{"id":39291,"date":"2026-04-12T12:40:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T17:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=39291"},"modified":"2026-04-12T12:40:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T17:40:43","slug":"nrlca-statement-on-the-postal-service-suspension-of-employer-fers-contributions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2026\/04\/12\/nrlca-statement-on-the-postal-service-suspension-of-employer-fers-contributions\/","title":{"rendered":"NRLCA Statement on the Postal Service Suspension of Employer FERS Contributions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Statement from NRLCA President Don Maston on the Postal Service Suspension of<\/strong> Employer FERS Contributions<\/em><\/p>\n

April 9, 2026 – The National Rural Letter Carriers\u2019 Association (NRLCA) was informed on short notice of the
\nPostal Service\u2019s decision, approved by the Board of Governors, to temporarily suspend USPS
\nemployer retirement contributions to FERS. Let me be clear: this was a unilateral action by
\nUSPS management, and not something negotiated with the NRLCA. Rural carriers should be
\naware that this does not impact TSP contributions or matching funds.<\/p>\n

While there is precedent for this type of move, concerns remain, and we will continue monitoring
\nthe situation and will keep the membership informed. USPS previously suspended employer
\nFERS contributions in June 2011 as a cash-conservation measure during another period of
\nsevere financial stress. That suspension lasted for several months, and USPS later resumed the
\nregular biweekly payments and remitted the withheld amounts after legal guidance indicated
\nthat employees would continue to receive service credit during the suspension.<\/p>\n

This move by Postal Service management and the Board should not be taken lightly\u2014Congress
\nneeds to take action to address the Postal Service\u2019s financial challenges. We were encouraged
\nby the bipartisan tone from the House Subcommittee on Government Operations during
\nPostmaster General David Steiner\u2019s March 17 hearing, where he laid out the options for USPS\u2019s
\nfuture.<\/p>\n

Chairman Pete Sessions said,<\/em>
\n\u201cThe postmaster general laid it on our doorstep, and we’re not going to kick the can<\/em>
\ndown the road. We’re going to put these directly in front of us, and then we’re going to<\/em>
\nhave to figure out how we’re going to go to our colleagues and pull it off.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And Ranking Member Kweisi Mfume said,<\/em>
\n\u201cWe’ve tried to approach this as a bipartisan effort and have left out, to the extent we<\/em>
\ncan, anything that sometimes creeps in as partisan because, at the end of the day, it’s<\/em>
\nthe service and the people who deserve the service more than anything else that we’re<\/em>
\nall assembled here for.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The rest of the House and the Senate now need to take notice and act. The NRLCA supports
\ncommon-sense solutions that strengthen the Postal Service without undermining service or
\nearned benefits, including additional USPS borrowing authority; broader, prudent investment
\nflexibility for CSRS and FERS funds, with an oversight board; and correcting the allocation of
\nCSRS liabilities.<\/p>\n

The Postal Service is a public institution with a universal service obligation, and postal
\nemployees deserve transparency, stability, and leadership\u2014among management and in
\nCongress\u2014equal to that mission.
\n\u2014
\nEstablished in 1903, the NRLCA represents approximately 130,000 career and non-career rural
\nletter carriers that operate out of more than 10,500 rural and suburban postal delivery units,
\nserving over 85,000 rural routes<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Statement from NRLCA President Don Maston on the Postal Service Suspension of Employer FERS Contributions April 9, 2026 – The National Rural Letter Carriers\u2019 Association (NRLCA) was informed on short notice of the Postal Service\u2019s decision, approved by the Board of Governors, to temporarily suspend USPS employer retirement contributions to FERS. Let me be clear: […]<\/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-39291","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\/39291","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=39291"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39293,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39291\/revisions\/39293"}],"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=39291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}