Lawmakers push USPS over Saturday delivery change

By Bernie Becker - 02/06/13 07:41 PM ET

A bipartisan pair of lawmakers is asking the Postal Service about its legal authority to eliminate Saturday delivery.

Reps. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) and Sam Graves (R-Mo.) noted in a Wednesday letter to Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe that postal officials had previously asked lawmakers to give them the legal authority to switch to five-day delivery.

“Logic dictates that when USPS and the Administration repeatedly request that Congress explicitly provide USPS the authority to reduce mail service from 6-days to 5-days, it is clear acknowledgement that, absent Congressional action, USPS lacks the statutory authority to do so,” wrote Connolly, a member of the House Oversight panel, and Graves, the Small Business Committee chairman.

The Postal Service announced on Wednesday that it would get rid of Saturday delivery of first-class mail, which has been declining in volume in recent years.

USPS will continue to deliver packages – a growing part of its business – on Saturdays, and post offices with Saturday hours will stay open on the weekend.

Donahoe told reporters on Wednesday that the change would save about $2 billion a year. USPS lost roughly $16 billion in fiscal 2012, around 70 percent of it due to defaults on required prepayments for retiree healthcare.

Postal officials believe they have the authority to move unilaterally on five-day delivery because the government is currently funded, through March 27, via continuing resolution. Donahoe also said he hoped to work with Congress over the last six weeks of the current continuing resolution to clear up any questions over the USPS decision.

Lawmakers have mandated six-day delivery through the appropriations process for around three decades. In their letter, Connolly and Graves request “that USPS immediately provide a legal justification for this proposed action, including all documents related to this decision, whether produced internally, contracted out, or by another government entity, and the opinion of counsel upon which you relied to make this important decision.”