Faced with the possibility of running out of money, the U.S. Postal service asks Congress to consider 'drastic measures'

Changes to USPS mail delivery have an outsized
impact on rural Americans. (Photo by D. Trinks, Unsplash)

Expensive delivery obligations and government constraints both contribute to the U.S. Postal Service's deepening financial woes. "In testimony to Congress last month, David Steiner, the postmaster general, delivered a dire warning," reports Adam Sella of The New York Times. "Without drastic measures, he said, the U.S. Postal Service could run out of cash in less than a year."

Some of the "drastic measures" Steiner outlined included reducing service days from 6 to 5, dropping "unprofitable routes," and closing some smaller post offices, Sella writes. All three changes would have an outsized impact on rural communities that other carriers, such as FedEx and UPS, avoid due to higher costs.

A large part of the agency's financial turmoil can be blamed on what Congress has tasked it with doing, which doesn't create a profitable business model (which is why UPS and FedEx don't do it), and federal limitations on its financial options, including pricing and pension investments.

For instance, USPS is supposed to be financially self-sufficient while meeting its universal service obligation, which requires it to deliver to everyone in the United States at a reasonable price, Sella explains. "In 2022, Congress added a six-day-a-week delivery requirement. . . .That commitment has cost the agency money: more than $6.5 billion a year."

USPS is also restricted on pricing. "It must get approval from an independent regulatory commission, which limits the agency’s ability to raise prices," Sella reports. Congress also limits its borrowing power, which means it can run out of money.

USPS leadership isn't allowed pension portfolio flexibility, which could have a dramatic impact on its bottom line. Sella explains, "The Postal Service is only allowed to invest its retirement funds in Treasury notes. The Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General estimated in 2023 that USPS retirement funds would have been worth approximately $800 billion more if they had been able to be invested in a mix of 60% stocks and 40% Treasury bonds."

Meanwhile, USPS has turned to one of its few reliable revenue streams: postal price increases. "The commission approved a temporary surcharge of 8% on packages, in light of rising fuel and transportation costs," Sella reports. The Postal Service also requested a 5% increase in first-class mail rates. "That means first-class mail 'forever' stamps would increase from 78 cents to 82 cents."

Quick hits: Mail riders of the past; the future of meat; child care solution; Thoreau's cabin; PFAS-free water

A mail rider makes his way through a creek bed near
Jackson, Ky., in 1940. (Library of Congress photo)

Over hill and dale and on all kinds of trails, horseback postal routes required mail riders to face treacherous paths, wild weather, unpredictable wildlife and inaccurate maps. "Routes they took were originally Native American and traders’ paths and roads carved through the forests, river valleys and mountains," writes Todd Kozak for Lancaster Farming. "Post riders and their horses worked in all weather and on set schedules. . . . A map of post routes published by the post office in 1897 shows a myriad of routes and offices. By the early 1920s, most of them had vanished."

Human diets of the future might not be about going vegan, quitting bacon or eschewing beef. Instead, Bruce Friedrich, author of Meat: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity’s Favorite Food and Our Future, presents "alternative meat" as the planet's best answer. "And to be clear, he’s not talking about gardenburgers or tofurkey," writes Sarah Isgur of The Dispatch. "We now have the ability to take real meat cells from an animal and replicate them. The product is actually meat, but it’s not from a dead animal. . . . Alternative meat can’t compete by being better for the environment or nicer for animals. For most people, he acknowledges, food is not an ethical decision. It has to taste as good and be as cheap. . . ."

At Little Break, parents can be on-site with their 
children and still get their work done. (Little Break photo)

For parents struggling to find affordable child care, a new model being used in Michigan offers a solution that combines parental work spaces with a child care center. "Users say its prices are a fraction of what other daycare centers charge," reports Anna Patton of Reasons to be Cheerful. "Little Break" is a nonprofit, non-licensed child care facility where "parents must remain on-site, and take care of feeding and diaper changes. Otherwise, they get on with work in an adjoining room, while paid staff. . . watch the children." An added perk of the model is that parents can be there to witness childhood milestones they would otherwise miss.

Tired of their current work lives, some mid-career professionals have left their jobs and trained in a trade. "At 27, Lauren O’Connor was living paycheck to paycheck as a Montessori teacher, making $29 an hour with no benefits," report Allison Pohle and Te-Ping Chen of The Wall Street Journal. "Today, the 33-year-old earns $45 an hour — brazing, welding and soldering pipes for a local contractor. Though she sees more women on job sites these days, it wasn’t that way at first. Proving herself to the guys was stressful, she says." Other trades career-changers took up were airline pilot, electrical apprentice and cardiovascular sonographer.

 Original title page of Walden featuring a 
picture drawn by Thoreau's sister Sophia.

Among more modern fans of Henry David Thoreau's 1854 book, Walden or Life in the Woods, a group is building "full-scale replicas" of the late transcendentalist's cabin, reports Dorie Chevlen of The New York Times. Thoreau's book, which centers on simple life and self-reliance, recounts how he built his little cabin all on his own, except when neighbors helped him raise the frame. Two brothers, Jasper and Satchel Sieniewicz, who worked together to build a replica, "can’t believe it was a one man job. . . . Even using a sawmill and power tools, it took them three summers of labor ... Thoreau was living in his cabin in under three months." Read how other Thoreau fans fared with their Walden cabins here. 

