Postal group urges new postmaster general to halt stamp price increase

A postal advocacy group is asking the U.S. Postal Service to pause a planned July 13 increase in the price of stamps until after the new postmaster general begins his tenure. 

Keep US Posted, a nonprofit advocacy group that represents consumers, nonprofits and newspapers, among other entities, in a July 3 letter backed a freeze on mailing rates until Waste Management CEO and FedEx board member David Steiner takes the helm of USPS, which is slated for the day after stamps increase to 78 cents. 

“We believe it is counterproductive for another postage surge to take place immediately before you undertake leadership of the Postal Service, as it will deprive you of the ability to thoroughly assess, and potentially rectify, one of the most destructive policies in [former Postmaster General Louis] DeJoy’s Delivering for America plan,” wrote former Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kan., the executive director of Keep US Posted. 

DeJoy resigned about halfway through implementation of Delivering for America, his 10-year plan to promote the financial sustainability of USPS by slowing some delivery and increasing the price of certain products. The changes, however, did not result in savings. The postal agency lost $9.5 billion in fiscal 2024. 

Stamp prices increased six times under DeJoy’s leadership, going from 58 to 73 cents. 

Keep US Posted specifically asked Steiner to “review and rescind” Delivering for America as well as call on the bipartisan USPS Board of Governors to freeze the stamp price hike. The board, however, has been generally supportive of the plan, arguing that it’s necessary to modernize the agency. 

Both congressional Republicans and Democrats have long criticized Delivering for America. And at a House Government Operations subcommittee hearing on June 24, several representatives of postal stakeholders and think tanks advocated for a pause in its implementation. 

At that hearing, Keep US Posted submitted testimony endorsing the USPS SERVES US Act (H.R. 3004) from Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., that would limit rate changes for market-dominant products (e.g. first-class mail) to no more than once per year, among other reforms intended to restrict stamp price increases.  

Republican and Democratic staff for the House Oversight and Reform Committee, the parent panel of the Government Operations subcommittee, did not respond to a request for comment about whether their members support a delay in the July 13 stamp price increase.