From Six to Five to Three?

The U.S. Postal Service could cut mail delivery in half in the future, according to the agency's top executive.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe on Tuesday told USA Today that he believes USPS will end Saturday delivery soon and within 15 years could consider delivering mail just three days a week.

Postal officials expect the agency to be $8 billion in the red by the end of the fiscal year and have been requesting legislative changes to ease the agency's financial burden, including the flexibility to drop a delivery day. Other changes include adjusting the size of the workforce, closing post offices for financial reasons and ending an obligation to prefund retiree health benefits at $5.5 billion annually.

Few lawmakers have actively supported USPS' request to drop to five-day delivery, however. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., have introduced legislation granting this flexibility, but other bills floating in Congress fail to address the issue.