TPA Launches New Partner Site on Postal Reform!

Last week, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) launched a new website, www.postalreformforus.org, that focuses exclusively on reforming the United States Postal Service (USPS). The website is filled with content from TPA and other groups such as Americans for Tax Reform, the National Taxpayers Union, and the R street Institute who are dedicated to working on reforming the USPS. The new site features blogs, press releases, and videos all showcasing the issues that are a part of reforming the USPS.

This new website is needed because USPS continues to face a financial crisis that is only being made worse by a lack of leadership and accountability within the agency. The website will focus in on major issue areas related to reform and hopefully put the USPS on a path toward fiscal solvency, coupled with a single focus of carrying out the original mission of the Postal Service: delivering the mail.

The issues include:

Board of Governors and Leadership

The agency is in desperate need of new leadership and accountability. Of the nine appointees to the Board of Governors (BOG), there are currently six vacancies. There’s a real opportunity for policymakers to appoint new leaders with fresh ideas.

Mission Creep

The USPS must cease and desist all efforts to get into new industries. There’s a sense of “mission creep” plaguing the agency as they continue to leave behind the important work of delivering mail in place of attempts to provide new services like grocery delivery.

Postal Reform

The agency has also had missed opportunities for cost-saving reform and this must change. Ending Saturday delivery and implementing a consolidation of USPS offices must be considered because this is another common sense approach to helping save the agency money.

Vehicle Purchase

The USPS’s vehicles are getting old and breaking down.  There is no denying that they need to replace the old vehicles.  But a plan to purchase a new fleet of trucks at $6.5 billion ignores the chance to save billions. A recent study detailed the savings.

The USPS continues to ignore the crisis in their balance sheet with $5 billion in losses during 2015, and more than $50 billion in losses over the last decade. This type of financial instability cannot continue and it is up to the agency to find a way to solve the problem without wasting money or compromising core services.

It is time for the USPS to get back to their core mission of delivering the mail. TPA and our partner organizations in this effort (which we’ll be featuring soon on the website) will work hard so that the USPS can achieve real reforms.