House Committee Votes to Keep Saturday Mail Delivery

The House Appropriations Committee passed an amendment to a funding bill on June 25 that would prevent the Postal Service from eliminating Saturday mail delivery. The amendment, introduced by Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY) and Rep. Tom Latham (R-IA), received bipartisan support and easily passed a vote by the full Appropriations Committee.

The vote came one week after the House Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government intentionally omitted language mandating six-day mail delivery from the draft Fiscal Year 2015 spending bill. The six-day delivery requirement has been included in every appropriations bill since 1983.

“This is a clear victory for letter carriers and other supporters of a strong Postal Service,” said Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers.

“This is great news for all postal workers and for the people of the country,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein. “Millions of families and businesses depend on the Postal Service to deliver mail, medicine and packages. If Saturday delivery was eliminated, private, for-profit companies would soon step in to fill the void. We would be one step closer to a privatized U.S. Postal Service,” he said.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) has been leading the campaign to end six-day delivery. Earlier this year, he introduced a bill that would wipe out Saturday letter delivery and end door-to-door delivery for many Americans.

Despite pleas from Rep. Issa and Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe to roll back Saturday Delivery, there has been strong opposition to the idea within the House.  Almost half of all House members – 225 – have supported a resolution supporting six-day delivery.