Postal Service Could Cut Saturday Delivery Under Obama Plan

(Updates with Issa comment starting in third paragraph.)

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Postal Service, which says it won’t be able to make required payments at the end of this month, should be allowed to end Saturday mail delivery and get back $6.9 billion paid into a federal retirement program, according to President Barack Obama’s deficit-reduction plan.

The proposal, which would also allow the agency to raise rates, would give the Postal Service $20 billion over “several years” and reduce the federal deficit by $19 billion over 10 years, according to the proposal released today.

The Washington-based service has sought Congress’ permission for all of the proposed changes. They are part of the $3 trillion deficit-reduction plan Obama sent to a congressional committee whose job it is to cut at least $1.5 trillion from the federal deficit. Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican and sponsor of a bill with proposals to make the service solvent, called Obama’s postal plan a “bailout.”

“Rather than backing an effort to seek fundamental reform, the accounting gimmicks used in the plan are a thinly veiled attempt to offset continued operating losses with a taxpayer- funded bailout,” Issa said in an e-mailed statement.

Yvonne Yoerger, a postal spokeswoman, said she had no immediate comment.

--Editors: Andrea Snyder, Bernard Kohn

To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Greiling Keane in Washington at [email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bernard Kohn at [email protected]