Dropping Saturday mail delivery was just one of the money-saving ideas offered by Postmaster General William Henderson for helping the Postal Service deal with a projected deficit of some $3 billion this fiscal year.

Henderson testified April 4, 2001, before the House Government Reform Committee, currently holding hearings on "Financial Woes Facing the Postal Service."

According to Post Master Henderson, reduced business along with rising costs resulted in the projected $3 billion loss for fiscal year 2001 despite the rate increase that went into effect in January. Postal Service projection in September 2000 had anticipated a $150 million surplus.

In 1999, the Postal Service suffered its first loss in five years by racking up a $199 million deficit.

Henderson told the committee that holiday season first-class mail volume actually declined for the first time in years during 2000. Priority Mail is also dropping in popularity, Henderson testified.

"A seriously weakening postal system would find it more and more difficult to carry the full load of universal service," testified Henderson. "Can we reasonably expect at this point that the Postal Service will regain the steady progress it made in the 1990s without a major modernizing reform? I doubt it."

Other problems cited by Post Master Henderson included wage increases at rates higher than inflation, growing competition from email and other electronic alternatives and the general slowing of the American economy.

"Without an ability to probe for new ways of doing business and to rapidly adjust to forces of demand and competition, the postal system will become increasingly outmoded," Henderson told the committee.

The 366,000 members of the American Postal Workers Union oppose dropping Saturday mail delivery, an act that would require the approval of Congress.

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