The money-losing US Postal Service (USPS) said Wednesday it will maintain six-day-a-week mail delivery after Congress denied its proposal to end Saturday service.
In a statement, USPS said “restrictive language” in a recent Congressional temporary funding bill for government agencies “prohibited implementation of a new national delivery schedule” that would have taken effect this month.
“Although disappointed with this Congressional action,” the USPS board of governors is putting its proposal on hold “until legislation is passed that provides the Postal Service with the authority to implement a financially appropriate and responsible delivery schedule.”
USPS tripled its losses in 2012, losing $15.9 billion as the state-owned enterprise faces tough private-sector competition and what it calls onerous and unfair retirement funding requirements.
Cancelling Saturday mail delivery would save USPS about $2 billion a year as part of a larger five-year plan to restore the postal service to long-term financial health.
US post office scrubs plan to end Saturday service
