Republican leading push for end to Saturday mail snuggles up to like-minded in White House

Rep. Darrell Issa

The push to eliminate mail delivery on Saturdays, except packages, may get a boost from a possible alliance between Republicans and the Obama administration. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, invited the White House Office of Management and Budget to testify before his committee on the postal plan in President Obama’s fiscal 2015 budget, finding that they agree on eliminating "Saturday letter delivery, removing legal restrictions on its expansion into new products and services and reducing the workforce through attrition rather than layoffs," Lisa Rein reports for The Washington Post.

Issa's "tactic appears to be to drive a wedge between House Democrats and the administration," Rein writes. "Many Democratic lawmakers are staunch union supporters who fear that ending Saturday delivery and phasing out curbside delivery — another point of agreement between the White House and many Republicans — would threaten postal jobs." Issa appears eager to pass a bill after several years of roadblocks because he must give up the chair at year's end.

"Even if a White House-friendly bill were to pass the committee, any postal legislation face hurdles in both chambers. For example, some rank-and-file Republicans, particularly those representing rural districts, are leery of service cuts and job losses in an election year," Rein writes. Art Sackler of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, which represents large mailers, told Rein, “Prospects are not encouraging at the moment.”

Issa introduced a bill in January to end Saturday mail and restore benefit cuts for young military retirees, with the change projected to help the cash-strapped Postal Service save an estimated $6 billion over 10 years. He also introduced a bill in July 2013 to save $2 billion by limiting Saturday mail to packages, having newspapers use mailboxes for Saturday delivery, and limit closures of rural post offices to 5 percent of annual total closures. (Read more)