Members of the US House of Representatives believe they have blocked plans by USPS to cut Saturdaymail deliveries from August by voting through a provision that mandates six-day delivery as part of
a wider resolution on the continuation of government funding for fiscal year 2013.The resolution, passed by the House on Wednesday by 267 votes to 151, includes a clause –contained within every spending bill and so-called ‘continuing resolution’ since 1983 – requiringUSPS to deliver the mail six days a week “at not less than the 1983 level”, in order to receiveapproximately $90 million in appropriations.
The House decision not to strip the six-day requirement from its continuing resolution hasled to debate over whether USPS can move forward with its plan to cut Saturday mail deliveries from5 August while maintaining six-day parcel deliveries, which it says will save the company aroundUS$2 billion a year. Senate Democrats are still discussing their potential plan for continuinggovernment funding, according to Washington news service The Hill.
Although the Postal Service mainly relies on sales from its own business to generaterevenues, it receives some federal funding to reimburse the agency for free services it provides,such as overseas voting and mail for the blind.
US government business news and information service Government Executive reported that themajority of US lawmakers believe the vote will force USPS to continue Saturday mail deliveries.Congressman José Serrano, a senior member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on FinancialServices and General Government, which has funding authority for the US Postal Service, said thepassage of the ‘FY2013 Department of Defense, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, andFull-Year Continuing Resolution’ meant the US Postal Service had “been prohibited from endingSaturday delivery as they had previously announced”.
Serrano continued: “The Continuing Resolution is clear; there will be six-day delivery forthe rest of the fiscal year. Earlier this year, the Postal Service announced they thought they hadlegal authority to end Saturday delivery. That analysis was wrong, but now there is no room formisunderstanding.
“This bill included advance appropriations for the Postal Service which continued theprovision requiring six-day delivery. There is no longer any possibility of misinterpretation:according to their own legal analysis these steps require the Postal Service to maintain six-daydelivery.”
However, House Oversight Committee chairman Darrell , who supports USPS’s plans for a“modified six-day delivery schedule” believed there was still potential for the Postal Service toadjust its delivery schedule, despite the inclusion of the clause within the ‘continuingresolution’ mandating six-day delivery.
Earlier this week, a spokesman for Issa said: “In the view of the Oversight Committee, whichis the authorising committee with House jurisdiction over policies affecting the Postal Service,this is a common-sense shift within the bounds of current law that reflects a change in Americans’use of mail – and the flexibility Congress has wanted the Postal Service to have that allowed otherchanges since 1983 to occur.”
It was unclear at the time of writing whether USPS will go ahead with its plans to cutSaturday mail deliveries from August. However, Government Executive reported a USPS spokesmansaying that the Postal Service would not defy Congress. Nevertheless, he emphasised that the newdelivery plan was a “responsible and reasonable approach” to address USPS’s financial crisis thatwould save the agency $2 billion annually.
Should the matter ultimately be brought to court and that it ruled in favour of a six-daymandate, a spokesman for Issa said the Postal Service could simply reject its appropriations andmove ahead with its new schedule, which he said would be a “wise business decision” given thepotential savings.
