House passes bill to reform Postal Service operations

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: The Hill

The House on Tuesday passed bipartisan legislation that would make long-sought financial and operational reforms to the U.S. Postal Service, which has struggled with pandemic-induced mail delivery delays.

Lawmakers passed the bill 342-92, with 120 Republicans joining all Democrats in support.

A bipartisan agreement to overhaul the Postal Service had long eluded lawmakers, until last year when House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and the panel's top Republican, Rep. James Comer (Ky.), unveiled the proposal the House passed on Tuesday.

-snip-

The legislation would help the Postal Service save money by eliminating the existing requirement to pre-fund retiree health benefits, which is projected to save around $27 billion over a decade, and requiring future Postal Service retirees to enroll in Medicare, which could save about $23 billion.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/house-passes-bill-to-reform-postal-service-operations/ar-AATCUG9?li=BBnb7Kz

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Long overdue. Hope it doesn't die in the Senate,

[bucolic_frolic]

1. The service is abysmal

Late openings, locked doors, customers arriving and leaving and angry about it. One guy was cussing loudly this week. No one knows what's going on.

[Evolve Dammit]

11. It all comes from the top. Talking with mail persons, they confide it is being held up intentionally

[not fooled]

13. The playbook for privatization

Intentionally cause government services to malfunction, by cutting funding, destroying or selling off infrastructure, etc. causing the public to complain about and turn against the (formerly well-functioning) service, then claim the solution is privatization. Media does not inform the public that the service has been deliberately sabotaged and pushes the narrative that government can't function, should be run "like a business," etc.

Thom Hartmann describes this strategy and points out it's being applied to the USPS because it's the largest unionized workforce in the U.S., they were going to change their fleet to electric vehicles, etc. which the GQPee opposes.

[mpcamb]

24. The Post Office is a service we do for ourselves, not a business.

We've done it for a couple centuries and it hasn't outlived its usefulness.
It's only in the last few years that same group of superwealthy culprits have tried to kill it so they can privatize one more aspect of life and make the average citizen pay THEM for what we've always had for free.

[Blue Owl]

2. Step 1: Send Louis on a DeJoyride to Maga Lardo

Where he can get a new career licking Dump's toilet

[Lonestarblue]

3. Pass this bill, and then work on getting rid of DeJoy.

He is destroying the USPS. It has become totally unreliable under his leadership. I formerly used the postal service for most of my mailing needs. Now I use it only when it doesn’t matter if it takes four days or fourteen days for first-class mail to arrive at its destination.

[Rebl2]

9. Exactly!

I think our local PO has had employees out sick with omicron and of course short on employees. We were getting our mail put in our P.O. Box later than usual, but it has gotten better the last week.

[TomSlick]

5. The financial reform is important.

The requirement to fully fund retirement was imposed by the Rethuglicans to bankrupt the USPS. This is an important bill.

[2naSalit]

14. The root of the problem...

The USPS would be financially self sufficient and have a reserve if that policy were rescinded or eliminated somehow. It was designed to eventually break the USPS so that privatization cold take place.

DeJoy needs to be removed and made to pay for the equipment he destroyed.

[madville]

15. There was zero Democratic opposition to it at the time

Henry Waxman and Danny Davis were even cosponsors. Passed the House on a voice vote with no objections and the Senate with unanimous consent. It was the bush administration that insisted the retirement funding be included in the bill though.

Sounds like there is enough bipartisan support to fix the retirement funding issue now at least.

[True Blue American]

16. The former bill that hurt the PostOffice

So badly was a Darryl Issa bill. He was invested in a Company.

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/darrell-issas-got-plan-put-postal-service-death-spiral/

[madville]

21. That Issa bill never passed, it was just introduced in 2013

Obama likely would have vetoed it anyway.

I was referencing the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006, the fallout of which is what the USPS is dealing with today.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_Accountability_and_Enhancement_Act

[True Blue American]

22. That is the bill I was referring to

Signed by Bush.

[Deuxcents]

6. Are they gonna address the ridiculous rule

About their health n retirement benefits that the USPS has to pay in advance for all employees for at least 50 years in advance? Congress created this mess in 2006 n it applies to no other federal agency or even a private corporation. Any one know about this..am I mistaken?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

7. Yes, last paragraph.

[Deuxcents]

8. Thank you..I'll re read

Thank you.. i missed it but appreciate you. I feel this is so unjust n I hope it’s fixed at long last.

[True Blue American]

17. They did.

Employees will go on Medicare and the 50 year pension fund that was hurting them so bad is gone.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. Apparently this has a lot of bipartisan support in the Senate as well

‘Long-overdue’ USPS reform bill set to save agency $50B over decade passes House


Jory Heckman@jheckmanWFED
February 8, 2022 5:30 pm



A long-awaited reform bill that would save the Postal Service about $50 billion over the next decade took a major step forward in Congress. The House on Tuesday, in a 342-92 vote, passed the Postal Service Reform Act. The bill, if approved by the Senate, would be the first major piece of postal reform legislation to make it through Congress in more than 15 years, and would address issues that stem from the last reform effort lawmakers passed in 2006.

