CBO: Axing Saturday mail delivery may save more than postal benefits cuts

Eliminating regular Saturday mail delivery and delivering more mail to curbside receptacles that serve multiple addresses would save a lot more money than cutting back on benefits for employees and retirees. 

Analysts at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) present projections supporting that conclusion in a new look at H.R. 2748, the Postal Reform Act bill.

The authors of the bill hope to shore up the U.S. Postal Service by:

• Letting the service cut mail delivery to five days per week, from six.
• Letting the service deliver more mail to multi-customer receptacles.
• Eliminating appropriations for free and reduced-rate mail.
• Reducing the contributions for active employees’ health and life premiums to 70 percent for health, from 78.5 percent today, and to 33 percent for life, from 100 percent today.
• Changing the retiree health benefits contribution formula to reflect postal workers’ relatively low salary increases and relatively post-retirement death rates.
• Cutting retiree health benefits pre-funding requirements in 2015 and 2016.

Government accounting rules would put the effects of some of the changes on the federal budget and more off-budgets, the analysts write.

See also: Postal Service to cut Saturday mail to trim costs

See also: Postal Service might send retirees to Medicare