When asked directly whether cutting delivery from six days to five is being considered, Postmaster General David Steiner didn’t dodge the question. His response at the March 17 congressional hearing: “When you are in a crisis, everything has to be on the table.”
That’s not a yes. But it’s definitely not a no. And for the hundreds of thousands of postal employees who depend on six-day delivery for their routes, their schedules, and their overtime, it’s worth understanding what this could actually look like.
Where Things Stand Right Now
Nothing has been decided. No legislation has been introduced to change delivery frequency. USPS cannot unilaterally reduce delivery days — it requires an act of Congress. The current legal mandate is six-day delivery, and changing it would be a major legislative battle.
That said, the conversation is more serious than it’s been in years. The financial crisis is real: $9 billion in losses last year, a maxed-out borrowing cap, and a postmaster general telling Congress the agency could run out of cash by October if it keeps paying all its obligations. When the money runs out, options narrow fast.
What 5-Day Delivery Would Mean for Carriers
City carriers (NALC): Eliminating Saturday or Monday delivery would fundamentally change route structures. Fewer delivery days means heavier volume on the remaining days — five days of mail crammed into routes designed for six. Routes would likely be re-evaluated, some would be consolidated, and the net effect could mean fewer routes but longer days per route. T-6 string assignments would need to be reconfigured entirely.
Rural carriers (NRLCA): The impact could be even bigger for rural carriers, whose pay is based on evaluated route hours. Fewer delivery days could mean route evaluations drop, directly reducing evaluated pay. Alternatively, routes could be restructured with higher daily volume, potentially increasing evaluations on the remaining days. How RRECS handles this recalculation would be critical.
Overtime impact: This is the big one for a lot of carriers. If delivery volume is redistributed across fewer days, daily hours per route increase — which could actually mean more overtime on delivery days. But total weekly hours could still decrease. The net effect on your paycheck depends entirely on how routes are restructured.
What It Would Mean for Clerks and Mail Handlers
Processing facilities would still need to operate on the dropped delivery day — mail doesn’t stop arriving just because carriers aren’t delivering it. Plants would likely still run six or seven days. But window operations at retail offices could be reduced, and staffing levels for distribution on the non-delivery day could be adjusted downward.
For clerks, the bigger concern is whether reduced delivery frequency leads to further plant consolidations and mail processing facility closures, which have already been happening under the Delivering for America plan.
What About Staffing and Jobs?
USPS has already shrunk its workforce by about 35,000 employees over the last four years. Over 10,500 employees took the 2025 VERA early retirement offer. Steiner has explicitly not ruled out a reduction in force (RIF), saying everything is “on the table.”
Five-day delivery wouldn’t necessarily mean immediate layoffs — USPS could potentially achieve the reduction through attrition, not replacing departing employees, and limiting new hires. But for non-career employees (CCAs, PSEs, MHAs, RCAs), fewer working hours and fewer available shifts would be a real concern.
Has This Been Tried Before?
The idea of cutting to five-day delivery has come up repeatedly over the past 15 years. In 2013, USPS actually announced plans to end Saturday letter delivery (while continuing Saturday package delivery), but Congress blocked it through appropriations language requiring six-day delivery. The same legislative barrier exists today.
The difference now is the financial situation is dramatically worse. In 2013, USPS was losing about $5 billion per year. Now it’s $9-10 billion. The urgency is higher and the political calculus may be different.
What’s More Likely to Happen First
Before Congress would approve cutting delivery days, several other changes are more likely to come first. Raising the borrowing cap is the path of least resistance. Allowing USPS to raise stamp prices has bipartisan discussion. Pension calculation reforms and FECA cost reductions have broad support.
Five-day delivery is the nuclear option — politically difficult, operationally complex, and deeply unpopular with the public. It’s the option Congress reaches for only if everything else fails.
Sources: PMG Steiner testimony before House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations (March 17, 2026), GAO report on USPS financial sustainability, reporting from Federal News Network, NPR, and CNN.