In the small community of Rothschild, Wis., the water is healthier because it's nearly PFAS free. PFAS, also known as "forever chemicals," can cause devastating health issues for humans. The village used settlement dollars to build a new water treatment facility. "This facility is actively working to decrease the levels of PFAS in the community's drinking water," reports Dylan Eckhart of WAOW. The Rothschild plant "utilizes a granular activated carbon filtration system to remove PFAS. . . .PFAS contamination became a concern for Rothschild residents in 2022 when it was detected in a sample from village wells."

The day a letter is mailed at a U.S. Post Office may no longer be the day it is postmarked

A USPS postmark is now stamped at regional facilities.
(Adobe Stock photo)

Few ink stamps are as crucial to meeting modern deadlines as the U.S. Postal Service postmark; however, at the end of last month, USPS changed its transportation and stamping processes, potentially delaying when mail is physically postmarked.

Beginning on Dec. 24, a postmark "no longer shows the date you deposited a piece of mail with the U.S. Postal Service," reports Esther Fung of The Wall Street Journal. Instead, mail will be postmarked when it's processed at a regional facility, which could be days after it's mailed locally.

The USPS changed its postmark rule "as part of long-running efforts to modernize and cut costs," Fung writes. "Reducing postal-truck runs between processing facilities and local post offices can cut costs and emissions."

While the USPS doesn't classify postmarking as part of "its services," many systems and people, including the Internal Revenue Service, legal professionals, election officials and health insurers, use postmarks as evidence that something mailed met a set deadline.

The best way to ensure an important piece of mail gets postmarked on time is to go to the post office where it can be manually stamped. Fung adds, "Yet, that could be hard for people living in rural areas far from a post office."

For deadline-mandated postmarks on items such as taxes, college applications, and health insurance appeals, experts recommend mailing documents several days in advance, so the mail has time to reach the processing facility for its official postmark.

Helene flooded an Appalachian town’s Post Office; residents are fighting to get it reopened.

Swannanoa residents started a mail campaign to reopen
their P.O. (Photo by Anne Vilen, The Daily Yonder)

Residents from flood-torn Swannanoa, N.C., might be down, but they're not out. When Hurricane Helene pummeled western Appalachia in the fall of September 2024, it flooded the town's Post Office, grocery store and hardware shop, reports Anne Vilen for The Daily Yonder. 

More than six months later, all three businesses remain closed, leaving residents driving longer distances for pretty much everything. For many Swannanoans, living without a Post Office is unacceptable, so they're fighting to get it reopened.

In May, the town's brewery, Terra Nova, doubled as an activist meeting room where long-time Swannanoa resident Cynthia Hollar and "more than 50 of her neighbors gathered," Vilen writes. "To write hundreds of postcards to postal officials as well as state, local, and federal representatives who might sway postal service decision makers to bring the Swannanoa Post Office back home."

Dan Slagle, a former post office employee, explained the impact of not having a post office can have on rural residents. He told Vilen, "People have to drive 26 miles round trip to get their mail, their prescriptions, their social security checks, or packages.”

Vilen adds, "The Swannanoa Post Office and its PO boxes served hundreds of folks who live miles up steep mountain roads or on properties where mailboxes, bridges, and access roads went down the river the night of the hurricane."

Swannnanoa residents fear their Post Office won't reopen because the federal government doesn't have to reopen it. Vilen explains, "Under normal circumstances when the U.S. Postal Service decides to close a post office, it must allow for a public comment period and a possible appeal to the Postal Regulatory Commission. However, after a natural disaster, the emergency suspension of service can be extended to a permanent closure."

In Swannanoa, the Post Office was "the starting point for directions to houses without numbers and the water cooler for neighbors eager to swap news," Vilen writes."Town residents claim bureaucracy and red tape are the worst part of disaster recovery."

Slagle told Vilen, "You’re really not a town without a post office. It’s kind of a community hub."

U.S. postmaster general plans to step down; his planned changes could have impacted rural communities the most

After four difficult years, DeJoy is stepping down
from his post. (Adobe Stock photo)

 

Earlier this week, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced plans to step down "capping a contentious tenure since his 2020 appointment during the first Trump administration," reports Ester Fung of The Wall Street Journal. "The U.S. Postal Service didn’t provide a date for DeJoy’s exit." His resignation comes as the USPS continues to roll out its 10-year turnaround plan. 

With only modest improvements, increased debts and persistent delivery problems at the Postal Service, some lawmakers have regularly grilled DeJoy for what they see as a failed strategy. Fung reports, "The Postal Regulatory Commission, the federal agency that oversees the Postal Service, last month criticized his plan as having 'overly optimistic and unsubstantiated financial projections for cost savings' and said it could hurt rural communities."

DeJoy has repeatedly defended his plans and pointed out that "when he first arrived at the Postal Service, it was in 'devastating condition' and resistant to change, and faced excessive regulatory oversight," Fung adds.

Some of DeJoy's restructuring plans were successful, "including consolidating routes, replacing aging vehicles and improving working conditions in several facilities," Fung explains. "The agency has also taken market share in small packages from private-sector rivals such as FedEx and UPS as it ferries more parcels over longer distances, not just for final-mile deliveries."

Even with improved small package revenues, the Postal Service continues to lose money. Fung adds, "In 2024, the agency reported a net loss of $9.5 billion, which, after adjusting for workers’ compensation and retirement liabilities, resulted in a controllable loss of $1.8 billion." The Postal service does not rely on federal funding to pay its bills. Instead, it depends on the sale of postage, products and other services to cover its costs.

DeJoy's exit may not come as a surprise. "The Trump White House had been considering replacing DeJoy, according to two people familiar with the matter," Fung adds, "though the postmaster general is typically chosen by the board and not the president."

