Snail mail indeed.

Lawmakers from both parties are calling on the U.S. Postal Service to immediately reverse operational changes that are causing delays in deliveries across the country just as big volume increases are expected for mail-in election voting.

The changes include eliminating overtime for hundreds of thousands of postal workers, mandating that mail remain at delivery centers until the next day if it might delay carriers, ending extra and late trips — which help ensure all mail moves swiftly — and limiting “park points” where carriers park their vehicles and walk to make deliveries.

Critics point out that these measures will delay the mail and hurt competitiveness.

The cost-cutting measures, intended to address the Postal Service’s longtime financial problems, were imposed last month by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who took over the agency in June.

The Postal Service lost $2.7 billion in 2017 and $4.5 billion in this year’s first quarter. And this was before the full effects of the pandemic shutdown. Officials predict $22 billion will be lost over the next 18 months. Postal leaders predicted at the start of the pandemic that the USPS would be insolvent by October 2021 without congressional intervention.

Steep drop-offs in first-class and marketing mail, the Postal Service’s most profitable items, have compounded the agency’s cash crisis. Single-piece, first-class mail volume fell 15 to 20 percent week to week in April and May. Marketing mail, the hardest-hit segment, tumbled 30 to 50 percent week to week during that period.

In a letter to DeJoy this week, Senate Democrats said the changes threaten the timely delivery of mail — including medicines for seniors, paychecks for workers and absentee ballots for voters — that is essential to millions of Americans.

And 84 House members signed yet another letter urging an immediate reversal of the changes, stating that a delay in delivery hours “could harm rural communities, seniors, small businesses and millions of Americans who rely on the mail for critical letters and packages.”

The Postal Service says it is using all available resources to match the workload created by the impacts of COVID-19 and is aggressively trying to hire qualified candidates to replace tens of thousands of workers who have gotten sick or opted not to work because of the pandemic.

The USPS changes also worry vote-by-mail advocates, who insist that any policy that slows delivery could imperil access to mailed and absentee ballots. It reinforces the need, they say, for Congress to provide the agency emergency coronavirus funding.

President Donald Trump, a vocal critic of the Postal Service, said this week that “the Post Office doesn’t have enough time” to handle a significant increase in mail-in ballots. “I mean you’re talking about millions of votes. .. It’s a catastrophe waiting to happen.”

Democrats have pushed for $10 billion for the agency in talks with Republicans on a huge COVID-19 response bill. The figure is down from a $25 billion plan in a House-passed coronavirus measure. Key Republicans whose rural constituents are especially reliant on the post office support the idea.

But the stalemate remains.

The mail has assumed a renewed importance with millions shut in by the pandemic.

The USPS is affordable and goes everywhere. Something needs to be done now to keep the 245-year-old institution operating.

We don’t want to see Amazon Prime trucks delivering our bills every day.

— JGG