<P> H.R. 22, addressing this issue, passed the House of Representatives and Senate and was signed into law on September 30, 2009 . However, Postmaster General Potter continued to advance plans to eliminate Saturday mail delivery . </P> <P> On June 10, 2009, the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association (NRLCA) was contacted for its input on the USPS's current study of the effect of five - day delivery along with developing an implementation plan for a five - day service plan . A team of Postal Service headquarters executives and staff has been given a time frame of sixty days to complete the study . The current concept examines the effect of five - day delivery with no business or collections on Saturday, with Post Offices with current Saturday hours remaining open . </P> <P> On Thursday, April 15, 2010, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing to examine the status of the Postal Service and recent reports on short and long term strategies for the financial viability and stability of the USPS entitled "Continuing to Deliver: An Examination of the Postal Service's Current Financial Crisis and its Future Viability ." At which, PMG Potter testified that by the year 2020, the USPS cumulative losses could exceed $238 billion, and that mail volume could drop 15 percent from 2009 . </P> <P> In February 2013, the USPS announced that in order to save about $2 billion per year, Saturday delivery service would be discontinued except for packages, mail - order medicines, Priority Mail, Express Mail, and mail delivered to Post Office boxes, beginning August 10, 2013 . However the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013, passed in March, reversed the cuts to Saturday delivery . </P>

When did the post office stop being a government agency