Senate committee members and Postmaster General clash over postal changes; some could impact rural delivery

Sen. Josh Hawley, 'hates' Dejoy's
plan and vowed to try and 'kill it.'

Tempers flared as the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy wrangled over the U.S. Postal Service's lagging delivery, expenses and DeJoy's overall postal "optimization" plan, reports Eric Katz of Route Fifty. "DeJoy vehemently defended his efforts and said the senators standing in his way would bring about the end of the Postal Service."

The bipartisan pushback put DeJoy on the defensive and highlighted internal conflicts between DeJoy and Congress. "Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., became angry with DeJoy when discussing his plan to slow down delivery for some mail, which is expected to disproportionately impact rural areas," Katz writes. "Hawley said, 'I hate this plan and I’m going to do everything I can to kill it.' The senator raised his voice and said he was no longer interested in being nice to DeJoy, was growing tired of his initiatives, and had 'waited and waited and waited' for improved performance."

After prickly exchanges about who or what would "go down with the ship," Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., who chairs the committee, "said he will follow up with the Postal Regulatory Commission on its review of DeJoy’s changes, which is due out in January," Katz explains. "Its findings are non-binding, and Peters said he will demand answers if postal management ignores the commission’s recommendations.

Several lawmakers criticized DeJoy's 'Regional Transportation Optimization' plan that "will require mail to sit overnight at post offices instead of being collected each evening for transportation to a processing center," Katz reports. "USPS paused those efforts in the run up to the election and its annual holiday busy season, but has vowed to resume them early next year."

Committee members zeroed in on USPS 2025 delivery targets, which were reduced, leaving next year's goals less robust than those from 2024. "For example, it expects to deliver regular cards and letters slated for two-day delivery on time just 87% of the time in fiscal 2025 compared to its goal of 93% in fiscal 2024," Katz adds. "The Postal Service also recently announced its intention to deliver some mail more slowly."

Jon Ossoff, D-Ga, asked "why Georgia is currently only seeing 75% of mail delivered on time, despite a promise this spring that USPS would be 'where we need to be' within 60 days," Katz reports. "DeJoy said the current performance level would remain as is for the foreseeable future. . . . Ossoff made clear he did not think DeJoy was doing enough and when the postmaster general said his attacks were becoming personal, the senator countered that he was reflecting the concerns of his constituents."

More than 200 newspapers complain about U.S. Postal Service's poor mail delivery and escalating costs

The following report is from John Galer, chair of the National Newspaper Association and publisher of The Journal-News in Hillsboro, Illinois.

On June 28, the National Newspaper Association delivered letters from more than 200 newspaper titles to the Postal Regulatory Commission, complaining about inadequate mail delivery and escalating postage rates.

The comments were part of a review by the PRC of its postal rate regulations, which it is required by Congress to do periodically. The commission last completed a rate review in 2021 at which time it gave the U.S. Postal Service authority to raise postage rates beyond inflation levels. The result for community newspapers has been an increase by 35-50 percent in postage costs in the past four years.

The PRC announced earlier this year, following widespread complaints by mail users, that it would initiate a new inquiry on its regulations. Its determination will set USPS’s legal authority to increase rates for at least five years.

NNA Chair John Galer, publisher of the Journal-News, Hillsboro, IL, asked NNA members and newspapers in state newspaper organizations to send him their thoughts on the impact of the past few years of postage increases.

Responses registered a state of alarm on the future of the industry, specific complaints about delivery failures, losses of subscribers and unresponsive local postal authorities when delivery was not properly executed. Galer included the letters in NNA’s comments to the commission. NNA is also working with mailing industry partners on more detailed comments on the mechanisms involved in the rate regulation, including one provision that allows USPS to increase rates more when mail volume declines, which many in the industry consider a reward for poor performance.

“NNA has met with the commission recently to explain our situation,” Galer said. “We needed the commissioners to understand that this situation cannot continue. The PRC is inclined to blame the Postmaster General for using every inch of rate authority that the commission extended. But it was the commission that laid the table for this disaster. With proper rate regulation, we would not be in the situation we now find ourselves in. Now, we have to be concerned not only for the future of our own newspapers but for the plummeting of mail volumes that threatens the very basis of universal mail service. It was not unusual this year to see complaints not only about late newspaper delivery but also about checks in the mail arriving slowly or not at all. Even first-class mail has become unreliable in many areas.”

Public comments are being accepted by the PRC until July 9.

Post office employees say they have been banned from mentioning Amazon deliveries as a cause of mail delays

Around 65 people gathered for the listening session.
(Photo by Annalise Braught, Bemidji Pioneer)

One of the U.S. Postal Service's greatest strengths -- connecting every delivery point in the United States to every other delivery point -- is what made a company like Amazon possible. But now, the massive task of servicing Amazon's contract is pushing some rural post offices to the brink.

Even limited research on Amazon packages and rural post offices shows how hard rural post office employees must work to fulfill the sheer number of Amazon packages and overall "last mile" package deliveries. Articles and petitions addressing the issue include details on how stressed postal employees are, including The Washington Post's recent story with this headline: "Rural post office was told to prioritize Amazon packages. Chaos ensued."

Since the Post article was published, mail carriers in their featured small town, Bemidji, Minnesota, say they have been censored for speaking out. "Mail carriers in a rural Minnesota post office [Bemidji] overwhelmed by Amazon packages say they've been warned not to use the word 'Amazon,' including when customers ask why the mail is delayed," Caroline O'Donovan of The Washington Post reports. "'We are not to mention the word Amazon to anyone,' said a mail carrier. . . . 'If asked, they're to be referred to as Delivery Partners or Distributors,' said a second carrier. 'It's ridiculous.'"

