WASHINGTON (AP) - For generations, Americans have come to depend on door-to-door mail delivery. But under a proposal being considered today by the House of Representatives, that service could be virtually phased out over the next eight years.
Instead of letter carriers slipping mail into front-door boxes, there would only be curbside delivery -- including deliveries to mailboxes at the end of driveways -- and cluster box delivery.
The proposal is part of a measure aimed at cutting costs at the Postal Service by up to $4.5 billion a year. The agency had a $16 billion loss last year.
Since the 1970s, postal officials have been moving toward curbside and cluster box delivery in new residential developments.
Republican Congressman Darrell Issa (EYE'-suh) of California, who's proposing the change, says it's part of a "balanced approach to saving the Postal Service."
But Democrat Steve Lynch says the plan to move some 30 million addresses from door-to-door to curbside and cluster box service would be nearly impossible in dense urban areas such as his hometown of South Boston, crowded with triple-decker apartments.