GAO: USPS Primer – Answers to Key Questions about Reform Issues

What the Primer Includes This primer explains how the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) works and why it needs reform, and discusses some options for addressing reform issues. GAO provides answers to questions about basic aspects of USPS and postal reform issues in a concise and easy-to-understand format. These answers are based largely on GAO’s prior…

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Podcast: Postal Service to double capital spending over next decade

July 22, 2018 The Postal Service is among the most capital-intensive federal entities. In fact, it’s planning to nearly double its rate of capital spending over the next 10 years compared to the last decade. That translates to $2.4 billion a year. Auditors at the Government Accountability Office wonder where will the money come from?…

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CBP and USPS Should Assess Costs and Benefits of Using Electronic Advance Data

What GAO Found U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the primary federal agency tasked with targeting and inspecting inbound international items and seizing illegal goods, including illegal or inadmissible drugs and merchandise. As mail and express cargo arrive in the United States, both the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and express consignment operators (such as…

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Sen. Claire McCaskill calls on USPS to explain complaints of poor service

By Jim Cunningham – May 8, 2017 Two senators are checking on complaints about poor service from the U.S. Postal Service, days after KMBZ News aired a story about persistent problems in Kansas City’s Northland. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) are stepping up to address concerns about the accuracy of delivery…

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GAO questions USPS cost savings on POStPlan, USPS questions GAO’s tone

May 3, 2016 The Government Accountability Office has just issued a report about the cost savings the Postal Service may have achieved with POStPlan, the initiative that reduced hours at 13,000 small post offices and eliminated their postmaster positions. As the report makes clear, the plan has not saved the $500 million a year that…

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GAO: Post Office Changes Suggest Cost Savings, but Improved Guidance, Data, and Analysis Recommended

GAO-16-385: Apr 29, 2016. What GAO Found The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) had largely completed Post Office Structure Plan’s (POStPlan) implementation prior to a 2014 POStPlan arbitration decision and expected millions in cost savings. Specifically, under POStPlan, USPS planned to reduce hours at about 13,000 post offices (from 8- to 2-, 4-, or 6-hours of retail…

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Honest assessments needed to determine next steps for Postal Service

The Hill - Opinion

By Leslie K. Paige – December 11, 2015 If Americans have noticed that their mail is being delivered later and more erratically in 2015 than in the past, it is not their imaginations — it is true. On Aug. 13, 2015 the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Office of Inspector General released a report highlighting a…

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Senators Respond to GAO Report on USPS Delivery Performance Measurement

[maxgallery id=”36926″]Monday, October 5, 2015 WASHINGTON – Today, Senators Tom Carper (D-Del.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), and Jon Tester (D-Mont.), members of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, responded to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that found the on-time mail delivery performance results provided by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS)…

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