By David Charns

We're accustomed to six-day mail delivery, Monday through Saturday, but that sixth day of service could become a thing of the past by this summer.

The Postmaster General wants to get rid of Saturday service to save money, he said last month. Vermont's congressional delegation has other plans.

Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., were joined by Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., at a six-day service rally in South Burlington on Sunday.

Sanders received a standing ovation when he walked into the letter carrier's rally, partly because the senator has made it his mission to modernize the U.S. Postal Service while keeping jobs.

The delegation called for a Saturday mail delivery mandate, already in legislation working its way through Congress.

"We're in every house, every day, six days a week," said Experience Kring, president of Branch 501 of the National Association of Letter Carriers. The branch makes up 15 post offices in the Burlington area. "I think to drop that network is irresponsible."

"It's a little bit harder to make money delivering mail and packages at the end of a dirt road in Danville, Vt.," Sanders said, adding service to apartments in New York City should be the same to rural communities.

In February, the Postmaster General announced plans to cut Saturday delivery in August. The change would save the agency $2 billion a year, he said.

"Sen. Leahy, Rep. Welch and I and many others said, 'You are not going to do that,'" Sanders said.

Kring said a cut to Saturday service would lead to thousands of layoffs.

Vice President of the association, George Mignosi, said the Postal Service is in fact making money, netting $100 million in the last quarter. He said a pension pre-funding requirement passed by Congress in 2006 has made profits virtually impossible.

The agency makes its money by selling stamps and delivering mail. It gets no other money from the federal government.

"Those packages that are ordered online have to be delivered, and they're delivered by the Postal Service," Kring said. "I don't think we should surrender our market share and give it up to UPS or FedEx. We're still relevant, we're still profitable."

To help the Postal Service make more money, Leahy, Sanders and Welch want to pass legislation allowing post offices to notarize documents, hand out fishing and hunting licenses and deliver wine and beer, among other things.

The delegation adds a postal worker may be the only person some rural Vermonters see regularly.

"You're a friend, you're a neighbor," Leahy told the crowd. "You might be the only smiling face an otherwise homebound person sees."

Rallies are being planned across the country next Sunday, March 24. Find a local Delivering for America rally here.