The American Postal Workers Union (APWU) claimed that the $12 billion in annual discounts given to private mailers for pre-sorting mail was also to blame.

It was this Commission's job to research the falling revenue of the Service and provide recommendations to the President about what actions could be taken to remedy the situation.

It also made the Service liable for certain benefits granted to military and veteran employees, which was usually paid for by the United States Treasury and which no other government organization had to independently pay for.

[10] According to Tom Davis, the Bush administration threatened to veto the legislation unless they added the provision regarding funding the employee benefits in advance with the objective of using that money to reduce the federal deficit.

Title II overhauled the process in which the USPS needed to change the rate of products, limiting any increase to the consumer price index.

[13] By the end of 2019, the USPS had $160.9 billion in debt, due to growth of the Internet, the Great Recession, and prepaying for employee benefits as stipulated in PAEA.

[14] Columnist Dan Casey wrote in a July 2014 op-ed in The Roanoke Times that the PAEA is "one of the most insane laws Congress ever enacted".

[9] The USPS Fairness Act, introduced in 2021 with bipartisan support by Peter DeFazio in the U.S. House and by Steve Daines and Brian Schatz in the U.S. Senate, would undo substantial parts of the PAEA.