Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper voted to pass The Postal Service Reform Act, a bipartisan bill to improve mail service for Americans and ensure long term financial stability for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). The bill now heads to President Biden’s desk to be signed into law.
“The U.S. Postal Service is a lifeline to Coloradans, rural and urban alike,” said Hickenlooper. “Modernizing USPS will ensure mail is on time for generations to come. That has our stamp of approval!”
VIDEO: Hickenlooper celebrates passage of The Postal Service Reform Act
For raw video, click HERE
The Universal Service Obligation dictates that USPS will provide mail services to everyone, regardless of where they live, for a reasonable price. USPS currently delivers to 163 million addresses and adds more than one million new addresses every year. Yet, USPSexpenses have outpaced revenue for 15 years straight, including a net loss of $4.93 billion in 2021.
The bill will make much-needed changes in the following areas:
- Guarantee Six Delivery Days a Week: Requires the Postal Service to maintain its standard of delivering at least six days a week.
- Performance Transparency: Requires USPS to develop a public, online dashboard with national and local level service performance data updated each week to provide transparency and promote compliance with on-time delivery of mail.
- Providing Additional Services: Allows the Postal Service to partner with State, local, and tribal governments to offer non-postal services (for non-commercial purposes) that provide enhanced value to the public, as long as they do not detract from core postal services and provided the agreements cover their costs.
- Medicare Integration: Requires future USPS retirees to enroll in Medicare. Currently, roughly a quarter of postal retirees do not enroll in Medicare even though they are eligible. The USPS estimates this change could save approximately $22.7 billion over 10 years.
- Eliminating the Prefunding Requirement: Eliminates the prefunding requirement for retiree healthcare imposed in 2006 that has added billions in liabilities to the Postal Service. The mandate requires that USPS set aside billions of dollars annually to cover future retiree health benefits for current employees, no matter their age. The USPS estimates this provision would save roughly $27 billion over 10 years.
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