Postal Reform Bill Easily Clears House, Faces Murky Future in Senate

A bill restructuring Postal Service operations with an eye toward transparency and financial stability cleared the House Feb. 8 in a largely bipartisan vote.

The Postal Service Reform Act — designated H.R. 3076 — now moves on to an uncertain future in the Senate. A companion bill with the same name but a different designation — S. 1720 — has languished there since its introduction in May 2021.

The measure’s chief focus is controlling health care expenditures at the Postal Service. It would achieve this via a number of changes, such as moving retired workers onto Medicare, pushing current workers onto a lower-cost benefits plan — the Postal Service Health Benefits Program — and by eliminating a requirement that the Postal Service prepay employees’ future retirement health benefits each year.

More interestingly, though, the measure imposes a host of reporting requirements on the Postal Service, much of which will be publicly available information.

Loads of Reports

Under the bill, the Postal Service has to submit a public report every six months on its “operations and financial condition” to the president, to select congressional committees and to the Postal Regulatory Commission. The first report is due six months after the measure is signed into law.

The reports would have to cover many aspects of postal operations, including mail and package volumes; how different classes of mail are faring against each other and competitors; the use of the E-Commerce Marketplace; customer use of network distribution centers, processing centers and distribution centers; planned investment in operations; the expansion of regional distribution centers; and “updates on the reliability, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of the transportation network, including the manner in which ground transportation is utilized over air transportation.”

Additionally, the measure requires the Postal Service to provide the Postal Regulatory Commission a separate report before the start of each fiscal year, detailing its performance over the past year, its performance projections for the coming year and whether it met the previous year’s performance goals. This data will also be used for a public-facing website.

The bill includes a caveat for certain proprietary or confidential information: the Postal Service can exclude some trade secrets from these reports, but only for five years. This is due to a self-termination clause in that sub-section of the measure.

Bipartisan Backing

Thanks to strong bipartisan support, the bill effortlessly cleared the House, 342-92, with all 222 Democrats voting in favor of it and 120 Republicans likewise supporting the bill.

The bill’s passage was hailed by multiple groups affiliated with the Postal Service.

American Postal Workers Union President Mark Dimondstein noted, “After 15 years of fighting for much-needed and long-overdue reforms, we are one step away from securing a critical victory for postal workers, the Postal Service and the public who rely on us.”

The head of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Fred Rolando, said the bill’s passage was “a huge victory for the American people who rely on the Postal Service for affordable and high-quality universal service.”