Postmaster General: Rate increase needed unless Congress acts

The board of governors is scheduled to meet next week, after making no decision about a potential rate increase earlier this month. Any increase would have to be approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission, a process likely to take months.

Donahoe also said Thursday that he any rate increase would be under 10 percent.

Industries that use the mail – from greeting cards to magazines to catalog companies – have said a rate increase would be counterproductive to USPS, by shrinking the amount of mail in the system. The Postal Service lost some $15.9 billion in fiscal 2012, though losses have fallen off this fiscal year.

Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) – the chairman and ranking member at the Homeland Security panel – released postal legislation just before the August recess, and held the first of two scheduled hearings on postal matters this month.

Their legislation, while bipartisan, has received some criticism from Democrats who believe it’s not as strong as a postal reform bill the chamber passed in April 2012.

House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) pushed a postal reform measure through his committee on a party-line vote in July.