Congress votes to force Postal Service to keep Saturday delivery

Yahoo News ^ | 03/21/2013 | By Elvina Nawaguna

[Responsibility2nd]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The financially beleaguered Postal Service suffered a setback in its plan to end Saturday delivery of first-class mail as Congress on Thursday passed legislation requiring six-day delivery.

The Postal Service, which lost $16 billion last year, had announced last month its plan to switch to five-day mail service to save $2 billion annually.

No law requires the Postal Service to deliver mail six days a week, but Congress has traditionally included a provision in legislation to fund the federal government each year that has prevented the Postal Service from reducing delivery service.

The House of Representatives on Thursday gave final approval to the legislation, known as a continuing resolution, that maintains the provision, sending it to President Barack Obama to sign into law. The Senate approved the measure on Wednesday.

[muawiyah]

FedEx has USPS deliver to addresses they don't cover ~ and that's half the country.

Are you serious?

[Olog-hai]

Sorry, but revenue factors in to efficiency. Try the math again.

[muawiyah]

Ol' Daryl there ends up looking like the total doufous he really is ~ just darned ~ now when USPS screeches to a big halt in a couple of months, the GOP gets blamed for it.

Aren't those sneaky Democrats somethin'!!!!

[muawiyah]

No, sorry ~ revenue is not part of anybody's 'efficiency' ~ that's strictly a measure of changes in number of processes/products vs. manpower ~ setting prices and marketing are a whole different aspect of things.

USPS is not in difficulty due to a failure to raise prices ~ the Postal Rate Commission turned down higher rates ~ they simply don't recognize the Issa/Snowe $5 billion tap as a legitimate postal expense!

That's Congress' problem!

Then, your boy Obama has kept the Great Obama Recession running 3.5 years longer than planned which has suppressed mail volumes.

[onedoug]

“Newman!”

[dearolddad]

They should keep Saturday delivery and eliminate Monday delivery.

How about Monday,Wednesday and Friday?

[rcofdayton]

If I were PostMaster General,I would stop delivery anyway and tell Congress to go )8%$ itself! Unbelievable that Congress would not let the Postal Service take action to stem the bleeding.

[deport]

The financially beleaguered Postal Service suffered a setback in its plan to end Saturday delivery of first-class mail as Congress on Thursday passed legislation requiring six-day delivery.

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I’d prefer they keep Saturday delivery and reschedule the delivery dates to three days a week. Use zip codes and set up a schedule for MFW and TTS deliveries.

[WVKayaker]

If I were PostMaster General,I would stop delivery anyway and tell Congress to go )8%$ itself! ...

Do you really think that stopping Saturday deliveries would stem the outflow of waste and union corruption?

The payroll would not change, but the workers would likely have Saturdays off! What's not to love?

Unbelievable that Congress would not let the Postal Service take action to stem the bleeding.

HEADLINE: Broke U.S. Postal Service paying $2M for conference, golf, party- WashTimes

The best thing to do is allow the USPS to sink into the sunset. The obligation in the Constitution is not for a corrupt Unionized Postal Service, but to ensure mail delivery. UPS, Fedex and others can do it more efficiently, as we already know. Their drivers know every house and business location (and the extra income would pay the investors some extra dividends, per the "American Way"!)!

Article 1 of the US Costitution- Congress's legislative powers are enumerated in Section Eight: ...To establish Post Offices and post Roads; (and that is all it says! There is nothing about running them!!!)

[Big Giant Head]

I have a LOT of elderly that want Saturday delivery service. Their medicines come out late in the week. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we’re rolling pharmacies.

[Olog-hai]

I was waiting for you to mention the unions and the pension fund in addition. The last thing the USPS needs is to raise rates, that’s for sure. Saturday delivery should go, either way.

I didn’t see it mentioned here, but the postal service used to deliver mail seven days a week up until 1912. Sunday delivery was stopped apparently due to religious reasons. The only other time Saturday delivery was halted was in 1957.

[muawiyah]

The National Postal Forum is spending the money. It’s a nonprofit organization ~ not part of USPS.

[muawiyah]

The 'pension fund' thing is the $5billion USPS is required to pay every year for 10 years to Office of Personnel Management for use in paying medical insurance premiums for retirees 75 years from now.

It's pretty clearly not part of anybody's pension ~ at least nobody any of us will ever know!

The Republicans in the Senate and House used this as a trick to reduce the deficit ~ basically it's a RAID ON POSTAGE paid by postal customers to move their mail.

I guess Daryl thought nobody would notice! What a dunderhead he is ~ BTW, you heard it here first ~ long before he punted on Fast and Furious ~ the man is not capable of figuring things out more than two steps ahead ~ just like the Democrats. ISSA, FAKE REPUBLICAN

[Dead Corpse]

Considering they started out on horse back and by foot... Up was the only way to go.

In case you haven’t noticed... Running 9 figure deficits isn’t “efficiency”.

[Ciexyz]

Thank you, righttackle44, for stating the case that six-day delivery is vital to seniors and those who rely on mail order medications. Posters on this board keep parroting the line that everybody will be happy with five-day delivery. Not so! Wait till you have to mail a birthday card or bill by Tues to make sure it gets there by Friday, because with delivery standards being relaxed to save money, if you mail it a day later, it might not arrive till Monday.

[muawiyah]

Raising rates isn't efficiency ~ lowering rates isn't efficiency. Inflation isn't efficiency.

Pieces of mail per employee is a measurement of efficiency. That's productivity per workhour ~

Congress only needs to change one sentence in two laws to eliminate the postal deficit ~ which BTW, is not being covered by TAX DOLLARS.

[b4its2late]

Sounds good to me.