Lawmaker warns of mounting USPS losses, urges transparent reforms

A lawmaker opening a hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs said the U.S. Postal Service has struggled to stabilize operations and finances and urged congressional action to protect delivery service nationwide.

The lawmaker said the Postal Service has posted $9.7 billion in ‘‘controllable losses’’ over the past five fiscal years and called the agency’s Delivering for America plan insufficient to restore stability. The statement noted that the Postal Regulatory Commission recently allowed the Service flexibility in how it spends revenue from additional rate authority, effectively providing roughly $2.4 billion this year, and that USPS has temporarily suspended normal contributions to some employee retirement plans to preserve cash.

The speaker listed proposals USPS has shared with Congress that could affect its long-term finances: investing pension assets, revising the civil service retirement system obligation calculation, raising the statutory borrowing limit and, as a last resort, a revived congressional appropriation. The lawmaker said any such reforms must include ‘‘real transparency, real accountability, and clear service improvement plans.’’

On operations, the speaker reiterated the Service’s unique role in serving every U.S. address and noted that changes must not undermine six-day delivery or reliable access for rural and hard-to-reach communities.

The hearing record does not include a formal vote or policy decision on the proposals; the lawmaker urged the Postal Service to work with Congress on detailed, transparent plans and to provide the committee with the data needed to evaluate trade-offs and risks.