Is Revenue Forgone a Bad Debt?

To reimburse the Postal Service for unpaid amounts for revenue forgone, Congress promised to pay the Postal Service $29 million a year from 1994 through 2035 without interest. Starting in FY 2011, the $29 million payments were reduced or skipped for 4 years. They have now resumed, but there is a risk that payments could stop again. If payments stop permanently, the Postal Service will have to declare a bad debt on its bottom line. One solution is to offset the remaining amount owed with interest, $1.6 billion, against the Postal Service’s current debt to the Treasury.