The directive was "passed down Monday morning from U.S. Postal Service management and comes three weeks after mail carriers in the northern Minnesota town staged a symbolic strike outside the post office" to protest "the heavy workloads and long hours caused by the sudden arrival of thousands of Amazon packages, O'Donovan reports. "On Tuesday, staffers from the offices of Democratic Minnesota senators Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar hosted a 'listening session' with Bemidji residents to "discuss ongoing postal issues related to package and mail delivery."

"In addition to being banned from saying 'Amazon,' postal workers have also been told their jobs could be at risk if they speak publicly about post office issues," O'Donovan adds. "Staffers were told they could attend Tuesday's meeting only on their 30-minute lunch break if they changed out of uniform, mail carriers said. One mail carrier said he'd been warned there could be 'consequences' for those who showed up."

"Tuesday's meeting in Bemidji lasted over an hour. Fifty people attended in person, and more than 180 watched a live stream on the website of the local newspaper, the Bemidji Pioneer," O'Donovan reports. "Multiple postal workers who recently quit or retired due to the ongoing issues attended, including one who identified herself only as Shelly, and received a spontaneous round of applause when she began to speak. . . . 'I worked at the post office for 30 years. . . Never in my life have I been treated so poorly. I go home at night crying. . . I was forced to retire.'"

To read the Bemidji Pioneer's coverage, click here.

Opinion: Americans must weigh in on how poorly the U.S. Postal Service is run before it's too late

The Postal Service boasts a 'jaw-dropping' 77% approval
rating. (Photo by Victória Kubiaki, Unsplash)

While Americans may not use the U.S. Postal Service as often as they did 20 years ago, it remains "a universally beloved federal agency. . . . second only to the Parks Service in public favorability (a jaw-dropping 77% approval rating, per Gallup ), writes Vishal Shankar in his opinion essay for Common Dreams, "The Public Has a Right to Know Every Detail of Louis DeJoy's Destructive Agenda." The Postal Service is arguably also the most frequently-interacted-with component of the federal government: packages and letters are delivered to Americans' mailboxes six days per week. But many of the Postal Service operations are changing under DeJoy, and critics say his leadership has led to slower delivery, significant price increases and less accountability. With a Postal Board of Governors as the only body that can censor or fire DeJoy, the public must stand up for what they hold dear, according to Shankar. "The future of the people's most treasured public institution depends on public participation and feedback." 

At a time when public trust in government is at near historic lows, the Board and Dejoy have worked to restrict public access to comment or meeting participation. "At least four times per year, the Board "holds an open session meeting, its sole formal contact with the public. In recent years, these meetings have concluded with a well-attended public comment period, where in-person and virtual attendees have excoriated DeJoy for embracing a privatization-friendly agenda," Shankar explains. "Just this year alone, public commenters at Board meetings have decried the mail slowdowns and price hikes, demanded changes to DeJoy's gas-guzzling and union-busting fleet plan, raised serious concerns about transparency of DeJoy's facility consolidation plans, and pushed DeJoy to expand community services offered at the post office."

But in its last open session meeting in November, the Board banned public attendance and comments without explaining why. "This abrupt new barrier to public accessibility led the number of public commenters – which in recent meetings has been a double-digit tally – to drop to 4," Shankar adds. "The decline in attendance was also likely compounded by an unexplained shift in the meeting time: whereas past meetings have been held at 4:00 pm ET, Tuesday's session was held at noon – the middle of the workday."

The Board began suppressing public input before this November's meeting. "At the August 2023 meeting, each public commenter was allotted only 25 seconds to speak, in sharp contrast to the typical 3-minute time limit," Sharkar notes." But next year, the Postal Board's accountability problem will worsen. Postal Board Deputy Secretary Lucy Trout explained that starting next year, the Postal Board will only hear public comments once per year in November. In other words, though the next three Postal Board meetings (February, May, and August 2024) are ostensibly 'public sessions," members of the public will have no opportunity to inform the Postal Board about their concerns until a year from now."

The Postal Board needs to drop its suppressive tactics and "reverse course by allowing both in-person and virtual public comments at all open sessions next year, and take further steps to improve accountability by responding to public comments and posting recorded comment sessions to the USPS website," Sharkar writes. "Congressional Democrats and the Biden administration must publicly call out this shameful barrier to transparent government and fast-track filling Postal Board seats with anti-DeJoy, pro-accountability reformers. . . .The future of the people's most treasured public institution depends on public participation and feedback – that's how public service works."

To read a detailed account of USPS history under DeJoy's leadership and ideas on how to engage with the Postal Service, click here.

Many small post offices are struggling with mail delays, in part because of delivering Amazon packages

A postal worker loads Amazon packages for delivery to
rural areas. (Photo by Dan Koeck, The Washington Post)

It's not the most wonderful time of year for some small post offices facing multiple mail delays when stacks of Amazon packages get delivery priority. "When Delbert Mikelson's mail started showing up late — and sometimes not showing up at all — he blamed it on the opening of deer season," report Caroline O'Donovan and Jacob Bogage of The Washington Post. "But it wasn't the buck hunt delaying the mail in Bemidji, Minnesota, a small town 100 miles south of the Canadian border. . . . Since early November, Bemidji has been bombarded by a sudden onslaught of Amazon packages — and local postal workers say they have been ordered to deliver those packages first."

