On March 17th, 2026, two things happened simultaneously: the Postmaster General told Congress the U.S. Postal Service will run out of money in less than twelve months, and Amazon, USPS's largest customer,  announced it's walking away. This isn't a crisis that arrived suddenly. It's the bottom of a fifty-year fall, engineered by the same corporations and legislators who are now presenting privatization as the only rescue available. In this solo dispatch, Aileen breaks down what happened, who benefits, why the Constitution won't protect us, what we actually lose if this succeeds,  and what we could build if we fight for the institution the Post Office was always supposed to be. What Happened on March 17 USPS will be out of cash as early as October 2026. On the table: 95-cent stamps, cutting a delivery day, closing post offices. The same day, Amazon announced it's cutting two-thirds of its USPS packages, six billion dollars walking out the door. USPS has received zero taxpayer funding since 1982. It is the only government agency required to fully fund itself while being buried under constraints no private business would survive. You've Met This Man Before David Steiner spent sixteen years on FedEx's board holding 8.5 million dollars in FedEx stock, then became Postmaster General. His first major act introduced a bidding platform that Amazon says blew up a year of contract negotiations and opens USPS's delivery network to FedEx. In February 2025, Wells Fargo published a privatization roadmap concluding a sale would "benefit FedEx and UPS." Institutions serve whoever controls them. The Constitution Is Not Going to Save Us Article One, Section Eight gives Congress the power to establish post offices, not the obligation. The Universal Service Obligation, Board of Governors' independence, six-day delivery, the mail monopoly, collective bargaining rights for 600,000 workers, all statutes Congress can change. The guardrails are political, not constitutional. The only real protection is an informed public that refuses to let it go quietly. What We Lose, and What We Could Have FedEx charges up to $83.75 per package in remote rural areas. USPS charges the same rate everywhere. FedEx and UPS don't deliver to military addresses at all. The VA ships 120 million veteran prescriptions a year through USPS. But the fight isn't just to preserve what exists, it's to reclaim what was always being prevented. A public postal savings system ran for 55 years and was killed by bank lobbying. A free public email address was proposed in 1998 and killed by AT&T. The 2006 PAEA then locked the door on any new services entirely. In 2021, USPS piloted postal banking. It worked. Congress defunded it in 2023. The Postal Banking Act would reverse that and generate up to 19 billion dollars a year while serving 25 million unbanked Americans. We are not fighting to preserve a failing institution. We are fighting to reclaim one that was set up to fail. Here's What You Do Call your representative today and ask them to raise USPS's borrowing cap, no bill has been introduced yet, and October is coming fast. Resources and legislation linked below. Follow Us On Social Media Instagram @Peopleof_Agency TikTok @Peopleof_Agency YouTube @Peopleof_Agency   Connect with Us Ready to explore how ordinary people built extraordinary public institutions? Subscribe to People of Agency wherever you listen to podcasts. Find us on social media @Peopleof_Agency. Have stories about how the mail shaped your community, or thoughts on protecting public services? We'd love to hear from you! [email protected] Quotes "Less than a year from now, the Postal Service will be unable to deliver the mail if we maintain the status quo."  David Steiner, Postmaster General, March 17, 2026 (quoted by Aileen) "In the time since peak 2006 mail volume, the Postal Service was thrown overboard and instead of tossing us a life jacket, we were thrown an anchor."  David Steiner (quoted by Aileen) "He's not wrong about the anchor. He just left out who threw it." Aileen "The U.S. Postal Service does not receive a single dollar of regular taxpayer funding. Not a dollar. It hasn't since 1982. It is the only government agency in the country that operates this way." Aileen "We are watching the Project 2025 blueprint execute in real time: manufacture unsustainable financial pressure, install sympathetic leadership, remove the regulatory protections that prevent a sale, and present privatization as the rescue." Aileen "I'm not telling you Steiner is corrupt. I'm telling you the man making decisions for a public institution came from sixteen years of making decisions for its primary private competitor." Aileen "Their actual, published conclusion was that privatization would benefit FedEx and UPS. They published that. In February 2025. Months before Steiner was appointed." Aileen   Action Items & Resources Call Congress,  most urgent: Capitol Switchboard: 202- 224-3121 APWU Legislative Hotline (connects directly to your member of Congress): 1-844-402-1001 Ask them to: raise USPS's borrowing cap (no bill yet ,  this is the gap), cosponsor H.Res.70 (House) or S.Res.147 (Senate) H.Res.70  House anti-privatization resolution, 229 cosponsors and counting congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-resolution/70 S.Res.147 Senate companion anti-privatization resolution congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-resolution/147 U.S. Mail Not For Sale  coalition of 300+ organizations, 2 million petition signatures delivered USMailNotForSale.org The Postal Banking Act Senators Gillibrand and Sanders gillibrand.senate.gov   Hashtags #PeopleOfAgency #AileenDay #SaveUSPS #USPSCrisis #PostalService #PostOffice #DavidSteiner #FedEx #ConflictOfInterest #PostalBanking #UniversalService #RuralAmerica #Section102 #PostalAccountabilityAct #Privatization #Project2025 #WellsFargo #CorporateCapture #PublicInstitutions #APWU #NALC #USMailNotForSale #SmallBusiness #VeteransPrescriptions #UnbankedAmerica #GillibrандSanders #PostalBankingAct #BreakingNews #InstitutionalHistory #DefendDemocracy #HistoryPodcast Credits  People of Agency is created and written by Aileen Day, with additional writing by Maia Warner-Langenbahn. It is hosted by Aileen Day and Maia Warner-Langenbahn. This episode was edited by the amazing Kelsi Rupersburg-Day. Our beautiful cover art is by Sam Woodring.  Sources Here are some of our other sources (use the tab function to review different episodes). How the Post Office Created America, by Winifred Gallagher, served as a significant guiding light for this project. Many of our sources were pulled from online Smithsonian resources and the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Thank you to our anonymous Historian fact checker who reviewed many of our scripts and provided invaluable feedback.