Statement To Postal Regulatory Commission On Proposed First-Class Mail Service Standard Changes

The Lexington Institute opposes the U.S. Postal Service’s proposal to lengthen delivery times, by degrading service standards, on approximately 39 percent of first-class mail. This is a dramatic and audacious change that will alter the very character of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), while accelerating its decline and reducing its public service role and value to the American people.

It is particularly distressing that USPS has presented this service reduction in a vacuum and with minimal financial back-up information. This has occurred both in the USPS ten-year plan announced on March 23, where the reduction was first unveiled, and subsequently in the April 21 filing with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC).

Before any consideration is given to an advisory opinion supporting USPS’s service standards reductions, USPS should be ordered to provide information about the costs of meeting the current standards, instituted less than seven years ago in 2014. To read the full Statement of Position filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission, please click here.