A prominent senator is questioning Postal Service plans to do away with Saturday mail delivery, arguing that scaling back operations would cause more harm than good.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who is the ranking member on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, recommended to Postmaster General John Potter that USPS expand customer services and develop new revenue streams.
The USPS recently announced a 10-year plan to cut costs and increase productivity in the face of a projected $238 billion shortfall that would result from staying the current course.
The plan includes cutting work hours and other actions that could save about $125 billion, and legislative and regulatory changes USPS estimates could save $115 billion, including moving to a five-day delivery week and restructuring retiree health benefits pre-funding obligations.
Sen. Collins warned that cutting Saturday delivery could lead to further erosion of Postal Service customers, adding that USPS would need to prove that wouldn’t be the case in order to more forward with its plans.
About every three years USPS comes to Congress, "seeking relief from its financial obligations in exchange for promises of future profitability," Sen. Collins said at a recent hearing.
"The Postmaster General’s request to Congress for relief from its retiree health benefits payments and from its obligation to deliver mail six days a week is just the most recent in a long history of Postal Service requests for financial assistance in exchange for the promise of becoming financially solvent – some day," she added.