(Gray News) – The United States Postal Service wants to raise the price of a first-class stamp to nearly $1.
Right now, a first-class stamp costs 78 cents.
In a congressional hearing Tuesday, Postmaster General David Steiner suggested raising the price of a first-class stamp to between 90 and 95 cents.
Steiner said the Postal Service faced a $9 billion loss in 2025 and is still facing major financial challenges.
Steiner told the House Oversight Committee that the Postal Service could run out of cash in less than a year.
“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. “On the pricing side, we need to look for higher prices on both our package and mail products.”
Steiner said raising the price of first-class stamps “would largely solve our controllable loss.”
Steiner shared that the U.S. has one of the lowest-priced first-class stamps “in the industrial world.” He compared the price to that of France, which charges $2.72, and the U.K., which charges $2.50.
“And the longest distance that letters have to travel in those countries is about 600 miles — smaller than the state of Texas. We deliver from the tip of Puerto Rico to the tip of Alaska for 78 cents,” he said.
Steiner said that in addition to raising the price of a first-class stamp, the Postal Service needs to raise its borrowing limit from the current level of $15 billion, which has been in place since the 1990s.
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