WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) expressed exasperation following the release of the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) fiscal year (FY) 2017 financial report. The agency reported a loss of $69.6 billion in FY 2017, its eleventh consecutive year of financial losses.
USPS CEO Megan J. Brennan said today that, “Our financial situation is serious, though solvable.” This is the same phrase that she used after the agency announced its dreadful FY 2017 first and third quarter financial report.
CAGW Vice President for Policy and Communications Leslie K. Paige said in a statement:
“USPS continues to double down on tired rhetorical platitudes to defend its broken business model. The Postmaster General and USPS’s unions are pressuring the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) to allow postal management to raise prices at will for first-class mail customers to avoid long overdue reforms. The PRC should resist this pressure to hike prices on consumers. USPS has attempted to blame its failures on its unfunded liabilities while begging Americans to judge its financial health on ‘controllable’ income. Taxpayers should not be fooled. USPS posted a ‘controllable’ loss of $814 million in FY 2017 and must finally come to grips with the reality of its fiscal situation. Until Congress institutes stringent market-oriented reforms and the agency makes hard financial choices, USPS will continue its financial hemorrhaging.”
Background:
- USPS has posted net financial losses for 11 consecutive years.
- A March 2015 report by Sonecon CEO Robert Shapiro found that USPS has an $18 billion advantage over similar private sector companies. Even with these enormous financial benefits, massive agency losses persist.
- The agency has reached its statutory debt limit of $15 billion and has more than $120 billion in unfunded liabilities.
- USPS also announced it will, “likely default on up to $6.9 billion in payments for future retiree health and pension benefits for the fifth straight year.”
- USPS has already defaulted on a total of $33.9 billion of benefit payments.
- On July 11, 2017 USPS bowed to union pressure and agreed to an across the board pay raise and added benefits.
- The Government Accountability Office has consistently placed USPS on its High Risk List.
CAGW is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.
