Gov't Stops USPS

From Reuters:
"Congress to force Postal Service to keep Saturday delivery"

Congress foiled the financially beleaguered U.S. Postal Service's plan to end Saturday delivery of first-class mail when it passed legislation on Thursday requiring six-day delivery. The Postal Service, which lost $16 billion last year, said last month it wanted to switch to five-day mail service to save $2 billion annually. Congress traditionally has included a provision in legislation to fund the federal government each year that has prevented the Postal Service from reducing delivery service. The Postal Service had asked Congress not to include the provision this time around. Despite the request, the House of Representatives on Thursday gave final approval to legislation that maintains the provision, sending it to President Barack Obama to sign into law. The Senate approved the measure on Wednesday. But some lawmakers who support the Postal Service's plan have said there may still be some room for it to change its delivery schedule. They point out that the language requiring six-day delivery is vague and does not prohibit altering what products it delivers on Saturdays. The Postal Service has said that while it would not pick up or deliver first-class mail, magazines and direct mail, it would continue to deliver packages and pharmaceutical drugs on Saturdays.A number of lawmakers and trade groups said the plan to cut Saturday mail service is illegal because the Postal Service requires Congress' approval before it makes such a decision. Democratic Representative Gerald Connolly of Virginia said in a letter to the Government Accountability Office on Thursday that the Postal Service is still bound by the six-day requirement."Unfortunately, the Postmaster General continues to stonewall members of Congress, withholding his legal justifications for eliminating Saturday delivery from postal customers and the American public," Connolly said.

Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, said in a statement on Thursday that cutting Saturday mail delivery would harm rural communities and small businesses and "only serve to accelerate a financial ‘death spiral' for the Postal Service."

^ It seems the Federal Government and the USPS are going to fight it out for the first time since the Post Office was de-federalized in the 1970s. I hope the USPS looses since they seem to be overly arrogant and think they can change things without first asking (either the Federal Government or the ordinary public.) ^

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/21/us-usa-postal-delivery-idUSBRE92K0OL20130321