An outside law firm hired by the Postal Service warned its nine-member board that they risked being removed from office if they proceeded with plans to end mail delivery on Saturdays, according to a memo the firm prepared for the agency’s legal department.
The memo also said the Postal Service faced a number of obstacles in implementing its plans, including legal challenges from the director of the Government Accountability Office and lawsuits from opponents of the plan around the country.
The legal document warned the agency that it, “should tread carefully in the highly controversial area of potential open disobedience of a federal statute.â€
Dave Partenheimer, a spokesman for the Postal Service, said the legal memo played no role in the board’s decision to back away from the move to a five-day delivery schedule.
The Federal Times first reported on the memo, which was prepared by the firm King and Spalding in Washington.
The release of the memo sheds new light on legal efforts by the Postal Service to change its mail delivery schedule. The cash-strapped agency said it would save about $2 billion a year by stopping mail deliveries on Saturday. But the move was vigorously opposed by postal unions, some lawmakers, and business and residential customers.
The Postal Service’s Board of Governors allowed the agency to proceed with its plans to move to a five-day mail delivery schedule because the Postal Service said the spending measure, known as a continuing resolution, passed by Congress late last year, did not prohibit it. But last month, the agency abandoned its plan to stop Saturday mail deliveries after Congress passed spending measures that included language specifically prohibiting the agency from halting its six-day delivery schedule.
In a statement, the board expressed disappointment in Congress’s decision, but added that it would, “follow the law and has directed the Postal Service to delay implementation of its new delivery schedule until legislation is passed that provides the Postal Service with the authority to implement a financially appropriate and responsible delivery schedule.â€
Several members of Congress, including Representative Darrell Issa, Republican of California, and Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, sided with the Postal Service and urged its board of governors to move forward with the plan to stop Saturday letter mail deliveries, but continue the delivery of packages. The lawmakers said the governors had the legal authority to proceed.
The agency’s legal advisers disagreed.
“Contrary to certain members of Congress, the governors’ fiduciary duty to the public does not permit them to violate the 6-day proviso in order to maintain fiscal solvency, and proceeding with such a plan would entail substantial risks,†they said in the memo.
Members of the Postal Service’s Board of Governors are appointed by the president and approved by the Senate. The board is comparable to a corporate board of directors. The members of the board also select the postmaster general, who runs the agency.
Mickey D. Barnett, a New Mexico attorney and a former state senator, is currently the chairman of the board.
