Americans could soon pay nearly a dollar to mail a first-class letter as the U.S. Postal Service seeks higher rates to address deepening financial losses.
Postmaster General David Steiner told a House Oversight Committee hearing that the agency wants to increase the price of a first-class stamp from the current 78 cents to between 90 cents and 95 cents.
The Postal Service posted a $9 billion loss in 2025 and faces the risk of running out of cash within 12 months if no changes are made.
“As you all know, there are only three things that any company can do to improve financial performance — sell more products, raise prices, or cut costs,” Steiner said in his testimony. “… On the pricing side, we need to look for higher prices on both our package and mail products.”
He added that lifting the stamp price to as high as 95 cents “would largely solve our controllable loss.”
Steiner, who took over the Postmaster General role in July after Louis DeJoy departed in early 2025, noted that the current 78-cent rate is the lowest “in the industrialized world.”
France charges about $3 and the U.K. about $2.50 for comparable service, he said, while the U.S. delivers “from the tip of Puerto Rico to the tip of Alaska for 78 cents.”
Steiner warned lawmakers that the situation has reached a critical point.
“I am not sure that the American public is aware that the Postal Service is at a critical juncture,” he said. Without action, “Less than a year from now, the Postal Service will be unable to deliver the mail if we maintain the status quo.”
He also called for raising the agency’s borrowing limit, which has remained at $15 billion since the 1990s, and reforming its pension program to allow investments beyond Treasury bills.
DeJoy had launched a 10-year plan in 2021 aimed at restoring profitability by 2024 through previous price increases and transportation changes, but losses have continued to grow.
