Q 1: What are the major provisions of the Postal Reform Act of 2022?
A: The bill has four primary pillars:1) ending the crippling retiree health benefit pre-funding mandate, 2) providing for prospective Medicare integration, 3) adding transparency to USPS service issues, and 4) guaranteeing six-day delivery.
Q2: Does the bill have bi-partisan support?
A: Yes. The Postal Reform Act passed in the House on February 8 with
Q3: How will the bill protect the Post Office for future generations?
A: The Bill is estimated to save the USPS at least $45 billion over the next ten years. It will guarantee six-day delivery. In addition, it will ensure that letter mail, flats and packages remain combined into one postal network, helping to capture package growth in the future.
Pre-Funding Mandate
Q4: What is the “Pre-Funding Mandate” and how does it impact the Postal Service?
A: The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) of 2006 required that the Postal Service “pre-fund'' 100 percent of its retiree health benefit liabilities, 75 years into the future, at a cost of $5.5 billion a year over the first ten years. The USPS now “owes” the government over $35 billion of the unpaid portion of this legal obligation. The draconian pre-funding mandate is a large reason why the Postal Service slowed service and curtailed hours of operation, closed processing plants, increased subcontracting, and severely reduced staffing. It also hurt the Postal Service’s financial ability to upgrade buildings and infrastructure, and purchase a new vehicle fleet.
Q5: How does this legislation address the pre-funding mandate?
A: The Postal Reform Act will completely repeal this unfair law and absolve the USPS of the portion of the “mandate” that they were unable to pay. Retiree health care costs will return to the “pay as you go” system that was in place before the 2006 PAEA and was being successfully met by the USPS year after year. Repeal of this mandate has been a major legislative goal of the APWU.
Non-Postal Services
Q6. Will the bill allow USPS to offer additional products and services?
A: Yes. Similar to popular passport services the Postal Service provides for the State Department, the bill specifically allows the USPS to work with State, Local, and Tribal governments to provide public services which in turn will help USPS bring in additional revenue.
Postal Service Transparency
Q7: How will this bill increase transparency?
A: The Postal Reform Act requires USPS to set up a public “dashboard” on their website, which will publish weekly performance data. This data will allow the public to monitor any service failures, identify mail slowdowns and pinpoint zip codes experiencing consistent diminished service performance. These tools will also allow the public and the union to determine specific areas across the country in need of additional improvements, such as hiring more employees or improving transportation routes.
Q8. Will the bill undermine our union rights?
A: No. Unlike some “postal reform” bills over the last few years, this legislation does not attack collective bargaining rights, the right to dues check-off or the right to official grievance union time.
Q9. How does the bill become law?
A: The bill needs to be passed by the full House of Representatives and Senate before it can be signed into law by President Biden. Given the strong bi-partisan support of the bill, the passage of this bill is promising. The bill may undergo amendments prior to being signed into law. APWU will continue to monitor its progress and fight against any proposed changes which would weaken the bill.
