Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe asked Congress yesterday to let the Postal Service do something Congress has refused for 30 years to let it do: end Saturday mail delivery. "Lawmakers may be ready to grant" the request because the service is expecting a deficit of more than $8 billion, Ledyard King of Gannett News Service reports, noting bipartisan support from some senators.
But some who heard Donahoe at a committee hearing objected. Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of Montana said, "Cutting one day of delivery is a nail in the coffin that only weakens rural and frontier communities, where reliable postal service is a lifeline," King reports. "Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said any move to cut back on delivery days could spark "a death spiral" for the agency," Sean Reilly of Federal Times reports.
"Their constituents would be disproportionately hurt, they say, because they rely heavily on Saturday delivery of medicine, farm equipment and other critical items," King writes. "Those lawmakers also say they are not particularly comforted by the Postal Service's pledge to keep local post offices open on Saturdays because so many residents in rural America live miles away from them." In testimony before the Postal Regulatory Commission last September, the undersigned said much the same, arguing that the mail is a larger part of the civic infrastructure in rural America, and the Government Accountability Office found likewise. The commission recently told the Postal Service that it needed to study the rural impact before ending Saturday delivery.
"Their constituents would be disproportionately hurt, they say, because they rely heavily on Saturday delivery of medicine, farm equipment and other critical items," King writes. "Those lawmakers also say they are not particularly comforted by the Postal Service's pledge to keep local post offices open on Saturdays because so many residents in rural America live miles away from them." In testimony before the Postal Regulatory Commission last September, the undersigned said much the same, arguing that the mail is a larger part of the civic infrastructure in rural America, and the Government Accountability Office found likewise. The commission recently told the Postal Service that it needed to study the rural impact before ending Saturday delivery.
No comments:
Post a Comment