Potential USPS Changes Would Impact Michigan Households

While a great deal of information comes to us via email these days, there's no argument that the United States Postal Service is still a vital part of everyday American life. But potential changes to the USPS could soon impact Michigan households and how they receive mail and other correspondence.

The Washington Post reported late last week that President Donald Trump is considering making some drastic changes to the USPS, which has stood as an independent mail agency since 1970, though it has been an integral fixture in America for nearly 250 years.

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The Post also expects Trump to issue an executive order soon to "fire the members of the Postal Service’s governing board and place the agency under the control of the Commerce Department and Secretary Howard Lutnick." Such a move would effectively put the USPS under the White House's direct control.

While the Post did clarify that a White House spokesperson said such an executive order is not officially planned, it is something the president has discussed in the past. He said in December, "There is a lot of talk about the Postal Service being taken private. It’s a lot different today, between Amazon and UPS and FedEx and all the things that you didn’t have. But there is talk about that."

If the USPS were privatized, experts suggest it would be unlikely that mail services would continue to run six days per week to every address in the country. Instead, it would be likely that citizens, including here in Michigan, would have to drive to an urban location to retrieve their mail.

Naturally, this would impact rural citizens the most. While here in Michigan only roughly 16.5% of the state population lives in rural counties, those rural counties have seen the most population growth since the pandemic. Regardless, 16.5% of the state's population is still over 1.5 million people. Meanwhile, 53 of Michigan's 83 counties are considered rural, including the entire Upper Peninsula.