From 2016, before Trump-
As part of the NRI, on January 5, 2015, the Postal Service revised its First-Class Mail® service standards, eliminating single-piece overnight First-Class Mail service and shifting mail from a 2-day to a 3-day service standard. These revisions enabled the Postal Service to expand its mail processing operational window and this change is known as the operational window change (OWC). The Postal Service described the OWC as one of its most significant changes since automating mail processing. It was designed to allow the Postal Service to process mail on fewer machines, thus using less facility square footage.
The OWC was projected to save over $805 million annually through increased mail processing productivity, decreased premium pay, additional delivery point sequencing of mail, less mail sorting at fewer facilities, and use of more efficient mail sorting machines. The OWC also required changes in mail transportation.
This is a follow-up to an earlier SPSS audit (Report Number NO-AR-18-002, dated November 29, 2017) that found the Postal Service, on average, nationally exceeded the throughput performance goal by 5 percent but was below the productivity goal by 17 percent.
Since that audit, the Postal Service has spent $52.6 million to purchase and deploy 11 additional SPSS machines. In total, the Postal Service has invested $187.2 million since FY 2014 to purchase 44 SPSS machines at 36 locations throughout the country. There were 41 SPSS machines in FY 2019 and the Postal Service added three more machines in FY 2020, but have no plans to add additional machines at this time.
So, this is nothing new.