WASHINGTON - The Postal Service doesn’t have the legal authority to cut Saturday mail delivery, the Government Accountability Office said Thursday.
The service is bound by law to deliver mail six days a week and is incorrect in interpreting that a temporary measure used to fund U.S. government operations released it from that requirement, the GAO said in a letter to Rep. Gerald Connolly, a Virginia Democrat, who requested that the watchdog agency look at the matter.
The plan to cut delivery of letter mail while retaining package delivery on Saturdays “rests upon a faulty USPS premise,” GAO General Counsel Susan Poling said in the letter.
The opinion was issued on the same day the House sent the president a spending measure that also required the post office to maintain Saturday delivery. That measure keeps the government operating through Sept. 30.
The GAO’s conclusion sparked different interpretations from parties that support and oppose ending Saturday mail delivery. The labor union whose employees would be most affected said it doesn’t expect the dispute to end in a courtroom.
Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe last month said the service, after losing $15.9 billion last year and reaching its legal borrowing limit, plans to eliminate a day of mail delivery to save about $2 billion a year. The service said Thursday that it “strongly” disagrees with the agency’s assessment.
“The opinion does not address the Postal Service’s proposal to move to five-day mail delivery, with six-day package delivery, during the week of August 5,” David Partenheimer, a Postal Service spokesman, said in an e-mail. The GAO only addressed what can be done under Congress’ temporary spending measure that expires next Wednesday, he said.
In response to the spending resolution approved Thursday, Partenheimer said, “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.”
Connolly and Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., also asked the Postal Regulatory Commission, which oversees rates and service standards, for an opinion on whether cutting Saturday delivery is allowed.
“This impartial and definitive GAO legal opinion makes it crystal clear that USPS cannot operate outside the legislative authority of Congress and unilaterally implement a change in delivery service that many believe will not only disrupt mail service, but also exacerbate USPS revenue losses and contribute to the decline of this constitutionally-mandated service to all Americans,” Connolly said Thursday in an e-mailed statement.
The National Association of Letter Carriers union, which opposes cutting Saturday delivery and whose members deliver mail in cities and suburbs, said it expects the service to adhere to the law prohibiting the cut.
“We fully expect the Postal Service’s board of governors and the postmaster general to follow the law and the expressed will of Congress about maintaining six-day delivery,” Fredric Rolando, the Washington-based union’s president, said in an e-mail. “We do not expect to have a legal fight.”
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., praised the announcement last month and Thursday sent a letter to the Postal Service’s board urging it to keep preparing to end Saturday delivery. They said the agency isn’t cutting a day of service, as it has said it will deliver packages on Saturdays.
“We believe that the Board of Governors has a fiduciary responsibility to utilize its legal authority to implement modified six-day mail delivery,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter. “The deficits incurred by the Postal Service and the low level of liquidity under which it is operating leaves it in a perilous position, one that demands implementation of all corrective actions possible.”
The Saturday cutback plan accentuates one of the Postal Service’s strong points: Package delivery has increased by 14 percent since 2010, officials say, while the delivery of letters and other mail has plummeted. E-mail has decreased the mailing of paper letters, but online purchases have increased package shipping, forcing the Postal Service to adjust to customers’ new habits.
Lawmakers have authority over the Postal Service because it receives an appropriation for less than 1 percent of its operations. That money includes reimbursing the service for mail for the blind and for election ballots for overseas military personnel.
Connolly and McCaskill were among Democrats, also including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who criticized the service’s Feb. 6 announcement that it plans to end Saturday delivery in August while it waits for Congress to pass a comprehensive measure to overhaul its business model.
Information for this article was contributed by Ron Nixon of The New York Times.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 03/22/2013