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Friend –
The United States Postal Service is one of our nation’s oldest and most trusted institutions. It’s the only carrier that delivers to EVERY address in America.
It’s a critical lifeline for veterans, seniors, small businesses, rural communities and millions of Americans who rely on the Postal Service to stay in touch with loved ones, or receive life-saving medications, financial documents, and other important mail.
However, for more than 15 years, this public service and its dedicated workers have been hindered by burdensome policies that have driven the Postal Service to resort to harsh measures to cut costs, and as a result, compromised delivery service.
That’s why as Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, I worked closely with bipartisan leaders in the Senate and House to pass groundbreaking legislation, the Postal Service Reform Act. Congress passed my bill with overwhelming bipartisan support, including a vote of 79-19 in the Senate – and President Biden recently signed it into law. This law will strengthen the Postal Service, helping to ensure its stability and long-term success for years to come.
To watch a video about my efforts to pass this landmark legislation, click here.
The Postal Service Reform Act will:
- Protect 6-day-a-week delivery.
- Eliminate the burdensome prefunding requirement that has hurt the Postal Service financially, and integrate postal worker retirees’ health care with Medicare. The Postal Service was unfairly required to pre-pay every single cent of health benefits for every Postal Service employee no matter how far off their retirement is, something that NO other public or private organization is required to do, which led USPS to lose billions of dollars every year. Allowing postal workers to utilize benefits they have already paid into saves USPS $49 BILLION over the next 10 years.
- Improve transparency of USPS delivery performance to the public by requiring the Postal Service to post weekly, local service data on their website—so every community can see the on-time rate of their mail.
- Expand services in local communities by allowing the Postal Service to partner with state, local, and tribal governments to provide government services in post offices, such as selling hunting and fishing licenses.
These commonsense reforms will help prevent future cost-cutting measures that could harm delivery service, and support our hardworking and dedicated postal workers as well as the people who count on them to deliver.
By enacting this historic legislation into law – Congress has shown that we CAN come together, build consensus, and pass meaningful reforms that will improve lives. I am proud to have led this effort so that every Michigander and American can continue to rely on the Postal Service and its nearly 250-year tradition of delivery.
Thanks for reading,
Gary Peters
United States Senator for Michigan |