Shouldn't first-class mail be delivered first? Not necessarily. "The U.S. Postal Service has had a contract with Amazon since 2013, when it started delivering packages on Sundays," the Post reports. "But in recent years, that business has exploded as Amazon has increasingly come to rely on postal carriers to make 'last-mile' deliveries in harder-to-reach rural locations."

In Bemidji, "chaos has ensued," with packages stacked so high the town's fire marshal tried to intervene. Meanwhile, the town's regular mail routes are neglected, leaving residents waiting for "checks, credit card statements, health insurance documents, and tax rebates," O'Donovan and Bogage write. "Routes meant to take eight or nine hours are stretching to 10 or 12. At least five carriers have quit. . . ." One Bemidji post office employee, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect her job, told the Post, "If we keep getting this volume. . . .We won't survive. We aren't equipped for this."

The Bemidji post office is one of many facing challenging piles of Amazon packages. "Carriers and local officials say mail service has been disrupted in rural communities from Portland, Maine, to Washington state's San Juan Islands," the Post reports. Bemidj's mayor "has complained to local members of Congress, who say their ability to control the post office is limited. Last week, Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) sent a letter to Postmaster General Louis) DeJoy to ask about reports that 'Amazon is interfering with timely deliveries and stretching the agency's already-overburdened workers too thin. . . . As Postmaster General, you are responsible for ensuring that the Postal Service meets its service standards, and it is clear right now that things are not working as they should. . . Entering into contracts that your system cannot support is a breach of your responsibilities.'"

Postal Service spokesperson David Partenheimer told the Post, "'Like any prudent business, we do not publicly discuss specifics of our business relationships.' . . . After this story was published, he added that the agency 'does not prioritize the delivery of packages from Amazon or other customers.'"

Postal Service plans 7.3% price increase for in-county newspaper delivery; NNA chair calls that rate 'punitive'

The U.S. Postal Service is proposing a 7.3 percent increase in the cost for newspapers to mail to in-county subscribers next year – a rate described as “punitive” by a representative of the National Newspaper Association.

The large increase for in-county mail, to take effect Jan. 21, is almost four times higher than proposed increases for other types of mail, including first-class delivery, according to an NNA press release.

The proposed increases come at a time when some daily newspapers are considering switching or have already switched from carrier delivery to the mail, including a recent announcement by three Gannett Co. papers in South Carolina that they would move to USPS delivery on Oct. 10.

“It certainly seems as if the Postal Service wants to discourage newspapers from using the mail,” said John Galer, chair of the NNA board and publisher of The Journal-News in Hillsboro, Illinois. “At a time when local journalism is already in peril and more newspapers are using the mail to reach subscribers, this increase is simply punitive.

“We expect both our subscribers and other stakeholders in our community to push back at the subscription increases that will be made necessary by the Postal Service’s action,” Galer said in the NNA release.

According to the NNA, proposed increases for other types of mail – including those used primarily by other competitors to newspapers – will be much smaller. Those average increases include 1.9 percent for first class and advertising mail, and 1.59 percent for mail delivered outside of a publishers’ home county, which is a rate used for some local newspaper subscriptions but also for national publications.

“Ironically, the Postal Service’s principal justification for the steep increase is that the PRC (Postal Regulatory Commission) now requires USPS to share more of the savings created when publishers do some of the work that postal workers would otherwise have to do, such as presorting the mail and transporting it to destination post offices,” NNA said.

“Raising our prices so it can claim it is creating a fair discount is the sort of math we associate with shady deals,” Galer said. “Our industry has been doing a lot of mail preparation work for years to help keep postal costs down. For us to now be punished for that work simply adds outrage to our disappointment.”

Steven Waldman, head of Rebuild Local News, said on LinkedIn, "Amidst a democracy-threatening crisis in local news, the federal government is now actively making the local news crisis worse. . . . Maybe the Postal Service doesn't want to listen to James Madison and George Washington (subsidize the press!), but at least don’t penalize it. The Founding Fathers believed subsidizing postal rates was crucial to building up the free press and therefore the Republic. Instead, the Postal Service actively undermines the press's survival."

Upset over unexpected wage cuts, some rural postal carriers want to decertify their union

Many rural carrier took an unexpected cut in pay.
(Photo by Victória Kubiaki, Unsplash)

Vexed with substantial pay decreases since May, many rural mail carriers are frustrated with their union, with some carriers pushing for de-unionization from the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, reports Jarod Facundo of The American Prospect. "The U.S. Postal Service adopted a new payment system known as the Rural Route Evaluated Compensation System, reducing base pay for almost two-thirds of rural letter carriers. . . . Angered by what they view as the NRLCA's inability to protect their interests, a growing number of rural letter carriers inside the union are running a signature collection campaign to decertify the NRLCA's status. . . . They call themselves 'Decertify NRLCA.'"

Part of the frustration is what carriers were told the new system would mean versus what actually happened. Jamie King, a rural letter carrier from Florida, told Facundo, "I took a $15,000 pay cut overnight. King described how the NRLCA made initial predictions of. . . .route changes that downplayed the true total number of hours that would be cut for most rural letter carriers. . . ." and that "the implementation was worse than what they were led to believe."

The new pay system was negotiated through binding arbitration, which means decertification "faces legal challenges and unclear hopes about what would come next," Facundo reports. "But it is an expression of discontent with the union leadership's handling of the pay cuts, which has led some to question the value of the organization."

