March 8, 2022 – By a vote of 79-19 the US Senate has passed postal reform legislation. The bill, designed to eliminate much of the Postal Service’s debt and restructure some of its operations, is now awaiting the signature of President Biden. This legislation is the first significant reform for the Postal Service since the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which created the onerous requirement for prefunding of retiree health benefits.
In addition, the bill formalizes a 6-day delivery obligation, increases reporting requirements, and requires new postal retirees to enroll in Medicare. The bill will also allow USPS to provide non-postal services for state and federal governments.
The USPS says this legislation is an important component of the Delivering for America 10-Year Strategic Plan, and combined with operational reforms will help the USPS reach its goals of financial sustainability and service excellence.
AUSPL has joined many other stakeholders including Postal Unions, in lobbying Congress for this much needed reform. Many years of effort have gone into education Congress on the needs of the Postal Service and the network of leased postal facilities.
Additional Information is available from Government Executive and the USPS.
US Postal Service Outlines Support for Postal Service Reform Act and Responds to Criticism
In a fact sheet released March 11, 2022, the USPS outlined its support for the Postal Service Reform Act (PSRA) recently passed in the House and Senate.
Estimated financial benefits to the USPS are a savings of $44 billion over the next 10 years. This enables the USPS to “Continue to operate as a self-funded entity, without taxpayer support.” Additionally, the USPS projects that the financial improvement from the PSRA “Ensures that we can continue to fulfill our universal service mission, and make the investments needed to support service excellence, network efficiency, and introduce enhanced products and services for our customers.”
Financial Reforms and Operational Reforms are the two sections of the PSRA. Financial reforms include repealing the Retiree Health Benefit (RHB) and prefunding Mandate (USPS Fairness Act). Operational reforms include an Interactive Public Dashboard as well as Additional Service Performance Accountabilities and Transparencies. These will combine with the operational reforms in the Delivering for America Plan with the goal of retaining universal service and six-day delivery.
Arguments that enrolling future retirees in Medicare will harm the future of Medicare are rebutted saying that “Postal retirees who have not enrolled in Medicare have served to subsidize the program and will now be able to access the benefits they have paid taxes to receive.”