Saving the Postal Service
Proposals to Prevent a USPS Shutdown
The U.S. Post Office predates the Declaration of Independence, having been established in 1775 by the Second Continental Congress, with Benjamin Franklin as the first postmaster. Originally a Cabinet-level department, it was reorganized as the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), a self-supporting independent Federal agency, in 1971. Today, the USPS delivers about half the world’s mail and is the second-largest civilian employer in the country (after Wal-Mart). It is at the core of a trillion dollar mailing industry and would rank twenty-ninth in the Fortune 500 were it a private-sector company. It is controlled by a board of governors and regulated…