The NRLCA's leadership has "seized upon the legal ambiguity of whether decertification is feasible. In a late-August Facebook post, the NRLCA told its membership: … We take any and all attacks against this union seriously, and we will not sit idly by to see what happens,'" Facundo reports. "The NRLCA's countereffort has appeared to quell the Decertify movement's momentum. According to King, the most frustrating aspect has been how the NRLCA has responded to decertification threats." He told Facundo: "Instead of addressing our concerns and offering empathy and a solution, [the NRLCA is] only telling members what they will lose if they decertify the union. They have offered no solutions and instead lie and downplay the matter."

Postal Service's new rural letter-carrier scheduling system is causing pay cuts; one carrier says they're 'pretty scared'

Photo by Yannik Mika, Unsplash

"Thousands of letter carriers at the U.S. Postal Service are starting to see new schedules that have reduced their hours and cut their pay," reports Eric Katz of Government Executive. "The changes are part of a revamping of the pay structure for rural employees, named the Route Evaluated Compensation System, which is a process that has been years in the making and subject to a series of delays. The new work schedules were slated to go into effect last month but were repeatedly pushed back as the United States Postal Service sought to iron out kinks." They took effect May 6.

For rural letter carriers, the roll-out of RECS was expected, but the information the USPS gave them was inconsistent. David Dayen of The American Prospect reported: "Two years ago, as RECS was getting finalized, workers were told that most carriers would see modest changes at most. . . . But losing four hours a week can translate into an annual salary cut of $8,000, according to letter carriers who spoke on condition of anonymity. . . . the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association union said it was working to resolve disputes over implementation." NRLCA :has filed a national grievance on the plan, saying USPS has withheld details on the data that underlies the new hour and pay calculations," Katz reports.

According to a union estimate, "about 66% of rural letter carriers are now seeing their pay reduced," Katz writes. "David Rodriguez, a rural letter carrier, said his post office employs 12 mail men and women, and 11 of them have lost hours under the new system. Some employees had their hours reduced so severely they will only be conducting auxiliary routes, which further reduces pay. He told Katz, "It's hurting a lot of us. We're all pretty scared." Katz reports, "Postmaster General Louis DeJoy recently told reporters the decision predated him, and the matter was out of his hands." Dejoy said: "That was a negotiated process, an arbitrated process. That was done a long time before I got here. And it's, you know, it's unfortunate, but, I mean, it is what it is, and I didn't decide it."

Rural letter carriers are not paid hourly like city carriers. "USPS has historically conducted occasional hand counts of the mail to determine the hours and pay for employees in rural locations, but the 2012 arbitration decision upended that process," Katz explains. "The rural letter carriers union and postal management worked for years on developing the electronic replacement before finally deploying it last year. Several letter carriers who spoke to Government Executive said they received little training on how to properly log their work and criticized management for a lack of transparency."

Most rural mail carriers may be getting a pay cut; some may opt to quit or retire; USPS says cut driven by union contract

Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash

Who goes where Amazon and FedEx fear to tread? Rural mail carriers trod over hill and dale to get mail to their customers, and it may come as an unhappy surprise to those customers that their carrier's pay may be cut. "A new payment system that is estimated to reduce base pay for most rural letter carriers, for some by thousands of dollars, has led to widespread threats of quitting and concern about whether the mail will get delivered in rural America," reports David Dayen of The American Prospect. "The U.S. Postal Service intended to begin implementing the new system, known as the Rural Route Evaluated Compensation System [RRECS], on Saturday, despite a grievance filed by the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association union seeking a 60-day delay and a release of the data that went into it. 'We know, and the USPS knows that there are errors that need to be corrected,' the NRLCA stated last week in a message to members. . . . 'The USPS's position is to implement and correct the errors later' (emphasis in original)."

The change has been planned for years, but the information given to carriers has been inconsistent, and implementation has faced delays, Dayen reports: "Two years ago, as RRECS was getting finalized, workers were told that most carriers would see modest changes at most," Dayen writes. "But losing four hours a week can translate into an annual salary cut of $8,000, according to letter carriers who spoke on condition of anonymity. . . . Two weeks ago, the NRLCA said it was working to resolve disputes over implementation. RRECS' implementation was recently delayed. . . . There are rumors that it has been delayed again for one more pay period, but since it was established by a binding arbitration ruling, RRECS will eventually govern rural letter-carrier pay."

"The inner workings of the RRECS algorithm and the calculations that went into it remain a closely guarded secret. But rural letter carriers have been told what the new evaluation means for them, and message boards, private Facebook groups, and other social media sites have lit up in the past few weeks as a result." Dayden reports. "A TikTok video from a carrier, who claims he will lose $12,000 per year, cited the threats to the postal system from the changes. 'A lot of you may not be getting mail today. We've had some people walk out.'. . . . In a statement, a USPS spokesperson said, 'The compensation system for rural letter carriers is a nationally negotiated pay system codified in the parties' national agreement. . . . Parties worked jointly for years to implement these new provisions.'. . . The agency did not respond to questions about how it will ensure mail delivery if walkouts increase."

Rural carriers are not paid like their urban counterparts, "who are paid by the hour," Dayen notes. "Those who work in rural areas are paid based on an evaluation of how many hours per week it takes to complete their route. Some of these areas have an enormous footprint and require lots of driving. But under federal law, USPS must serve all mailboxes, regardless of whether they cost more money for delivery than the revenue they bring in. . . . For many years, an official mail count evaluated how long the route took to complete. . . .There were tensions between the union and USPS over whether the mail count could be manipulated to reduce pay. This became a point of contention in bargaining sessions."