House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), who introduced the bill, said the legislation has more than 100 co-sponsors, almost evenly split between House Democrats and Republicans. “This bill is an agreement to fix some of the serious problems that have been looming over the post office for years and threatening its financial stability,” Maloney said. The bill has support from more than 200 organizations, including postal unions.

Committee Ranking Member James Comer (R-Ky.), a co-sponsor of the bill, said the legislation “bolsters Postal Service-led operational reforms that are already showing success with better revenue and delivery performance.” “This targeted bill addresses the immediate needs of the Postal Service to help it succeed into the 21st century,” Comer said. The legislation, like many other similar bills introduced in previous sessions of Congress, would eliminate a 2006 mandate for USPS to pre-fund retiree health benefits for the next 75 years.

USPS expects eliminating this mandate would save the agency roughly $27 billion over 10 years. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who introduced companion legislation, said the reform bill now has 14 Democratic and 14 Republican cosponsors in the Senate. “Given the significant, bipartisan support for the same bill in the Senate, I expect to move quickly to vote on these critical reforms that will help ensure the Postal Service’s long-term success,” Peters said.

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/agency-oversight/2022/02/long-overdue-usps-reform-bill-set-to-save-50b-passes-house/

[True Blue American]

18. Passed overwhelmingly.

[BumRushDaShow]

19. Yes - in the House. The Senate has it now... the latest--

Postal Service reform bill heads to Senate after strong bipartisan House vote

February 9, 2022 / 11:37 AM / CBS/AP

Washington — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed to move quickly to pass a sprawling bill to reform the struggling U.S. Postal Service, after the legislation won approval by a wide bipartisan margin in the House on Tuesday."It is my intention for the Senate to quickly take up and pass this bipartisan, bicameral postal reform bill," Schumer said on the Senate floor Wednesday. "We hope to take action here on the floor and pass the bill before we go to Presidents' Day recess." The legislation would lift onerous budget requirements that have helped push the Postal Service deeply into debt and would require it to continue delivering mail six days per week.

The election-year bill, coming at a time of widespread complaints about slower mail service, would also require the Postal Service to display online how efficiently it delivers mail to communities. The Postal Service is supposed to sustain itself with postage sales and other services, but has suffered 14 straight years of losses. The reasons include growing workers' compensation and benefit costs plus steady declines in mail volume, even as it delivers to 1 million additional locations every year. Postal Service officials have said without congressional action, it would run out of cash by 2024, a frequent warning from the service.

It has estimated it will lose $160 billion over the coming decade. Those pressures have brought the two parties together for a measure aimed at helping the Postal Service, its employees, businesses that use it and disgruntled voters who rely on it for delivery of prescription drugs, checks and other packages. Tuesday's vote was 342-92, a rare show of partisan agreement, with all Democrats and most Republicans backing it. Democratic Representative Carolyn Maloney of New York, the chairwoman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, said the Postal Service "provides service to every American, no matter where they live, binding us together in a way no other organization does."

Representative James Comer of Kentucky, that committee's top Republican, said "the days of letters alone driving Postal Service revenue are not coming back." The bill, he said, will "help it succeed into the 21st century." Senator Gary Peters, a Democrat of Michigan and chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said he expects his chamber to "move quickly" on the measure. The bill has 14 GOP sponsors and, with strong Democratic support expected, seems on track to gain the 60 votes most bills need for Senate passage.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/postal-service-bill-usps-reform-senate-house-vote/

The Senate supposedly has the same bill (or at least similar language) enough so that they could either agree to the House version right away (the fastest method) or pass their own with the House bill language added "as an amendment" (substitute).

[Jacson6]

12. Rand Paul will try to block it.

[BumRushDaShow]

20. If there are 60 votes to invoke cloture

the only thing he can really do to try to "block" anything is object to a unanimous consent request to pass it.

If that unanimous consent request is even attempted, they would just go through the regular debate process by invoking cloture... And if there are any attempts at amendments that might change the bill from what the House sends them, those can easily be voted down. Or they could consult with the House to see if there is time for them to vote on the Senate's slightly changed version if something does happen like that, but since they have imposed a "President's Day holiday" deadline to get it done, I expect they want to get this off their plate of things to do and they are going to try to keep the bills the same (probably by just using the House version as an "amendment as a substitute" to the Senate version, voting on that, and be done with it).

[True Blue American]

23. The way they have been passing nominees the last few days

Is telling One of the votes was 92 to 2, another one 78. They even did one on debate by voice vote. I think the Senate is realizing it is time to get something done.

[BumRushDaShow]

25. From what I understand too

since the government is operating on a C.R. until I think 2/18/22 - "someone" (bipartisan) is working on getting an extension so they can have more time to get all the appropriations bills done for this current fiscal year to avoid a lapse in funding the government resulting in a shutdown.

I don't know if the "change in heart" was because of revelations like the National Archives brouhaha (which is pretty significant) or what, but perhaps "someone" told a bunch of "someones" to tone the clown show down.

[True Blue American]

26. Many are beginning to realize

How far Trump and his flunkies are dragging them down. I understand Mitt had a phone conversation with his niece. They are trying to drag that political protest back. I have a feeling Ronni McDaniel is on her way out at the RNC.

[BumRushDaShow]

27. Either that or Ronna pissed off the wrong guy