The Postal Service Must Not Prolong Mail Delivery Times

View Full Joint Comment as PDF

Public Citizen, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) today submitted a joint comment on the U.S. Postal Service’s proposal to lengthen the time for delivery of First-Class Mail. Public Citizen, NAACP, and LDF urge the Postal Service not to adopt a rule slowing mail delivery.

Prompt mail delivery is vital to people throughout the country. The Postal Service’s proposal will slow delivery of essential communications and packages to people who depend on mail to get checks, pay bills, and receive medications. It also jeopardizes the prompt delivery of ballots at a time when people are increasingly voting by mail and primary elections are underway in some states.

The Postal Service has sought to justify its proposal by asserting that lengthening service standards will result in cost savings, but, as the joint comment notes, it may well have the opposite effect by discouraging people from using U.S. mail. In any event, the Postal Service’s rationale flouts the statute’s specification that cost savings cannot justify impairing mail service.