Local donations to NewsMatch outpace national; Lee lays off at least 15 in Montana; postal rates for rural papers go up

Rural newspapers are taking another hit from the U.S. Postal Service, which announced last week that on July 9 that the preferential postage rate for papers mailed inside the home county will rise 8.8 percent. Rates for papers mailed outside the home county will rise 8.1%. "Newspapers have already absorbed nearly 24% in price increases since the Postal Regulatory Commission lifted the inflation-based price cap on postage for the 2021 round of increases," the National Newspaper Association notes. "More changes are expected in 2023 as many postal carriers will lose the ability to work from their local post offices and will be required to sort mail at central facilities within many geographical areas."

Lee Enterprises, the main newspaper publisher in Montana and a major publisher in the nation, laid off at least 15 newsroom employees last week, the Montana Free Press reports. Six jobs were cut at the Billings Gazette, including the education reporter; "at least four" at the Missoulian, two at the Helena Independent-Record and one at the Ravalli Republic in Hamilton. Lee also publishes the Montana Standard in Butte. "Most employees in those positions were laid off," MFP reports. "Some decided to quit and their positions will not be refilled, sources said."

Local contributors to NewsMatch, the year-end campaign that supports nonprofit newsrooms, out-gave national donors last year for the first time, giving 50.466% of the $10,936,561 it received for the 303 participating newsrooms from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31. "For many nonprofit newsrooms, NewsMatch is the most important fundraising campaign on the calendar," Sarah Scire reports for NiemanLab.

All the newsrooms are members of the Institute for Nonprofit News, Courtney Lewis, INN's chief of growth, called the tipping point “a more sustainable funding solution” for journalism, Scire reports. "NewsMatch has used growth in individual giving as a central marker of success, but Lewis implemented 'a strategic shift' in 2020 toward thinking about the end-of-year program as an opening for newsrooms to form relationships with more local and issue-based funders. The program now provides training and financial incentives to nudge newsrooms toward securing local matches."

NewsMatch generated $38 million in individual donations from more than 231,000 unique donors in 2022. The largest 50 newsrooms brought in $24 million of the $38 million total, Lewis said, and the median amount raised from individuals across all newsrooms was roughly $36,000.

Postal inspector-general report on rural service could help rural areas and their papers stave off post-office closures

Office of Inspector General graphic, adapted by The Rural Blog

The U.S. Postal Service makes rural newspaper publishers gnash their teeth, but its Office of Inspector General has given the papers some ammunition to use as they lobby Congress.

Amid concern that USPS will close more rural post offices because they lose money, the OIG issued a summary of its recent reports on rural service this week, along with a handy graphic.

"We found nearly two-thirds of post offices in rural areas cost more to run than the revenue they bring in. In contrast, only around 7 percent of urban post offices have costs that exceed their revenues," the summary said, adding, "The law protects postal services in rural areas by prohibiting the Postal Service from closing small post offices just because they operate at a deficit."

Nevertheless, "USPS does regularly close rural post offices and cites other reasons," National Newspaper Association Public Policy Director Tonda Rush told The Rural Blog. "USPS is going to close more post offices and subject many more to radical changes as it introduces new sorting and delivery centers, which will cause letter carriers to shift their home base to a central, regional facility."

Congress will decide these issues, and NNA and  its Postal Committee "already have procedures in place to work out as much disruption as possible for newspapers," Rush said.

The OIG summary and graphic both have a pointed last line: "By law, the Postal Service is allowed to ask Congress for up to $460 million annually to cover the cost of providing rural service. But it has not requested these funds since 1982."

Opinion: U.S. has subsidized news from the founding; it needs to be content-neutral, universal and future-friendly

The notion of government support for news media, especially newspapers, is anathema to many journalists and even some of their paymasters, but Steven Waldman of the Rebuild Local News Coalition reminds us that the federal government has subsidied newspapers since its inception.

Writing in Politico, Waldman gives some little-known details of how newspapers paid only token postage at first, then were free within a 30-mile radius or if sent to any other newspaper, to spur the circualtion of information and help the federal government function over a large land mass. He cites Alexis de Tocqueville writing in Democracy in America that early U.S. newspaper circulation was "astonishing" and the greatest in the world, Waldman notes.

Waldman quotes scholar Robert McChesney: “If the U.S. government subsidized journalism today at the same level of GDP that it did in the 1840s, the government would have to spend in the neighborhood of $30-$35 billion annually.” And Waldman makes this point: "Now, the Internet has made the cost of distribution almost zero — while local news creation has collapsed. Some 1,800 communities have no local news source and thousands more have ghost newspapers. By one study, only 17 percent of the articles in local newspapers are about local issues."

Waldman's piece coincided with reintroduction of the proposed Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, which may find traction harder to get in Congress than last year, but he notes that his coalition is working in several states on legislation to help local news publishers, and argues that "If modern policy makers want to follow the model of the founders they should focus not on the literal construct of the postal subsidy but rather its policy principles," to-wit:

Steven Waldman

"The policies were content neutral. The subsidy was based on distance traveled, not content. This meant that both parties benefited. It meant that sometimes scurrilous rags were helped; sometimes great local reporting benefited. Everyone tolerated the idea that some publications they disliked might survive because it also helped the ones they liked, and a vibrant free press as a whole. Second, it provided a near universal entitlement. Small and large, rural and urban, publications both benefited to some degree. Third, it was future friendly. It did not target only publications that existed before a certain date. If new newspapers arose, they got benefits, too. So it supported innovation and not just legacy players. Fourth, the strategy constituted a political compromise. Although the subsidies were content neutral, each policy did have biases. The low flat rate fee favored city newspapers; the exemption for circulation near the home office benefited smaller towns. So they did both, drawing broad political support. The payroll tax credit that passed the House of Representatives last year had a similar balance: It would have helped cover the costs of local reporters at both Fox and NPR affiliates."

