{"id":39193,"date":"2026-03-25T11:56:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T16:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=39193"},"modified":"2026-03-25T11:56:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T16:56:44","slug":"statement-from-national-rural-letter-carriers-association-president-don-maston-on-postmaster-general-david-steiners-congressional-testimony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2026\/03\/25\/statement-from-national-rural-letter-carriers-association-president-don-maston-on-postmaster-general-david-steiners-congressional-testimony\/","title":{"rendered":"Statement from National Rural Letter Carriers\u2019 Association President Don Maston on Postmaster General David Steiner\u2019s Congressional Testimony"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>March 24, 2026<br \/>\nFor Immediate Release<br \/>\nPostmaster General David Steiner\u2019s testimony before Congress on Tuesday, March 17,<br \/>\nmade clear that the United States Postal Service is facing significant and immediate<br \/>\nfinancial pressures that require congressional action. Just as importantly, his testimony<br \/>\nunderscored a fundamental choice before Congress. One path relies on service<br \/>\nreductions that would disproportionately harm rural communities; the other advances<br \/>\npractical, common-sense reforms that address financial challenges without undermining<br \/>\nthe Postal Service\u2019s universal service obligation.<\/p>\n<p>The National Rural Letter Carriers\u2019 Association (NRLCA) strongly opposes any<br \/>\napproach that seeks to resolve USPS\u2019s financial issues through service reductions,<br \/>\ngiven the outsized impact such measures would have on rural America. Rural delivery is<br \/>\nnot optional; it is a core component of the Postal Service\u2019s public service mandate to<br \/>\nprovide rural Americans with the same service at the same cost that postal customers in<br \/>\nurban areas receive. Since the establishment of Rural Free Delivery in 1896, this<br \/>\ncommitment has connected farm families and small towns to the broader national<br \/>\neconomy, expanded access to information and commerce, and reinforced the principle<br \/>\nthat every American, regardless of location, is entitled to reliable affordable mail service.<\/p>\n<p>That principle must continue to guide congressional action today. Rural customers rely<br \/>\non USPS for essential needs, including medications, financial instruments, ballots, legal<br \/>\ndocuments, e-commerce and official government correspondence. When service is<br \/>\nreduced, rural communities are affected first and most severely. Proposals that diminish<br \/>\ndelivery standards, limit access, or shift additional burdens onto rural areas depart from<br \/>\nmore than a century of national policy and undermine the universal service obligation at<br \/>\nthe heart of the Postal Service.<\/p>\n<p>NRLCA urges Congress to pursue pragmatic reforms that strengthen USPS while<br \/>\npreserving service. Specifically, the Association supports increasing the Postal<br \/>\nService\u2019s borrowing authority to ensure adequate liquidity in addressing near-term<br \/>\nfinancial challenges. NRLCA also advocates for a fair reallocation of the Civil Service<br \/>\nRetirement System (CSRS) liability, which has long distorted USPS\u2019s financial position,<br \/>\nand supports broader diversification of CSRS and Federal Employees Retirement<br \/>\nSystem (FERS) investment strategies to improve long-term returns through prudent,<br \/>\nmodern investment practices.<br \/>\nNRLCA looks forward to working with Congress to advance these reforms and to<br \/>\ndevelop additional solutions that ensure the Postal Service can continue serving future<br \/>\ngenerations. Long-term financial stability must not come at the expense of the essential<br \/>\nservices Americans depend upon. NRLCA urges Congress to reject proposals that<br \/>\nwould weaken service and instead collaborate with stakeholders to implement reforms<br \/>\nthat preserve USPS\u2019s ability to serve all Americans.<br \/>\n\u2014<br \/>\nEstablished in 1903, the NRLCA represents approximately 130,000 career and noncareer rural letter carriers operating from more than 10,500 rural and suburban postal<br \/>\ndelivery units, serving over 86,000 rural routes.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/NRLCA.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-28845\" src=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/NRLCA-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/NRLCA-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/NRLCA-30x30.jpg 30w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>March 24, 2026 For Immediate Release Postmaster General David Steiner\u2019s testimony before Congress on Tuesday, March 17, made clear that the United States Postal Service is facing significant and immediate financial pressures that require congressional action. Just as importantly, his testimony underscored a fundamental choice before Congress. One path relies on service reductions that would [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39194,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39193\/revisions\/39194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}