Washington dc – Congress passed legislation Tuesday that would strengthen U.S. postal service and ensure mail delivery six days a week by sending the bill to President Biden to sign.
The long-fought postal review has been going on for years and comes amid widespread complaints about the slowdown in the mail service. Many Americans became dependent on the postal service during the COVID-19 crisis, but officials have repeatedly warned that without congressional action, 2024 would run out of cash.
“The post office usually makes deliveries for us, but we’ll get them delivered today,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat.
Congress garnered rare bipartisan support for the postal service package, dropping some of the most controversial proposals to establish basic ways to save the service and secure its future operations. Last month, the House passed the bill, 342-92, with all Democrats and most Republicans voting for it. On Tuesday, the Senate sent it to Biden’s desk with a vote of 79 to 19.
Republican Sen. Jerry Moran said the postal service has been in a “death spiral” that is especially hard on rural Americans, including in their state of Kansas, as post offices have closed and gone. cut off services. “Smart reforms were needed,” he said.
The Postal Service Reform Act would raise the unusual budget requirements that have contributed to the red ink of the postal service and establish by law the requirement that mail be delivered six days a week, except in the case of federal holidays, disasters natural and some others. situations.
Mail sales and other services were supposed to maintain the postal service, but it has suffered 14 consecutive years of losses. Rising workers’ compensation costs and benefits, as well as steady declines in mail volume, have contributed to the red ink, although the postal service delivers an additional 1 million locations each year.
The bill would put an end to the requirement that the postal service fund workers’ health benefits in advance for the next 75 years, an obligation that private companies and federal agencies will not face.
Instead, the postal service would require future retirees to enroll in Medicare and pay the actual health care costs of current retirees that are not covered by the federal health insurance program for seniors.
For now, ideas for reducing mail delivery, which had become politically toxic, have disappeared. Other proposals that have been made over the years to change postal operations, including the privatization of some services, are also being left out for the time being.
Sen. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat and chairman of the National Security and Government Affairs Committee, addressed the legislation and said that since the nation’s founding, the postal service has become “a vital part of the fabric of our nation “.
Peters said the legislation will ensure that the postal service can continue its “nearly 250-year tradition of serving the American people.”
Beyond the cards and letters, people rely on the post office to deliver government checks, prescription drugs and many products bought online, but which the Postal Service ultimately delivers to the doors and mailboxes.
“We need to save our postal service,” said Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican from Ohio, another architect in the bill. Portman said the bill is not a bailout and no new funding will be allocated to the agency.
Criticism of the postal service peaked in 2020, ahead of the presidential election, as cuts delayed service at a time when millions of Americans relied on postal ballots during the first year of the crisis. the COVID-19.
At the time, President Trump acknowledged that he was trying to deprive the postal service of money to make it difficult to process an expected increase in ballots by mail, which worried him that it would cost him the election.
Dominated by Trump nominees, the agency’s board of governors had selected Louis DeJoy, one of the GOP’s top donors, as the new postmaster general. He proposed a 10-year plan to stabilize the service’s finances with steps such as additional mail slowdowns, cutting some office hours, and perhaps higher rates.
To measure the progress of the postal service in improving your service, the bill would also require you to set up an online searchable “control panel” to show how long it takes to deliver letters and packages.
Legislation passed by Congress has the support of Biden, the postal service, the postal workers’ unions and others.
Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, described the passage of the legislation as a “turning point in the struggle to protect and strengthen the town’s public postal service, a national treasure.”
- In:
- United States Congress
- United States Postal Service
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