In a letter to House of Representative Colleagues, Congressman Gerald E. Connolly (VA-11) stressed: The United States Postal Service is Not a Piggy Bank! Oppose Reckless Efforts to Hold the Highway Trust Fund Hostage in Exchange for Eliminating Saturday Mail Delivery.

When addressing a proposal to leverage Highway Trust Fund funding against the elimination of Saturday mail delivery, Representative Connolly writes in part...

This non-germane, anti-Postal provision would undermine a trillion dollar American mailing industry that supports more than 8 million private sector jobs and represents 7 percent of our Nation’s Gross Domestic Product. The loss of jobs resulting from eliminating Saturday mail delivery would not be limited to the private sector, as approximately 80,000 full-time and part-time middle-class postal workers, including rural letter carriers, would find themselves out of work. Such a drastic loss of jobs would not only harm our economy, but also offset any deficit reduction, since the tens of thousands of newly unemployed middle-class families would suddenly find themselves in desperate need of financial assistance.

Eliminating Saturday mail delivery would also be inequitable. Degrading the universal service standard would disproportionally impact millions of elderly Americans whose way of life continues to rely on paper documents, while hurting small businesses that rely on the Postal Service to deliver time-sensitive legal forms. Since many rural communities lack access to quality, affordable internet service, these closures would effectively isolate Americans living in low density regions, forcing them to endure costly, prolonged deliveries, to pay bills or receive income.

Follow this link to read a complete copy of Representative Connolly's statement.