The financially ailing U.S. Postal Service lost $16 billion in fiscal year 2012, three times more than it lost the previous year.
One reason – the unnecessary practice of “Saturday delivery.” Most Americans support ending Saturday delivery of first-class mail, magazines and direct mail – some 71 percent of the public, in fact, according to a CBS News survey last month. The Post Office has said that ending it would save $2 billion a year.
Congress nevertheless moved forward on Wednesday with a spending bill that includes a provision to maintain the agency’s six-day delivery.
There is no federal law requiring the Postal Service to deliver mail six days a week, but lawmakers routinely add the funds each year to ensure the 6-day schedule.
A representative for the Postal Service, David Partenheimer, said this week, “Once the delivery schedule language in the Continuing Resolution becomes law, we will discuss it with our Board of Governors to determine our next steps.” The agency will work to adjust to the changing needs of customers, he added.
Still, Postmaster General Patrick Donohoe warned last month that the agency will be $45 billion in the red by 2017 unless legislative action is taken to change its current business model.
So why is Congress forcing Saturday delivery, even though it’s clear that if any “extra money” were to be found, it would likely go to easing the affects of the sequester? Answer: Because it always has.
Sure, rural communities and small towns depend on the Post Office. In many cases the Post Office in small towns functions as an ad-hoc community center: a place to see neighbors, share information, grab a little gossip and connect for a few moments.
But plenty of other locations within smaller communities provide the same or similar functions today – including town halls, libraries, fitness centers, schools and places of worship.
Legacy labor costs, the rapid growth of the web and e-mail, and FedEx and UPS have all contributed to a losing situation for the Post Office – not to mention its own less-than-stellar reputation for service over lo these many years. Postal workers sleeping on the job? Check. Lifelong employees who retire with boatloads of accrued sick time before their pensions even kick in? Check. Clerks who can’t wait to bolt before closing time, never mind the packages that need processing? Check.
Still, some lawmakers, trade groups and others regard cutting off Saturday mail delivery as “illegal.”
Others, including Senator Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma), feel differently, however. Last week, the waste-watching Coburn introduced an amendment to the CR to kill the requirement for six-day-a-week mail delivery and give the mail carrier more control over its own operations – but that amendment went nowhere, against the postmaster’s own recommendations.
As Coburn himself tweeted yesterday, “We need 1 postmaster to manage post office operations, not 535 in Congress.”
