Postal Service | featured news

The lack of a decision so far by House Republican to hold a vote on overhauling postal operations means lawmakers are once again likely to pass a short-term stop-gap measure to shore up postal finances, but not address longer-term structural and financial concerns, congressional aides and industry observers said Thursday.

The Senate embarks this week on one of the most politically treacherous issues it will face this year: What to do about the future of the U.S. Postal Service.

President Obama’s former top adviser on manufacturing has been tapped by the nation's letter carriers to develop new business ideas for the U.S. Postal Service. Ron Bloom, who helped restructure the automotive industry and has negotiated several large labor deals over the course of his career, served until August as Obama’s top manufacturing policy adviser. He announced Sunday that he will advise the National Letter Carriers Association as the 280,000-member union attempts to strike a new multi-year deal with the cash-strapped Postal Service.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe warned that the Postal Service is on "the brink of default" as he battles to keep his agency solvent. Without legislation by Sept. 30, the agency "will default on a mandated $5.5 billion payment to the Treasury," Donahoe told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

A Portland, Ore., mail carrier caught on camera defecating just feet from a home along his route has been suspended, the U.S. Postal Service says.

The U.S. Postal Service could save billions of dollars by ending Saturday mail deliveries, according to the Government Accountability Office. Postal officials — eager to stave off an estimated $7 billion in losses this year — think they can save about $3 billion annually by stopping weekend mail deliveries while still keeping post offices open on Saturdays.

The U.S. Postal Service said on Thursday it would cut 7,500 jobs and close seven district offices and 2,000 post offices as it handles less mail and faces greater staff costs.

The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service delivered more bad news Friday, announcing it lost $8.5 billion in the fiscal year that ended in September. Without congressional action to change its obligations, officials said, the Postal Service likely will go broke at the end of fiscal 2011.

Two women postal workers were fatally shot Monday morning in a post office in Henning, Tennessee, about 50 miles northeast of Memphis, a dispatcher for the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Department said.

The agency predicts a cash shortfall for 2011 after net losses in 14 of the last 16 fiscal quarters. The U.S. Postal Service reported a quarterly net loss of $3.5 billion Thursday and said it will likely have a cash shortfall going into 2011.