ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø

The U.S. Postal Service does not have legal authority to end Saturday mail delivery without authorization from Congress and must halt its plans to make that cut in August, its board said, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.

The Government Accountability Office said the U.S. Postal Service doesn’t have the legal authority to stop Saturday delivery, Bloomberg News reported.

A bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives would ensure that the U.S. Postal Service continues Saturday mail service for the rest of the fiscal year, Rep. Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.) said.

As package giants UPS Inc. and FedEx Corp. jockey for a new billion-dollar U.S. Postal Service airmail contract, other carriers said they do not expect major changes if the agency’s plan to cut Saturday mail deliveries becomes reality.

The U.S. Postal Service plans to end Saturday mail delivery by as soon as August to cut financial losses, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.

The U.S. Postal Service is losing some government shipping business to private-sector companies such as FedEx Corp. and UPS Inc., Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.

U.S. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has urged Congress to make postal reform a priority, as the U.S. Postal Service is currently losing $25 million a day and has defaulted on $11.1 billion in Treasury payments.

The U.S. Postal Service reported a $5.2 billion loss in its third fiscal quarter, compared to a $3.1 billion loss in the same quarter last year.

The U.S. Postal Service said it will close or consolidate 223 mail processing centers and eliminate up to 35,000 jobs as part of a cost-cutting strategy, Reuters reported Friday.