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Latest News: Saturday mail still in question under Congress’s funding plan Lawmakers are divided over whether the short-term funding plan that awaits President Obama’s signature would require the U.S. Postal Service to continue Saturday mail distribution. Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe intensified a debate on Capitol Hill when he announced in February that the USPS would drop to five days of mail distribution while maintaining six-day delivery of parcels beginning in August. The move is meant to help the financially struggling agency save about $2 billion a year. But Congress has required six-day delivery by the Postal Service since 1987, and the passage of the continuing resolution funding bill Thursday maintains that status quo. Or so some lawmakers assert. Others disagree, saying the Postal Service is in its right to make the change. The Government Accountability Office said Thursday that the current stopgap budget requires the Postal Service to maintain six-day delivery. GAO counsel said the same rule would apply under the funding plan Congress approved Thursday. Lawmakers who oppose five-day service applauded the GAO report, saying it proves that the Postal Service must continue delivering mail on Saturdays. “The same language has been in appropriations bills for 30 years, and we expect the Postal Service to continue complying with the six-day mail delivery mandate,” said Caley Gray, a spokesman for Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.).

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