**GAO-12-159SP**                      Published: Oct 14, 2011. Publicly Released: Oct 20, 2011.                  

-   
-   
-   
-   

    Jump To:  
-  Elder Abuse 
-  Services for Older Adults 
-  State and Local-Level Drivers and Trends 
-  State and Local Fiscal Projections 
-  Federal Borrowing 
-  Managing the Debt 
-  Summary of Funding Provisions 
-  Auditing the Government's Books 
-  Unpacking the Financial Report 
-  Highlights 
-  Recommendations 
-  Background 
-  About This Work 
-  About This Work 
-  Trends 
-  About the Center 
-  Why It's High Risk 
-  What Remains To Be Done 
-  Key Reports 
-  Newest COVID-Related Reports 
-  AI Use Cases 
-  Flood Insurance 
-  Past Pandemic-Related Reports 
-  CARES Act Oversight Reports 
-  All COVID-19 Reports 
-  Report Suspected Fraud 
-  Subjects 
-  How to Get Notified 
-  Past Reports 
-  Public Health Threats 
-  Explore the FY 2022 and 2023 Funds 
-  Lessons Learned 
-  Agency Reports 
-  Recent Reports 
-  Recommendations 
-  Supplemental Material 
-  Full Report 
-  Additional Data 
-  View Decision 
-  Downloads 
-  Previously Identified Actions 
-  Related Pages 
-  Associated Agencies 
-  Tough Choices and Opportunities Ahead 
-  Americas Fiscal Future Key Areas 
-  Retirement Security Key Areas 
-  Current List 
-  About The High Risk List 
-  Area Ratings 
-  Previous High Risk Products 
-  Search Federal Vacancies 
-  Past Federal Vacancies 
-  Violation Letters 
-  About the Yellow Book 
-  Advisory Council 
-  Related Resources 
-  Comment Letters 
-  Related Publications 
-  Contacts and Resources 
-  Major Issues Facing the Nation 
-  Meeting Strategic Challenges 
-  Additional Resources 
-  Resources 
-  GAO Contacts 
-  Mission Teams 
-  Operations and Staff Offices  
-  Organization Chart  
-  Why a Career at GAO? 
-  Am I Qualified? 
-  Company Culture 
-  Reasonable Accommodations 
-  Video Gallery 
-  Paid Internships 
-  Student Volunteers 
-  Professional Development Program 
-  Advancement 
-  Executive Candidate Program 
-  Summer Associates 
-  Externships 
-  Benefits 
-  Contacts 

Skip to Highlights

## Highlights

By the end of fiscal year 2011, with a projected net loss of about $10 billion, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) was expected to become insolvent. To mitigate this, Congress temporarily deferred USPS's required $5.5 billion retiree health benefit payment. Over the previous 4 years, USPS experienced a cumulative net loss of just over $20 billion. USPS expects its revenue to decline further as First-Class Mail is projected to decline nearly 7 percent annually through 2020. Consequently, decisions need to be made to determine how USPS should be restructured to put it on a path to financial viability. GAO was asked to summarize (1) long-term trends related to the demand for and use of mail, and (2) options for restructuring USPS's business model to adjust to changing mail trends. This summary is based on GAO's past work, including GAO-11-278 (High-Risk Series: An Update) and GAO-10-455 (USPS: Strategies and Options to Facilitate Progress toward Financial Viability), both of which found that USPS urgently needs to restructure its networks and workforce to achieve and sustain financial viability. In addition, GAO also used data and related studies from USPS. GAO performed this work from September 2011 to October 2011 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. GAO provided a draft of this report to USPS for comment and incorporated technical comments provided by USPS as appropriate.

## Full Report

Full Report (5 pages)

Accessible Text 

## Office of Public Affairs

Sarah Kaczmarek
kaczmareks@gao.gov

(202) 512-4800

## Topics

Government Operations

Agency debtAgency missionsCompensationCost analysisE-mailFederal agency reorganizationFederal regulationsFinancial analysisFinancial managementLossesPostal facilitiesPostal serviceReporting requirementsAgency organizational structureBusiness operationsFinancial conditionMail processing operations