USPS releases lowrider stamps
The series features five uniquely customized vehicles designed with pinstripes by artist Danny Alvarado.
Fox – LA
The U.S. Postal Service has suspended payments to its workers’ retirement system, citing the agency’s continued financial difficulties.
The Postal Service told the Office of Personnel Management that the Postal Service Board of Governors has chosen to temporarily suspend contributions to the Federal Employees’ Retirement System “to conserve cash and maintain liquidity due to the ongoing severe financial crisis,” the agency announced in a Thursday, April 9, news release.
The USPS typically pays about $200 million biweekly to OPM in employer contributions to Federal Employees’ Retirement System pensions, the agency said. The suspension of these payments from Friday, April 10 will result in approximately $2.5 billion being free for the current fiscal year, the agency added.
Employee contributions to the retirement plan will continue, and the USPS will continue to pay employers automatic and matching contributions and employee contributions to the Thrift Savings Plan. Other payments, such as Social Security, will also continue, the agency said.
Postal Service Chief Financial Officer Luke Grossman asserted that current and future retirees will not be “immediately adversely affected” by the measure. “The risks to the Postal Service and the American people from the Postal Service’s lack of liquidity significantly outweigh the long-term risks to the pension funds that must pay now,” he said in a statement.
The measure is not a permanent solution to USPS’s financial woes, the agency said in its issues paper. “Legislative action is absolutely necessary to return the Postal Service to profitability,” USPS said in a statement.
Recently appointed Postmaster General David Steiner said he expects the USPS to be defunded by 2027 without support from Congress, including increasing the USPS’s statutory debt limit from $15 billion to $34.5 billion.
The move to suspend payments comes after the Postal Regulatory Commission on Thursday granted the USPS a multi-year waiver in a move that would give it “breathing room” amid “deteriorating financial conditions.”
The USPS has reported a $118 billion net loss since 2007 as the volume of first-class mail, its most profitable product, fell to its lowest level since the late 1960s. In February, USPS reported a quarterly loss of $1.25 billion.
USPS to raise Priority Mail fees to reduce costs
Earlier this week, the USPS received approval from the Postal Regulatory Commission for a temporary 8% price increase for Priority Mail and package delivery starting April 26 to address rising transportation and fuel costs. USPS plans to implement this surcharge until January 17, 2027.
Steiner told Congress in March that raising the price of first-class postage stamps from the current 78 cents to perhaps more than $1 would generate additional revenue and reduce losses.
Contributor: Michelle Del Rey, USA TODAY, Reuters
Mike Snyder is a national trends news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, and X, and email him at: mike snyder & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com.