Across rural America, people and pols are 'trying to get the Postal Service to do its job' and deliver the mail on time

Silverthorne, Colo., has reported mail delays of weeks or
months. (Photo by Elizabeth Findell, The Wall Street Journal)

"Snail mail" is meant to be an idiom for postal mail, but some rural areas of the country have started to feel like the phrase could be true. "Silverthorne, Colo., has reported mail-delivery delays of weeks or months," reports Elizabeth Findell of The Wall Street Journal. Ryan Hyland, manager of the town of 4,500, told Findell, "Christmas cards began arriving in February. But what’s not funny at all is driver’s licenses, disability payments, election ballots, prescriptions."

"Last month, seven Western Colorado towns and cities said they had banded together to hire lawyers to evaluate their options under the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006, which requires the U.S. Postal Service to provide service across the nation," Findell writes. "The mobilization comes as a lack of reliable mail service is increasingly being reported in small towns and rural areas across the country. . . . The Postal Service declined to answer any questions this week but has previously cited trouble hiring staff as its primary problem across the country."

States have written Postmaster General Louis DeJoy seeking help. Vermont Sen. Peter Welch told Findell, "We are at our wits’ end trying to get the Postal Service to do its job. Most of us are realizing it’s not just Vermont, it’s not just Colorado, it’s all across rural America.” Findell adds, "Nowhere are the staffing issues more pronounced than in mountain tourist towns, where the cost of living is high, workforce housing is scarce and hiring is a challenge across all industries."

Findell reports, "DeJoy issued a statement saying alleviating mail problems would require solutions from local leaders. 'The Postal Service can and will solve problems within our own power, but local economic conditions are not among them.' . . . DeJoy’s message angered local leaders, who called it an excuse and spoke of their efforts to keep city services on track amid workforce challenges. . . . In Crested Butte, Co., pop. 1,700, local officials have for years tried to negotiate to get USPS to install parcel boxes, offering town property to do so, without success, said Town Manager Dara MacDonald."

Hyland told Findell, "If the postmaster is waiting for local economics to be in his favor, that’s not acceptable. . . . This is like a wildfire, and I’m not seeing regional or national Postal Service officials treating it like the disaster it is."

Quick hits: Earmarks return; flooded post offices may not; pipelines leak carcinogens; a monk unites a community . . .

The return of congressional earmarks, with more transparency, is a boon to the selected local governments and their citizens, Route Fifty reports.

Kentucky communities worry the July flood will make them lose their post offices, the Jackson-Breathitt County Times-Voice reports.

How a solitary monk, known for his soup, united a rural community, from The Washington Post.

"A rural doctor gave her all, then her heart broke," from The New York Times.

The Associated Press has a feature story on the Ojibwe of Minnesota harvesting wild rice, imperiled by climate change.

A former county clerk in northeast Arkansas was sentenced to 57 months in prison for stealing more than $1.5 million in the first six months of 2020. He's 34 years old and was already in state prison serving a 10-year term, The Jonesboro Sun reports.

The University of Kentucky has established a center to research medical use of cannabis, following a law passed after a medical-marijuana law couldn't pass the legislature. Read about it here.

A study called "first of its kind" documents carcinogenic emissions from gas pipelines. Read it here.

A rural Virginia county considers deeding a Confederate statue and its plot to a private group in order to fend off possible attempts to remove it, The Washington Post reports.

Biden signs postal-reform bill with a 5x increase in the cap on newspaper sample copying, but postage rates going up

Congressional leaders and bill sponsors watch President Biden sign the postal-reform bill.
House sponsors James Comer and Carolyn Maloney are second and third from right, respectively.

Wednesday, President Biden signed a postal-reform bill that "shaves more than $50 billion off the USPS balance sheet. It also extends a new opportunity for newspapers to use mail sampling to reach non-subscribers with promotional copies," says a National Newspaper Association media release. "The Rural Newspaper Sustainability Act, broadening the sampling allowances for Within County newspaper mailers, was included in the PSRA with the sponsorship of Reps. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York; and James Comer, R-Kentucky. It lifts the existing cap on the number of nonsubscriber copies newspapers can mail at the lowest commercial rate from 10 percent of a newspaper’s paid within-county distribution to 50%." The 50% sampling rule is effective immediately.

However, the law doesn't save mailers from steep postage increases. The Postal Service announced yesterday that it would increase periodicals postage rates by an average of 8.5%, effective July 10. "Postmaster General Louis DeJoy this week said the price increases from the USPS Board of Governors would use the full measure of price increase available from the Postal Regulatory Commission," according to another NNA media release. "He said the reason for the big increases was USPS’ continued need for cash to update its vehicle fleet, prepare networks for more packages and make up for losses in earlier years. A small moderation of 0.3% that USPS recognized from the reform bill was offset by rising inflation, postal officials said."

NNA Chair Brett Wesner said that a small bright spot in the periodicals rate hike is that "USPS is finally recognizing the value of our use of flats trays for newspaper containers by passing along a 3.7% increase instead of the nearly 11% for mailing sacks. Increases are never welcomed, but recognition that we are doing a lot to be more efficient is some small relief."