国际英语新闻:Senate agrees to rescue U.S. Postal Service

WASHINGTON, April 25 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Senate passed a bill on Wednesday to infuse cash in the national postal service for forestalling closing of postal offices and keeping Saturday mail delivery.

Senators voted 62 to 37 on a bipartisan basis for the measure, which was modified more than a dozen times over the past several weeks.

Thirteen Republicans voted with the Democratic majority, while four Democrats joined most Republicans in opposing the bill.

The Postal Service warned that if Congress didn't act, it would close as many as 252 mail-processing centers and 3,700 post offices after May 15, which is part of a cost-cutting plan to save around 6.5 billion U.S. dollars a year.

The service has been under intense financial pressure as email and package-delivery services by other companies have been booming in the country. It lost 3.3 billion dollars in the fiscal quarter ended on December 31.

The newly-passed measure would save 125 out of 252 mail-processing centers, allowing more areas to maintain overnight first-class mail delivery at least three more years.

It would also bar any shutdowns before the November elections, protect rural post offices for at least a year, and forbid cuts to Saturday delivery for two years.

Under the bill, the Postal Service would also receive roughly 11 billion dollars from the U.S. Treasury, which is a refund of money overpaid to the federal employee pension system in previous years. It gave the service immediate liquidity to pay down debt to avert bankruptcy and finance buyouts to 100,000 postal employees.

But the rescue of the 237-year-old service still remains in doubt as the Republican-dominated House hasn't voted on the bill.