Senate clears postal reform legislation led by Peters, Portman

Washington — The Senate approved a postal reform package Tuesday aimed at shoring up the U.S. Postal Service' ailing finances and boosting transparency by allowing customers to track delivery performance.

The legislation, led by Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, passed by a vote of 79-19. The bill now heads to President Joe Biden's desk after passing House with broad bipartisan support a month ago.

"This is basically legislation that has been 15 years in the making, putting forward some common sense reforms that should have been made in the past and finally will become law," Peters told reporters Tuesday. 

Portman described the bill as trying to save the Post Office from insolvency after years and billions of dollars in losses. "And if we don’t act on this, I believe in the next few years, we’ll be back here with a big bailout for the Postal Service," he said. 

Passage of the package in the Senate was delayed about three weeks after Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott objected last month to a quick fix for a clerical error in the House-passed legislation, complaining that it hadn't gone through the committee process in the Senate. 

But Peters, who chairs the Senate panel that oversees the Postal Service, said Tuesday the legislation is on the move after months of negotiations between House and Senate committee leaders to reach consensus on language and scope.  

He acknowledged there are other things that need to be done to improve the Postal Service but said, in order to get the bill passed, it was limited to "what everybody could agree on."

"What we focused on in this legislation are things that only Congress can do, and that's what we put into this legislation," Peters said. "There still be considerable work being done through the postal Board of Governors."

The bill would eliminate the requirement dating to 2006 that the Postal Service fund ahead of time all retiree health benefits, no matter the age of the employee. It would also integrate retirees' health care with Medicare.

Those two elements together are estimated to save the Postal service $49 billion over 10 years, with the hope that it will allow the agency to invest in better equipment for processing and deliveries, lawmakers said.

The legislation would also require the Postal Service to maintain its standard of delivering at least six days a week, which Peters stressed as vital for seniors who rely on the mail to deliver their prescriptions and for small businesses.

The bill also requires the Postal Service to begin publishing weekly service data on its website, allowing customers to search by ZIP code for performance information so they  may see how much mail is arriving on time, and highlight areas experiencing delivery problems. 

Scott, the Florida Republican, introduced an amendment that would have required the Postal Service to pay for what he said would be $6 billion more in costs to Medicare as a result of the bill. 

"This bill doesn't reduce costs. It just shifts them from one unfunded government program to another unfunded government program," Scott said. "It's the Postal Service retirees. They're the ones who ought to pay for it." 

Peters objected, saying the amendment would "nullify" the Medicare integration part of the bill that lets the Postal Service avoid higher premiums by allowing retirees to enroll in Medicare Parts B and D. He noted that postal employees have already paid into Medicare throughout their careers.

"This bill simply allows the Postal Service to do what other businesses and employers already do all across our country by integrating these retirees into Medicare," Peters said during debate.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, argued that the legislation would do "nearly nothing" to make the Postal Service solvent, citing figures showing the Postal Service had losses of $87 billion from 2007 to  2020 and over $188 billion in unfunded liabilities and debt. 

"This bill only kicks the can down the road without making the serious changes that are needed today," Lee said.

He introduced 12 amendments, including one to prohibit the Postal Service from shipping any abortion-inducing drugs. This follows the decision in December by the Food and Drug Administration to rescind a requirement that such medications be dispensed only in person.

Peters objected to Lee's amendments, saying the bill is limited to "absolutely essential consensus bipartisan reforms" to ensure that the Postal Service can survive. 

"In contrast, this amendment is inflammatory and unnecessary to the postal bill," he said. "It is meant to be a poison pill."