Paul Steidler, The Lexington Institute--The COVID-19 pandemic is all but certain to have a severe, negative financial impact on the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), significantly accelerating when it will face a liquidity crisis and be unable to provide basic services. Even if that liquidity crisis is after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides, this must be avoided as it would grind the American economy to a halt and disrupt daily life.
It is likely that the U.S. Treasury will soon increase a $15 billion line of credit to USPS. That is probably unavoidable. At the same time, Treasury should not issue a blank check as doing so would let Congress off the hook from undertaking overdue and much necessary holistic postal reform to address structural challenges the Postal Service faces.
