Corker: CR shouldn't mandate USPS delivery schedule

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) on Wednesday blasted a House spending measure for mandating that the U.S. Postal Service keep six-day delivery. 

Lawmakers have, through the appropriations process, directed USPS to deliver the mail six days a week for roughly three decades. 

But Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe initiated a plan last month to scrap Saturday delivery of letters in August, while keeping six-day delivery of packages. 

Donahoe has said that he believes his agency has the authority to move forward regardless, but also urged Congress not to tie the Postal Service’s hands as it hashed out legislation to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year. 

“This is the worst of Washington – here Congress is unable to pass reforms that would enable the Postal Service to operate and not be a burden to taxpayers, and yet Congress also continues to interfere and not allow the Postal Service to make the decisions it believes are necessary to operate viably in the future,” Corker, who opposed a bipartisan postal overhaul that passed the Senate last year, said in a statement. 

“If this action is carried through, Congress will be hamstringing the Postal Service, hastening its demise and probably adding additional financial burdens to U.S. taxpayers.” 

Donahoe has said that ending Saturday letter delivery would save around $2 billion a year, as the agency looks to shave a projected $20 billion gap in their bottom line. 

The postmaster general has some support from GOP lawmakers for moving forward with his plan, but members on both sides of the aisle have questioned whether he has the authority to go ahead. 

The House passed the spending measure, known as a continuing resolution, on Wednesday. The legislation, which would stave off a government shutdown later this month, now heads to the Senate.

---