Congress Gave The Postal Service A Band-Aid. It Needs A Permanent Fix.

EVEN IN the Internet age, a solvent, functional postal service remains an essential element of any advanced nation’s infrastructure. As of January, however, the U.S. Postal Service was on its way to running out of cash by 2024, according to USPS management’s five-year business plan. This long-standing problem was due fundamentally to digital competition. Then the economic shock from the novel coronavirus crisis accelerated the agency’s prospective insolvency to as early as this year — until Congress approved $10 billion in additional credit as part of the Cares Act. At best, though, this is a Band-Aid; without a more permanent fix, the Postal Service will be forced to scrounge for cash indefinitely, threatening its ability to deliver vitally needed prescriptions and other supplies, as well as to collect and deliver mail ballots in this fall’s election.

Read the full editorial here.