Covered at Reason 24/7: GAO Overrules Postal Service Cutbacks

Well, so much for the United States Postal Service's own efforts to staunch some of the fiscal bleeding. The postmaster had declared in February that they would be cutting Saturday deliveries of first-class mail, despite not getting clearance from Congress first, in order to try to reduce its significant losses. The Government Accountability Office is not on board.

Bloomberg reports:

The service is bound by law to deliver mail six days a week, and is incorrect in interpreting that the temporary measure used to fund U.S. government operations released it from that requirement, the GAO said in a letter to Representative 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.

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