Postal Service May Seek a Rate Hike After All, With Prices Rising in the Spring

Barely two months after deciding to skip the usual January price increases, the U.S. Postal Service appears close to announcing that prices will rise in the spring. As usual, the "do-nothing" Congress is to blame.

Rates could rise nearly 1.7 percent for the "market-dominant" mail classes, such as First-Class, Standard, and Periodicals. That could mean a one-cent increase in the price of Forever Stamps, to an even 50 cents.

The Board of Governors announced Oct. 1, that it would forgo the usual inflation-based January rate increase "in part because of the uncertainty regarding the exigent price increase."