PUSHING THE ENVELOPE BLOG

As you get ready for summer, looking for that good beach read, we have something for you! We just released our latest Semiannual Report to Congress (SARC). It’s a summary of our work to improve the integrity, accountability, and efficiency of the U.S. Postal Service and its regulator, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC), for the first half of the 2026 fiscal year.

Pretend you’re an auditor at the OIG, and your team has started an audit to review an operational or financial area of the U.S. Postal Service, which generally takes 6-9 months. Suddenly, you come across an urgent issue, something that the Postal Service needs to deal with right away. It can’t wait months until the main audit report is issued. What do you do?

Tracking essential Postal Service financial information over time often means hunting through dozens of reports and other documents. We have a new tool to help. The Postal Service publishes lots of important data reports on its own Financials page and in filings to the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC). One key report is the Postal Service’s Form 10-K, which provides annual financial data.

Today, March 5, is National Slam the Scam Day, warning us to shut the door on fraudsters who pose as government employees to try to scam us. Have you ever received a sketchy phone call from someone saying you owe the government money? Or a strange text telling you about a Postal Service package you’re not expecting? If so, this day is for you.

Happy New Year to all our Pushing the Envelope readers! Now that 2026 has started, we want to take some time to reflect on 2025, the Postal Service’s 250th anniversary. That’s right, the Postal Service predates the Declaration of Independence!