Golden Fleece Award

Today, Rep. French Hill (AR-02) announced the United States Postal Service (USPS) is the latest recipient of his Golden Fleece Award for failing to properly identify and stop fraudulent postage.

The United States Postal Service Inspector General found that the USPS struggled to intercept packages and letters going through its sorting and shipping process that had invalid or fraudulent postage. This puts the USPS and the services it provides at risk as over $1.7 billion is estimated to be lost yearly to fraudulent stamps or postage. This is revenue that the USPS could be using to reduce its $9 billion loss posted in 2025.

Rep. Hill said, “The USPS no doubt provides important services, especially for rural central Arkansans who rely on it to deliver everything from letters to medicine. But at a time when the USPS is posting yearly losses and the package transportation industry is becoming more dynamic, the USPS must adapt. Commonsense steps can be taken to stop the bleeding, and USPS already has statutory authorities to do so. While I am encouraged to see USPS agree with the recommendations the Inspector General has made, they must go further and rigorously follow through.”

In his letter to Postmaster General David Steiner, Rep. Hill writes:

Dear Postmaster General Steiner

I am writing today to inform you that the United States Postal Service (USPS) is this month’s recipient of my Golden Fleece Award. I am awarding this to USPS because of its inability to detect and properly stop counterfeit postage.

USPS is an important facilitator of connection and commerce for the United States. A secure and effective USPS benefits all Americans. That is why I am troubled by reports that the USPS has insufficient controls in place to detect and stop counterfeit postage from being used. This includes postage for small envelopes and larger packages.

Reports from the Inspector General of the USPS estimate that $1.7 billion could be lost due to counterfeit stamps. It may be that the USPS Advanced Facer Canceller Systems (AFCS), which is used to read stamps and labels, is not adequate by itself to detect and intercept fraudulent postage. In fact, during an audit conducted by the Inspector General of the USPS, the AFCS did not catch a single piece of fraudulent postage when running in its low-revenue protection mode. This mode improves mail processing speed, but it checks only one of two possible tests and is clearly not effective.

Other alerts by the Inspector General of the USPS have indicated that the USPS also struggles to detect counterfeit labels and postage for larger packages. These findings are especially troubling since criminals could exploit this loophole to ship illegal or illicit materials at no cost and courtesy of the USPS. From 2024 to 2025, package and shipping revenue made up roughly $9 billion of the $22 billion USPS generated in revenue, the largest single line of service by revenue. If the USPS cannot adequately capture revenue from this service, it will be increasingly difficult to maintain its viability, and commerce will suffer as a result.

Despite technical limitations like the AFCS, the USPS also appears to struggle with prosecuting the creators of fraudulent postage. I am pleased that USPS will be improving its fraudulent postage enforcement activities under existing legal authorities like the Lanham Act. Under this authority, the USPS has prosecuted individuals who used USPS logos without authorization. To tackle this challenge, the USPS will need to use all of its statutory authorities.

The challenges faced by the USPS are existential. In 2025, the USPS reported a $9 billion net loss and a $2.7 billion controllable net loss. While this is an improvement over 2024 financial results, this is not sustainable, and the USPS must do everything it can to ensure its long-term viability.

While I recognize some of the Inspector General of the USPS’ recommendations to tackle fraudulent postage will cost money, implementing them would improve the USPS’ ability to capture revenue and offset some of this loss. That said, I urge the USPS to seriously heed the Inspector General's concerns and implement their recommendations immediately.

While the USPS is funded by its sales and operations, it should be a better steward of its resources to ensure those funds are not wasted. Should you require additional authority from Congress, I ask that you notify me. I look forward to working with you.

Sincerely,       

French Hill
Member of Congress

CC: Inspector Gary Barksdale, Chief Postal Inspector; Inspector General Tammy Hull, Inspector General of the United States Postal Service