Service has shed about 31,000 full-time employees, consolidated 61 processing facilities, eliminated 350 delivery routes and reduced work hours in 5,000 offices. It now has the lowest number of full-time employees since 1966.

Donahoe said the Postal Service would continue to pursue legislation allowing it to end Saturday mail delivery and reduce health and other labor costs. The agency had planned to cut back in August to five-day-a-week deliveries for everything except packages, but it backpedaled last month after Congress passed a spending bill that continued a longtime prohibition against reducing delivery days.

Joe Corbett, the service’s chief financial officer, said the agency could return to a level of modest profits averaging about $2 billion a year if Congress approves all the changes it has requested.

First-class mail revenue, the Postal Service’s most profitable category, declined by $198 million, or 2.7 percent in the second quarter compared to the same period last year. Volume decreased by 4.1 percent to about 713 million pieces, in large part due to consumers moving to email and electronic bill payments.

On the positive side, revenue from shipping and packages increased $267 million in the second quarter, or about 9.3 percent compared to the prior year. Advertising mail revenue increased by 2.4 percent or $96 million.

The National Association of Letter Carriers noted that the Postal Service’s operating revenue of $16.3 billion was nearly 1 percent higher than the same period last year, a sign of gradual progress in the agency’s financial picture. Fredric Rolando, the union’s president, said the improvement “shows the absurdity of taking the radical step of degrading the postal network by eliminating Saturday delivery.”

“This would cost the USPS its competitive advantage, drive customers away, reduce revenue and make the Postal Service less able to adapt to an evolving society,” Rolando said.

The unusual requirement for the Postal Service to pre-fund future retiree health benefits decades in advance “accounts for 90 percent of this year’s red ink” and shows the urgency for Congress to end the mandate, Rolando said.

The Postal Service is an independent agency that receives no tax dollars for its day-to-day operations but is subject to congressional control.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

A speed camera facing west along 220th Street Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Washington law will allow traffic cams on more city, county roads

The move, led by a Snohomish County Democrat, comes as roadway deaths in the state have hit historic highs.

Mrs. Hildenbrand runs through a spelling exercise with her first grade class on the classroom’s Boxlight interactive display board funded by a pervious tech levy on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lakewood School District’s new levy pitch: This time, it won’t raise taxes

After two levies failed, the district went back to the drawing board, with one levy that would increase taxes and another that would not.

Alex Hanson looks over sections of the Herald and sets the ink on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Black Press, publisher of Everett’s Daily Herald, is sold

The new owners include two Canadian private investment firms and a media company based in the southern United States.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.