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This story was originally published by OpenSecrets.

FedEx and UPS — two private carriers positioned to capitalize on a weakened U.S. Postal Service — poured nearly $20 million into federal lobbying in 2025, an OpenSecrets analysis found.

A series of events left USPS bracing for an uncertain future. First, its leader warned the agency could run out of cash by 2027, leaving it unable to pay employees or vendors. Amazon then announced it would sharply reduce the number of packages it ships through the Postal Service. Amazon moved more than 1 billion packages through USPS last year, roughly 15% of the agency’s total volume. A two-thirds reduction could strip USPS of billions in revenue amid those concerns of insolvency.

USPS cited that “severe financial crisis” in announcing plans to raise stamp prices by four cents, to 82 cents, in July, saying it is “using all available tools” in attempting to keep meeting its universal delivery obligations.

“The Postal Service is no longer a financial or economic issue,” James O’Rourke, a professor emeritus at the University of Notre Dame who studies USPS, told OpenSecrets. “It’s a political issue.”

Another USPS expert has a different view: Steve Hutkins, a retired literature professor at New York University who publishes “Save The Post Office,” said the “insolvency” narrative may be an overstatement.

As Trump Pushes Privatization of USPS, Amazon May Be Preparing to Take Over

“It’s not going to run out of money, and it’s not going to go down,” Hutkins told OpenSecrets, noting that USPS has historically defaulted on internal government payments to stay afloat. “It’s way too big to fail. … But there are ways to move some of its business into the private sector … to try and piecemeal privatize it.”

To help cover the gap, Postmaster General David Steiner — a former FedEx board member — has begun auctioning access to the Postal Service’s “last mile” delivery network to private bidders. Such a move underscores what Hutkins described as a “super complex” connective web in which FedEx and UPS are simultaneously USPS’s rivals, contractors and, in some cases, its largest customers.

“They give UPS and FedEx billions in business,” Hutkins said, referring to air transportation contracts. That dual role as both competitor and supplier gives private carriers a unique vantage point to push back against USPS expanding into new revenue streams, like postal banking or even basic in-office services like photocopying.

“One of the main reasons the Postal Service is limited in the products it can offer is thanks to the lobbying of UPS and FedEx,” Hutkins said.

USPS reported net losses of $9.5 billion in 2024 and $9 billion in 2025, followed by a $1.3 billion net loss in the first quarter of 2026.

“Government is not in business to make money,” O’Rourke said. “We don’t ask the Marine Corps to make money. We don’t ask the [U.S.] Forest Service … [or] the National Weather Service or the [National] Park Service service to make money. There is no reason along that line to ask the Postal Service to turn a profit.”

Those figures don’t include the impact of rising transportation costs, which USPS is attempting to offset with a temporary 8% surcharge on some popular products, including Priority Mail. While the surcharge could make FedEx and UPS more competitive on price, O’Rourke warned........

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