Is USPS affected by government shutdown? U.S. mail and post offices
Is USPS affected by government shutdown? No. Mail is delivered, post offices stay open and postal workers are paid as usual. The U.S. Postal Service pays for itself through stamps and shipping, so it does not depend on the yearly funding that runs out in a shutdown. Right now there is no shutdown, and mail is running as usual. The government is funded through December 11, 2026.
Mail & USPS: Normal Government: OPEN Live status
Is USPS affected by government shutdown?
The Postal Service is an independent federal agency. Its day-to-day operations are paid for by what it sells, such as postage, packages and money orders, not by tax dollars. A shutdown happens when Congress fails to pass yearly funding, and the Postal Service does not run on that funding, so it keeps going.
Before the 2025 shutdown, the Postal Service said its operations would not be interrupted and that all post offices would stay open for business as usual. Mail kept running through all 43 days of the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
Congress does give the Postal Service a small yearly payment, about $50 million in recent years, to cover free mail for blind people and ballots mailed by overseas voters. That payment is not what keeps the mail moving.
What keeps running at the post office
- Letter and package delivery on the normal schedule
- Post office counters and hours
- Stamps, shipping, PO boxes and money orders
- Mail forwarding and Informed Delivery
- Passport application acceptance at post offices
In short: if you can do it at the post office on a normal day, you can do it during a shutdown.
Do USPS workers get paid during a shutdown?
Yes. Letter carriers, clerks and other postal employees are not furloughed. They keep working and are paid on their normal schedule, because their pay comes from Postal Service revenue. That is different from most federal employees, who are either sent home or work without pay until the shutdown ends.
What can still be slower
The Postal Service delivers whatever is mailed, but it cannot deliver letters that were never sent. Mail from federal agencies depends on those agencies. If an office has sent most of its staff home, its letters and replies can take longer, even though the mail itself is on time.
- Social Security: Social Security payments keep going during a shutdown.
- IRS letters and paper tax refunds depend on IRS staffing, and paper returns wait until the IRS reopens.
- Passports are accepted at post offices, but the State Department does the passport processing.
If a shutdown started after the next deadline
The next funding deadline is December 11, 2026. If funding ran out without a new law, the mail would keep running and post offices would stay open, as in past shutdowns.
The mail is one of the few services a shutdown does not touch; many others change, as our guide to what shuts down in a government shutdown explains. Our U.S. government shutdown tracker shows the live status.
Frequently asked questions
Is the post office open during a government shutdown?
Yes. The Postal Service says all post offices stay open for business as usual during a shutdown, because it is paid for by the sale of stamps and services, not by tax dollars.
Does the mail run during a government shutdown?
Yes. Letters and packages are delivered on the normal schedule. Mail kept running through the 2025 shutdown, the longest in U.S. history.
Do USPS workers get paid during a government shutdown?
Yes. Letter carriers and other postal employees keep working and are paid as normal, because their pay comes from Postal Service revenue, not from yearly funding.
Will my packages be delayed by a government shutdown?
Not because of the shutdown itself. Normal delays, such as holiday volume or weather, still apply. Packages that have to clear U.S. customs follow Customs and Border Protection, which keeps working during a shutdown.
Can I apply for a passport at the post office during a shutdown?
Post offices keep accepting passport applications, since that is a Postal Service counter service. The applications are then processed by the State Department, not the Postal Service.
Will checks sent by mail still come during a shutdown?
The Postal Service will deliver whatever is mailed. Whether a check is sent depends on the agency paying it. Social Security payments, for example, continue during a shutdown.