The US Postal Service won’t be getting approval for its plan to cut mail delivery to five days per week from the Senate panel overseeing its budget. The decision to keep Saturday service is part of the Senate’s Fiscal Year 2011 Financial Services Appropriations Act, which the full Appropriations Committee will vote on today. Senator Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who is a member of the Senate Financial Services Appropriations Subcommittee, insisted in a statement he released this week that a reduction in mail delivery would prove a hardship to people who live in rural areas while the savings it would bring the US Postal Service would be minimal. The US Postal Service has been considering a reduction service as one of several cost-savings measures for addressing a projected $7 billion budget gap next year. The USPS must get approval from Congress before it can make such a move, however. “Folks in rural and frontier communities often rely on their Saturday mail to bring them the things they need to live,” Tester said, in the statement.  “Unlike in urban areas where folks can walk down the block to the local drug store, many Montanans live long distances from the nearest pharmacy or newsstand. Getting mail six-days per week is part of what keeps rural America strong and thriving.”