More Than Holiday Packages: Why We Need to Protect the USPS
By Susan Harley, managing director-- Congress Watch
The hard-working employees of the United States Postal Service (USPS) have been proudly serving our country for more than 250 years. Around the holidays, these workers—now numbering more than 500,000— go above and beyond to ensure joy is delivered to every corner of the country, whether that be cards, presents, or just serving as a friendly face for people who might need a smile.
While some USPS employees are actual heroes, their everyday work is absolutely essential throughout the whole year. They deliver medicines to veterans, goods to people who can’t get out of the house, benefit checks, and other critical items.
The USPS also plays a key role in our democratic process, so much that the Postal Service was enshrined in the U.S. Constitution so that people can be educated about candidates and their positions. And vote-by-mail ensures people can have their vote counted even if they’re not able to make it to the polls. In fact, the USPS processed nearly 100 million ballots during the 2024 general election.
Another important aspect of the USPS is that it has a universal service obligation, ensuring that Americans are able to send and receive mail, no matter where they live. This model is under threat as the Trump administration is reportedly focused on privatizing the Postal Service’s functions. If private companies were to take on some or all of the work of the USPS, profitability would become a prevailing concern rather than the needs of our citizenry.
The Trump administration is also threatening to end vote-by-mail, which would jeopardize the ability for some voters to cast their ballots. Public Citizen is deeply involved with the USPS’s handling of election mail since we won an important victory in the 2020 election season and have since been working hand-in-hand with the USPS to ensure that ballots are treated with the care and attention they deserve.
While the USPS is already providing critical services to Americans, Public Citizen has long argued that the tens of thousands of brick and mortar postal locations across the country offer a unique opportunity for a win-win by increasing revenues for the USPS while delivering much-needed services, for example through expanded financial services. The unbanked and underbanked in our country currently turn to predatory services when traditional banking services are not available to them. The USPS Office of the Inspector General estimated that expanded postal financial services like check cashing, money transfers and low-fee or free ATMs could garner billions in additional annual revenue. Further, full postal banking like checking and savings accounts, along with electric car charging stations, broadband access, fresh food delivery, and more could all be possible with an expanded view of this vital public institution.
In November, during a USPS Board of Governors public comment opportunity, Public Citizen put our stamp on the proceedings by offering verbal comments and our members and supporters submitted more than 3,000 written comments that were read into the record urging Board members to resist efforts to privatize the Postal Service, protect vote-by-mail, and expand services such as providing additional postal financial services. In response, as the meeting closed, the Chair of the Board of Governors, Amber McReynolds said “I just wanted to kind of finally say, given how many comments there were, that there are no proposals or plans to privatize the Postal Service. The new Postmaster General has talked at length about that in his public comments and the Board certainly has shared that sentiment as well.”
Neither snow nor rain will keep Public Citizen from holding the Board of Governors and former corporate CEO and previous FedEx board member, Postmaster General David Steiner, to that promise. We will also vigorously defend vote-by-mail both at the federal and state levels. At the same time, we’ll work with the USPS and Congress to increase the offerings available at post offices to better serve the needs of the American public.
As our country celebrates our 250th year in 2026, it is a top priority to protect the Postal Service that has been bringing Americans closer together since before our nation was founded, one letter at a time.