Will Trump Repeal Biden’s “Ridiculous” USPS Regulation for Shipping Cremated Remains?
A recent memo issued by The White House is inspiring hopeful speculation that the current administration will abolish the recently-updated regulations for shipping cremated remains. However, the cryptic language of the memo has created more questions than answers about a potential repeal, even as professionals who deal with cremains are adapting their procedures to comply with the new rules.
March 1 mandate
In late 2024, the United States Postal Service (USPS) proposed “improvements” to the process for shipping cremated remains “to enhance visibility in the mailstream.” The final mandate, which went into effect on March 1, 2025, required that “customers shipping cremated remains (human and animal ashes), either Domestic or International, must use only Priority Mail Express® (PME) service.”
In addition, the former, relatively bland 3” x 1.857” label has been replaced by a larger, bright orange version that graces all six sides of the new Priority Mail Express Cremated Remains box, which measures 10” high, 10.25” deep, and 14.75” wide.
Supplies are free, but not shipping
Although the boxes and shipping supplies are available at no cost to businesses and individuals, the size of the required boxes will exponentially increase the cost of shipping even the smallest amount of cremated remains. It’s a problem that will have a direct impact on families and companies like Reminiss Memorials, which creates handcrafted glass memorials incorporating cremated remains.
“It’s problematic, to be frank,” says Ha Ly, who founded Reminiss in 2022. “We used to ship with the cremated remains sticker adhered onto a bubble envelope; for unique uses like ours, we only need to transport about a tablespoon of remains. Now we have to ask families to pay sometimes double to put their cremains inside of a large box so we can produce memorials for them. It seems extreme.”
Parting Stone’s Justin Crowe agrees with Ly. Families choosing solidified remains are now required to use the new kits to ship partial or entire cremated remains of their loved ones to Crowe’s Santa Fe, New Mexico facility.
“The continued mandate to ship via USPS Priority Mail Express (PME) imposes a staggering $100 shipping cost on families simply trying to return their loved one’s remains,” Crowe says. “This feels like an unnecessary financial burden and an exploitative policy that takes advantage of grieving families at an already difficult time.”
Why change now?
The justification for the change from simple labels to the large box was seemingly “to increase the visibility of packages containing cremated remains and to ensure those packages are more secure for processing and a timely delivery,” per a memo from the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA). However, some question whether the problem of cremated remains being lost in the mail was prevalent enough to justify such a drastic change.
In a 2023 radio interview with the Federal News Network, U.S. Department of Commerce Audit Director Amy Jones was asked about what prompted Indiana Senator Mike Braun to request an inquiry into the USPS procedures for transporting cremated remains — the inquiry which eventually led to the new March 1 shipping requirements.
“So what we found overall is that they [both customers and companies] were not in compliance with those acceptance procedures, properly labeling them and inducting them into the network,” Jones said. “What we also found is that procedures for monitoring shipments of cremated remains within the processing facilities were not always followed. And we also found an opportunity to reduce the potential risk of missing and damaged cremated remains by enhancing packaging requirements.”
However, when the interviewer asked Jones specifically if a constituent had complained to their senator about missing cremated remains, she said this was not the case.
“So we did not identify any lost or damaged cremated remains,” Jones said. “We just identified the potential that there could be if the procedures were not followed appropriately.”
Taking credit
Interestingly, a Southwest Florida family and their local news station are taking credit for the new rules based on their “demand for change” to the shipping and tracking process.
In February, WINK News reporter Olivia Jean covered Port Charlotte resident Stacie Claytor’s frustration with the USPS, which had lost track of her husband’s cremated remains. Jean reportedly reached out to lawmakers, and her “pressure led to the package being found just days later.” When the March 1 mandate was announced, Claytor “expressed her satisfaction, telling WINK News, ‘We did this!’”
Neither Jean or Claytor expressed any disappointment or problem with the way the funeral home that assisted her family handled the shipping, placing the blame squarely on the USPS. Although Crowe doesn’t believe requiring shipping in boxesthe new labels and boxes are is the right solution, he does agree that the USPS needs to make changes to their shipping process, including creating tracking procedures like those used in deathcare.
“The death care industry’s top priority is ensuring that decedents are treated with safety, dignity, and respect while in our care and that they are securely returned to their families,” Crowe says. “Funeral homes, crematories, and suppliers follow strict chain of custody protocols to uphold these standards. However, the USPS mandate to ship via Priority Mail Express (PME) undermines this by requiring cremated remains to be transported on FedEx-operated planes, removing them from USPS’s direct custody and disrupting the tracking safeguards that ensure the highest level of security for the remains.”
Ridiculousness?
On March 6, The White House posted to its website a memo-style article entitled “President Trump’s Deregulation Effort Has Already Saved Families Thousands of Dollars.” The subject line of the article read, “President Trump Saves American Families $2,100 Each by Halting Costly Biden Regulations.”
The memo says that Trump has “blocked” many of Biden’s proposed rules and “has initiated an aggressive deregulatory agenda that requires substantial cuts in existing regulations.” This statement is followed by a list of “notable,” “costly,” and “expensive” regulatory actions enacted by former President Biden, along with the costs associated with each.
The last heading in the memo reads: “In addition to the expensive regulations highlighted above, the Biden Administration also excelled at producing ridiculous regulations” and is followed by this: A U.S. Postal Service regulation “requiring mailers to solely use the Cremated Remains shipping supplies provided by the Postal Service when mailing human or animal cremated remains, also referred to as cremains or ashes, domestically or internationally.”
Impact on deathcare
Technically, the memo doesn’t specifically say that this regulation is going to be blocked or repealed, even though it’s quite clear that the current administration believes the change was “ridiculous.” Although deathcare professionals may not express their thoughts in the same way as the president, they do share a similar sentiment about the impact of the new regulation on the industry and the families it serves.
“For families navigating grief, receiving a stark, government-issued box labeled for human remains is unsettling and disrupts the sense of care and trust we work so hard to create,” says Crowe. “This change has directly impacted our direct-to-consumer experience by forcing us to send collection kits in USPS-branded cremated remains boxes rather than our thoughtfully designed packaging that reflects the warmth and compassion of our service.”
“At a time when the industry is evolving to better serve families with empathy and personalization, this regulation feels like a step backward,” he adds. “We would like to see USPS allow families and suppliers to ship cremated remains via Priority Mail or return to permitting Registered Mail, which meets the step-by-step chain of custody expectations of the funeral profession. We hope to see solutions that balance security with the dignity, trust, and emotional well-being of the families we serve.”
