U.S. Postal Service Decides to Keep Saturday Service, Warns of Burden to Taxpayers

The U.S. Postal Service will keep operations running on Saturdays, after the service's Board of Governors formally accepted Congressional actions that eliminate the chance to move delivery to five days a week.

The Postal Service Board met Tuesday and issued a news release about their decision:

"Congress has prohibited implementation of a new national delivery schedule for mail and packages, which would consist of package delivery Monday through Saturday and mail delivery Monday through Friday, and which would have taken effect the week of August 5, 2013," according to the statement. "The Board believes that Congress has left it with no choice but to delay this implementation at this time. The Board also wants to ensure that customers of the Postal Service are not unduly burdened by ongoing uncertainties and are able to adjust their business plans accordingly." 

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Last month, Northern Virginia Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-11th) requested a legal opinion from the Government Accountability Office to determine whether USPS had the authority to limit postal delivery. The GAO found that USPS could not make such a determination.  

“The USPS finally admitted it had no legal justification to circumvent existing law and unilaterally implement a change in delivery service that many believe will not only disrupt mail service, but also exacerbate USPS revenue losses and contribute to the decline of this constitutionally-mandated service to all Americans,” said Connolly in a statement Tuesday. “I hope this quells the fervor of those in Congress, the Postal Service, and in the media who encouraged the Postmaster General to ignore the rule of law.”

• See Rep. Connolly: Postal Service Has No Legal Authority to Cut Mail Delivery to Five Days a Week

In February, Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe told a Senate committee that the USPS was losing $25 million a day. 

"Last year, the Postal Service recorded a loss of $15.9 billion dollars," said Donahoe. "It defaulted on payments to the United States Treasury of $11.1 billion dollars... 

"At one point last October, the Postal Service had less than four days’ worth of cash on hand to fund operations. For an organization the size of the Postal Service – which has revenues of $65 billion dollars and a workforce of 495,000 career employees – that is a razor thin margin. By way of comparison, most private sector companies usually have two months of cash on hand to fund operations," said Donahoe.

The USPS Board said that it is not possible to reduce costs without altering the delivery schedule across the country. “Any rational analysis of our current financial condition and business options leads to this conclusion," according to the Board statement. "Delaying responsible changes to the Postal Service business model only increases the potential that the Postal Service may become a burden to the American taxpayer, which is avoidable."

Are you happy with the way Congress and the Postal Service has handled the issue?