type: timeline_event
On March 17, 2026, Postmaster General David Steiner testified before the House Oversight Committee that the United States Postal Service could run out of cash by October 2026, warning Congress of an imminent fiscal crisis threatening one of the nation's oldest and most essential institutions. Steiner said that reducing mail delivery from six days to five was "on the table," a move he estimated could save approximately $3 billion per year but would mark the first reduction in standard delivery frequency in the Postal Service's modern history.
Steiner called on Congress to raise the USPS debt limit, which had not been increased since 1992 despite decades of inflation and fundamental changes to the mail industry. The Postal Service posted a net loss of $9 billion in fiscal year 2025, continuing a long trajectory of financial deterioration driven by declining mail volumes, the 2006 congressional mandate to pre-fund decades of retiree health benefits, and the inability to adjust pricing without regulatory approval.
The cash crisis was compounded by the March 12 DOGE agreement that committed the Postal Service to cutting 10,000 workers through early retirement — on top of 30,000 positions already eliminated since fiscal year 2021. Critics argued that DOGE's workforce reductions were accelerating the institution's financial death spiral by degrading service quality, which in turn drove customers to private alternatives and further reduced revenue. Democratic members of the Oversight Committee accused the administration of engineering a crisis to justify eventual privatization.
The testimony underscored a pattern across federal agencies in which DOGE-driven cuts created or deepened operational crises that were then used to justify further restructuring. For the USPS — which serves as a lifeline for rural communities, small businesses, prescription drug delivery, and election mail — the prospect of running out of cash by fall raised alarms about consequences that would extend far beyond the agency itself and into the daily lives of millions of Americans.