Alliance Report – July 31, 2025

July 31, 2025

Issue 25/05

The leading voice for nonprofits on postal issues for over 45 years.

Copyright 2025: Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers—All rights reserved.

The Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers is a 501 (c)(4) nonprofit organization established by nonprofits for nonprofits.

David Steiner takes office as the Postmaster General

As new Postmaster General David Steiner appeared at the recent Mailers Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) meeting, a celebration of the U.S. Postal Service’s 250^th anniversary, and a dedication of stamps to mark the milestone, the contrast with his predecessor couldn’t have been greater. He was open, casual, and friendly, and admitted his need to learn more about the USPS and its customers.

MTAC attendees were especially impressed. They had endured years of long-winded disdain and criticism by former PMG Louis DeJoy, and therefore were happily relieved with the brief, informal appearance by Mr. Steiner. He stressed that he was not an acquaintance of President Trump before being named to lead the USPS, and had no predilection to attempt a privatization of the agency as many feared.

While Mr. Steiner possesses a very successful private sector track record as the head of Waste Management Corporation, he allowed for the fact that he has some to learn about the USPS and its mailing industry. This is something that Mr. DeJoy never brought himself to acknowledge. Mr. Steiner also expressed his interest in connecting with mailers, service providers, and their associations, something Mr. DeJoy did reluctantly only months after he took office.

While it is warranted to feel much relieved with the first impression of Mr. Steiner, there are reasons to remain cautious and to keep the celebratory champagne at bay.

• Actions speak louder than words, and it remains to be seen what actions Mr. Steiner will take.
• DeJoy left in place a loyal cadre of senior USPS officials and board members who have expressed over and over a total commitment to his plan. It will be a heavy lift for Mr. Steiner to significantly reverse much of the DeJoy blueprint.
• In his initial message to USPS employees expressed a commitment to making the current funding structure of the agency work. Much was made of his denunciation of privatization, which is fine as far as it goes. But privatization is not the real threat to the agency’s financial viability. We have previously expressed the many reasons why privatization cannot happen to USPS in today’s environment.
• The real threat to USPS is simply that it cannot make enough revenue and cut enough costs to get to breakeven or better. Mr. Steiner wants to keep trying what the previous several PMGs tried—to make the current model work. We and many others have said for some time that it simply cannot. Whether and when Mr. Steiner learns this fact is a critically important question.
• We have seen two actions since Mr. Steiner took office that might indicate his direction, or might be coincidental.
• A positive indicator is that USPS is entertaining a return to last-mile delivery of business partners’ packages. In a recent earnings call, the CEO of UPS said that her company is in discussions with USPS about reviving the final delivery of UPS packages by USPS, something that Mr. DeJoy jettisoned in hopes of capturing more profitable end-to-end package customers. The Postal Service has not achieved the package growth that it predicted and now has excess capacity to return to the successful last-mile strategy it had followed for years. Hopefully, it’s an indicator of a larger return to and expansion of public-private partnerships for both packages and mail. Effective work-sharing and outsourcing could improve the bottom line and enable customers to access the lowest cost providers.
• A negative indicator of Mr. Steiner’s actions is the July 25^th filing of a notice that USPS wants to appeal the Postal Regulatory Commission ruling that prevented the elimination of Bound Printed Matter. It is disappointingly ironic that the USPS should continue its crusade to end the affordable delivery of books throughout our nation at the point of celebrating the agency’s 250^th anniversary of binding our nation together. Perhaps Mr. Steiner was not made aware of the true implications of this attempted move by USPS. The supposed alternative of fulfilling book orders with marketing mail or packages is not workable for many customers, including our nonprofit board member, Guideposts.

We wish Mr. Steiner the best as our new PMG. The Alliance will support his efforts as well as we can, and as we have tried with his predecessors in the quest for an affordable, reliable, and sustainable United States Postal Service. We strongly believe, however, that the USPS urgently needs help from Congress in redefining the funding model.