One federal agency has a history of pouring money down the drain, but now they’re boasting about their finances.
The U.S. Postal Service had a net loss of $586 million for the third quarter, which is about $1.5 billion less than they lost the previous year.
USPS issued a press release Monday touting the savings, pointing out the “reduction of $1.4 billion from the net loss of $2 billion for same period last year.”
“While it may seem tempting for USPS backers to cheer the agency for only losing half a billion dollars, USPS officials continue to oversee an agency that is not covering its costs,” Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) Vice President for Policy and Communications Leslie Paige said in a statement.
The announcement of these massive losses comes just after the USPS inspector general pointed out that in just the last six months, the agency had $1.4 billion that could be “put to better use,” as well as $7.5 million in questionable costs.
USPS brought in about $16.5 billion in revenue that quarter, about the same as they made in the same amount of time last year.
USPS has lost more than $50 billion in the last 10 years, according to the watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste.
USPS spokeswoman Sarah Ninivaggi admitted to The Daily Caller News Foundation that the quarter was “challenging quarter in some regards.”
“On a more positive note, despite a controllable loss reported for the quarter, our year to date controllable income is $1.2 billion,” Ninivaggi told TheDCNF. “This is basically a measure of business performance that the Postal Service controls– after the costs of legislative mandates have been backed out. We continue to see double-digit increases in package volume, which is a testament to how we are meeting growing demand. Additionally, we are seeing improved productivity in many areas of our operations.”
The total amount of mail being delivered decreased by 738 million pieces from 37.5 billion pieces.
“In a case of unsurprising déjà vu, the United States Postal Service posted another quarterly loss,” David Williams, President of Taxpayers Protection Alliance said in a statement. “Even though shipping and package revenue continued to edge upwards, operating expenses exceeded the growth in operating revenue.”
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