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Senate Files Bipartisan Bill to Overhaul US Postal Service
On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of senators filed a bill aimed to improve the management of the troubled US Postal Service. Called the Postal Service Reform Act, the legislation will help ease the financial stress of the agency. In addition, it will also require tightened accountability for its mail delivery services.
RELATED: Democrats Ask Congress to Come Back for USPS Emergency Session
Enough Votes To Pass
Senators Gary Peters (D-MI) and Rob Portman (R-OH), who both head the Senate Homeland and Governmental Affairs Committee, jointly filed the bill. They believe that the legislation has enough bipartisan support to secure enough votes for passage.
A total of nine Republicans signed on as co-sponsors. Adding this and Portman’s vote to the Democrat vote of 50 members can secure its passage and avoid a filibuster. Proponents of the bill believe they can get more GOP senators to sign off on the bill. If this happens, it makes the Postal Services Reform Bill the closest thing Congress did to a postal overhaul in more than a decade.
Savings And Mail Delivery Dashboard
The bill proposes to repeal $5 billion a year in mandatory retiree health-care expenses. Instead, it requires future postal service retirees to enroll in Medicare. When implemented, the measure will save the USPS around $30 billion over the next ten years. Meanwhile, a similar bill in the House already secured approval among representatives.
The bill will also require the USPS to develop a public dashboard that displays the agency’s performance metrics per zip code. By accessing the website, the public can view the Postal Service’s actual on-time delivery statistics on a weekly basis.
Returning USPS To Sustainable Levels
Senator Peters issued a statement in support of the Postal Service Reform Act. “Millions of Americans and Michiganders, including seniors, veterans, and small business owners, rely on the Postal Service to deliver. For decades, the Postal Service has struggled to overcome unfair and burdensome financial requirements that risk its ability to continue providing reliable service in the long run. This commonsense, bipartisan legislation would help put the Postal Service on a sustainable financial footing, ensure it is more transparent and accountable to the American people, and support hardworking postal workers who deliver rain or shine to communities all across the country,” it read.
The legislation offers a resolution to the ongoing problems of the USPS. The agency is on the dock for $188.4 billion in liabilities. At the same time, it has yet to meet its on-time delivery targets since it announced it last July. In between, the USPS dealt with increasing package volume, which is up 19%. The agency also suffered decreases in first-class and marketing-mail volumes, and pandemic-themed worker shortages.
Postmaster DeJoy’s Plan To Shift To Parcels
At the center of the USPS debacle is Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. Within his administration, the USPS received backlash over its election unpreparedness. worsening delivery service, and a controversial reorganization. However, he enjoys the support of the USPS governing board. He plans to slow USPS mail services and raise prices. At the same time, the agency will shift from paper mail into parcels. While the proposal foresees a drop in mail volume, the USPS can earn more from increased package shipments. Since DeJoy announced the plan, the Senate confirmed two Biden-appointed nominees to the board. Both members expressed opposition to DeJoy’s plan.
Loading ...Do you still find the US Post Service relevant? Do you support its continued existence? Tell us what you think about the relevance of the USPS in the modern setting. Share your comments in the comment section below.
12 Comments
First step is to require the agencies of the US Government to use the USPS for all their needs, instead of UPS and FedEX as is the case today.
I use to work for the USPS and I can tell you from first-hand experience that the problem lies with the management. I have never seen an organization with such piss poor leadership. It’s part of the reason that I quit that job. That and the fact that they treat their employees like crap. If your employees are treated that way, do you really think that they will stick around? The turnover rate while I was there (almost six years) was ridiculous.
I agree poor management. Employees are overworked , especially new hires. They are expected to work ridiculous hours, upwards of 70+ hours a week. They have trouble keeping new hires because what is expected is insane, with no regard to the employee having family or a personal life.
i retired from the post office. i had 30 years in service. the management is bad. i have 2 children at the post office today. the people at the top have no idea how to manage their employees. talking to my kids the management is worse than when i was there. the supervisors have no idea how to run a station or the mail processing plants. the new people have no pride in their jobs. they are always short handed.
The U S POSTAL SERVICE was started by Benjamin Franklin as a PUBLIC SERVICE!
IT SHOULD REMAIN A PUBLIC SERVICE!
It should be returned to Civil Service and be run (and funded) by the government.
It should, of course, be run as efficiently as possible; but prifit should never be a motive for a public service. SERVICE should be the motive.
Any time the government runs an entity it is fraught with employees who do not care about anything because they usually do not get terminated for any cause. Just look at veteran’s healthcare which is run by the government and see how ineffectual they are. I stopped mailing anything years ago because it was a huge hassle to go to the post office. Junk mail is the only mail I get anymore as I have moved everything I do to an online source. The one thing that really is obnoxious is that they are going to move all the employee’s to medicare. If Congress thinks Medicare good enough for federal employees, they should assign themselves to Medicare.
Demanding the Postal Service to pay $5 billion a year to the government has always been a recipe for disaster. It was a way for the government to steal $5 billon to spend on their stupid “programs”. The Post Office was always making a profit before that was forced on them.
I AGREE WITH THIS STATEMENT!!!!! I WAS ONE OF THE LAST RURAL ROUTE EMPLOYEES HIRED!!! IT WAS UNDER THE CIVIL SERVICE ACT.THEY SHOULD HAVE NEVER ENDED THAT.IF THE CARRIERS WERE LEFT ALONE,THEY COULD DO THEIR JOB!!! I LOVED CASING MAIL, THEN GOING OUT TO DELIVER PEOPLES MAIL.I LOVED MY PATRONS AND BEING ALONE TO GET THE JOB DONE.I WAS TAKEN OFF THE JOB IN 1998 FOR A DAMAGED NERVE IN MY RIGHT GROIN.I HATED NOT BEING ABLE TO WORK.I WISH I WAS STILL DELIVERING MAIL. I LOVED IT VERY MUCH!!THE SUPERVISORS WERE ALWAYS TRYING TO CATCH YOU, DOING SOMETHING YOU WERE NOT SUPPOSE TO DO, SO THEY COULD REPRIMAND YOU,INSTEAD OF LETTING YOU DO YOUR JOB!!!THE CIVIL SERVICE WAS THE ONLY WAY TO GO!!!
I live in a small town. The mail is important to us. I still mail letters and cards and enjoy sending and receiving Christmas cards. There’s something special about receiving a letter in the mail. Something enduring and meaningful. It is sad that so many have such negative perspectives about the postal service, with reasons. I for one am glad we have it and will be saddened to see the postal costs go up again for regular mail.
Congress must start with USPS Unions in instead of managements in order to agreements between congress and Unions for the lists of plans of the USPS. Mobile Service Providers are all agreements before the F.C.C. rules in order to be fair businesses so UPS, DHL, FEDEX and USPS must to do as same agreements under the Congress before the rules in respect to customers of USA. One of the lists of plans must to close businesses on Saturday and Sunday. All employees must get only five days each week regularly before want to bid weekend jobs but rather close weekend for good. I let you all in the World to know that problem in USPS is “blames on the parcels volumes too high” and “short hands” of the managements. No hire more new employees because of BUDGET. GOD will help you.
Companies like UPS, FEDEX ETC. All run at a profit USPS does not,
This boils down to poor management, when you can’t get fired for any reasom there is no incentive to do a decent job.There needs to be accountability within the Post Office, until things change this trend will continue.
The PO is a public service, so it need not make a profit. It has been well managed in the past and could be again, however, Mr. DeJoy must go. For whatever reason, he is sabotaging the organization.