US Congress Appropriations Committee’s mail standards amendment would cost $1.5b annually, claims USPS

The United States Postal Service (USPS) has claimed that rolling back mail delivery service standards to 2012 levels – as envisaged by an amendment to the FY2016 Financial Services Bill which was approved the US Congress Appropriations Committee on Wednesday (17 June) – would cost $1.5 billion annually. “[The] House Appropriations Committee vote to roll back mail delivery service standards to 2012 levels is financially and operationally indefensible, and the Postal Service strongly encourages the Congress to remove this requirement,” said Sarah Ninivaggi, a USPS spokeswoman. “The Postal Service simply cannot afford costly, legislatively-mandated inefficiencies that undermine our viability as a self-funding entity.”

Ninivaggi added that requiring USPS to “forego vitally necessary future cost savings would be highly disruptive to our operations and our employees — and to our business customers who have already invested in and otherwise adapted to our current service standards.”

The USPS argues that its current service standards, implemented on 5 January this year, are essential if it is to cope with the decline in the volume of traditional mail. The USPS said that the amendment – if is signed into law – could even mean that some of the facilities which have already closed in order to save costs may have to be reopened.

As previously reported by Post&Parcel, the Committee voted 26-23 in favour of the amendment, which was introduced by Representative Chakah Fattah and has been welcomed by the postal unions.