WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Jim Risch and Mike Crapo (both R-Idaho) joined Senator John Boozman (R-Ark.) and 16 colleagues in calling a new U.S. Postal Service (USPS) pilot program a threat to mail delivery and a misguided attempt to federalize financial services. In a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, the Senators question the USPS’s authority to implement a banking pilot program that includes check-cashing services.

“We are concerned that the pilot program exceeds the Postal Service’s legal authority and fails to comply with relevant regulations and procedural requirements,” the Senators wrote in the letter.

The Postal Service launched its postal banking pilot program in September without notifying Congress. It comes on the heels of losses of more than $75 billion from 2007-2019. Last month the USPS announced it will further slow service and increase prices in an attempt to fix its own notoriously poor financial footing. 

“Given that these losses occurred during a period of time in which the Postal Service was exclusively focused on mail delivery, it would be imprudent to shift attention and resources toward an area in which the agency lacks expertise. It is essential that the Postal Service address this revenue shortfall by focusing on fixing inefficiencies with its mail delivery system, not pivoting to financial products and offerings with which the agency has no expertise,” the Senators continued. 

Co-signers of the letter include Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kan.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), John Thune (R-S.D.), and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.). 

Full text of the letter is available here.

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