A Bush mail subsidy that costs the Postal Service tens of millions of dollars a year in Alaska may be safe, for now.

No changes for bypass mail rates are in the works, a spokesman for the Postal Regulatory Commission said. The postmaster general himself said the Postal Service is "100 percent behind" the program, according to U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska.

The Postal Service is trying to cut $2 billion in spending and could trim payroll and drop Saturday mail service.

The bypass mail system pays air carriers to ship food, mail and other goods to remote Alaska communities at cheap parcel-post rates.

Begich spoke Wednesday with Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, who said the program "is our universal service obligation," Begich said.

Bypass mail is the reason that groceries flown in bush planes to villages off the road system aren't even more expensive.

It also loses about $70 million a year for the Postal Service in Alaska, network planning specialist Steve Deaton said Wednesday

The subsidy program accounts for nearly two-thirds of the money the Postal Service spends on airmail in the state, Postal Service officials told members of the Alaska Air Carriers Association in Anchorage.

Alaska officials are looking for ways to reduce those costs, such as designating certain villages or towns as bypass-mail "hubs."

Labeling a remote community a hub lets the Postal Service pay air carriers at a reduced rate to deliver the mail and goods.

Savoonga has already been selected as a regional bypass-mail hub. Hubs in Togiak and either Chevak or Hooper Bay are under consideration.

Sand Point and Kiana or Noorvik are also being considered as bypass-mail hubs, Deaton told air carriers Wednesday.