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The file "/usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/config.ps" defines, among other things, the default page size. As packaged by RedHat this is initially A4. Most American users will want to edit the file to change the default to US letter sized paper. This is easy enough to do: move the line reading "@ letterSize 8.5in 11in" so that it appears before the line reading "@ A4size 210mm 297mm". Existing bugs 3379 and 3512 mention this issue. However, "config.ps" is not marked as a configuration file in tetex-dvips-1.0.6-4. When upgrading to new versions of that package, "config.ps" is silently replaced. This is rather annoying. "config.ps" should be marked as a configuration file. RedHat may also want to consider other approaches, such as using virtual packages with A4 and letter variants, to make it easier for novice users to get the right paper size without studying dvips documentation.
This problem is fixed in #3397. Supply a DVIPS_OPTIONS="-t letter" that is now honored AFAIK. Please reopen if #3397 does not actually solve the problem and I'll try to get this sorted out.
While bug #3379 is certainly related, the fix described there does not address the problem documented here. Bug #3379 is concerned only with the RedHat printing infrastructure, and the suggested fix using $DVIPS_OPTIONS only works in conjunction with RedHat's print filter scripts. The bug described here is more basic: that "dvips" cannot be reconfigured to use a different paper size without those configuration changes being undone by a subsequent RPM upgrade. I am not talking about using RedHat's print filters; I am simply talking about using "dvips" to produce a PostScript file. Note that there are many instances where one will want to produce a PostScript file without immediately printing it. For example, PostScript documents are the common medium of exchange for research papers in computer science, and doubtless many other fields. Thus, it must be possible to configure "dvips" properly on its own. I have no issue with RedHat's printing infrastructure per se. But a paper size solution that only works within that context is just not sufficiently general.
/usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/config.ps is marked %config in tetex-1.0.6-6.