Thursday, November 10, 2011

Senate committee approves bill to protect rural post offices and Saturday mail delivery

"The United States Postal Service will not be able to close rural post offices before establishing a more thorough process for selecting closure candidates and re-evaluating the locations being studied for closure, a Senate panel decided Wednesday." So reports Matt Woolbright of Gannett Co. Inc. for the Great Falls Tribune, focusing on the post-office issue that is a top concern for Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont.

But for the Arizona Republic, another Gannett paper, Woolbright focuses on a bipartisan bill's protection for Saturday mail delivery, a provision opposed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. "The legislation, authored by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., mandates that the USPS wait two years before being allowed to move to a five-day delivery schedule." McCain's unsuccessful amendment would have gotten rid of the two-year wait time, something he said would be akin to "kicking a can down the road" for two years. He said the Postal Service was able to decide for itself whether or not to continue Saturday mail delivery: "Do we in all our wisdom dictate to them: No, you have to keep delivering mail on Saturdays?"

The provision on rural post office closings was added to the 21st Century Postal Service Act of 2011 during debate by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The act is the first major overhaul of the postal service in years, Woolbright reports. Tester was a co-sponsor of the rural provision amendment and said his constituents in rural Montana made clear to him how important their community post offices are. Said Tester in a news release: "The postmaster general cannot balance his books on the back of rural America. . . . I won't let the postal service ignore their voices."

Woolbright reports the Government Accountabiliy Office has projected the USPS will lose $10 billion in the 2011 fiscal year. The Postal Service estimates that ending Saturday delivery would save $3 billion annually. McCain said he doesn't believe taxpayers should "be on the hook" for $3 billion a year because Congress allowed USPS to continue 6-day delivery for another two years. However, the amendment's supporters said the waiting period was included so USPS could try to find other savings to cover projected losses. (Read more)

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