Postal Reform Bill Will Benefit Rural Areas
Dependable postal service is vital to rural areas such as Northeastern Montana, and both of the state’s U.S. senators played strong roles in having the Senate pass the Postal Reform Bill. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law on Wednesday, April 6.
“I’m happy to be at the White House today to celebrate my bipartisan bill to revitalize and support the Postal Service being signed into law,” U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said. “My bipartisan bill will help the Postal Service better serve folks across Montana, which is especially important for Montana seniors, veterans and rural communities. It will also help maintain deliveries six days per week! I was glad to work across the aisle and help get this done for Montana.”
Daines introduced the USPS Fairness Act in the 116th and 117th Congresses. Daines said the “USPS Fairness Act,” repeals an unfair mandate requiring the USPS to pre-fund its employees’ retirement health benefits and ease its financial burdens. The USPS is the only federal agency that is subject to this requirement which has caused significant financial strain.
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said, “It’s a great day for Montana and for mail delivery in rural America, where the Postal Service is a critical lifeline to prescription medication, Social Security benefits, services for small businesses and staying connected to family and friends. I’m proud to have worked across the aisle to get this legislation across the finish line, which will ensure six-day mail delivery, hold the USPS accountable for improving service, and put the agency on sound financial footing so that Montana families can depend on reliable and affordable mail delivery for years to come.”
The bill includes: Six-Day Delivery: Permanently require the Postal Service to maintain its standard of delivering at least six days a week.
Rural Newspaper Sustainability: Expands customer base for special rates for rural newspaper distribution to promote local newspapers.
Non-Postal Services: Allows the Postal Service to partner with state, local and tribal governments to offer non-postal services (hunting and fishing licenses, for example) 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 Postal Service retirees, who have been paying into Medicare their entire careers, to enroll in Medicare. Currently, roughly a quarter of postal retirees do not enroll in Medicare even though they are eligible. This means USPS is forced to pay higher premiums than any other public or private sector employer. By better integrating Medicare, the Postal Service estimates it could save approximately $22.7 billion over 10 years.
Eliminating Health Care Prefunding Requirement: Eliminates the 2006 prefunding requirement for retiree healthcare that has added billions in liabilities to the USPS balance sheet. The Postal Service estimates this provision would drastically reduce its prefunding liability allowing it to save $27 billion over 10 years.
Service Performance Transparency: Requires the Postal Service to develop a public-facing, online dashboard with national and local level service performance data updated each week to provide additional transparency and promote compliance with on-time delivery of mail.
