There is a thin sliver of hope that Congress may bring new life to the U.S. Postal Service. Last month a group of senators, including nine Republicans, introduced a bill to relieve the Postal Service of its draconian financial pressures and improve the process of mail delivery.
The Postal Service Reform Act of 2021, with a twin working its way through the House, would junk mandatory health care coverage for retirees and enroll future postal retirees in Medicare. This would save the agency more than $30 billion over the next decade.
Among other reforms, the bill directs the Postal Service to develop an online “dashboard” that records mail delivery performance; customers could follow the agency’s weekly on-time delivery record by Zip code. The legislation intends to resolve structural issues at the Postal Service and relieve more than $188 billion in liabilities.
Another bill before Congress is the USPS Fairness Act of 2021, repealing a law that since 2006 has ordered the agency to “pre-fund” employee pensions and retirement costs for the next 75 years, at an annual cost of more than $5 billion.
The 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act required the Postal Service to prepay annual retiree health care costs, a burden that has stifled investment in new technology and equipment, such as a new vehicle fleet and new package-sorting machines. That liability, plus other unfunded retiree benefits, is $136.1 billion – 72 percent of its debt.
The Postal Service also struggles against a $13 billion operating deficit in spite of billions in covid emergency funding earlier this year.
The agency’s troubles have only accelerated as package volume skyrocketed and first-class and marketing mail declined. Staff shortages were acute during the pandemic. All the while, President Trump mocked the service, lobbied for big cuts in its budget, and installed as postmaster general an old crony, Louis DeJoy, who had no experience in postal administration. The 2020 election presented special targets for DeJoy and the Trump administration, which moved to slow the delivery of mail and mail ballots during the pandemic.
DeJoy and the Postal Service governing board have also planned to raise prices and turn the agency toward parcels and away from paper mail. But the Senate recently confirmed two of President Biden’s nominees for the board; both are opposed to parts of DeJoy’s plans.
*
The Postal Service was created as a non-political agency in the summer of 1775 by the Second Continental Congress, with Benjamin Franklin the first Postmaster General. The Postal Service has since endured in progressive isolation, with much of its appeal due to the dedication and dependability of local people who get the mail delivered.
By 1982, the agency was running entirely on fees and postage revenue, and without federal money. But in 2006, a Republican congress passed legislation that prevented the Service from raising rates by more than the Consumer Price Index. This, despite soaring fuel prices, cargo flight leases, health insurance premiums and other inflation-plagued expenses. The legislation also ordered the Postal Service to “pre-fund” those pension and retirement costs.
The Postal Service logged a $900 million profit in 2006. Since then, clamps on its revenue have ensured deficits. And no other employer anywhere is forced to provide annual retirement benefits for employees who have not been hired, let alone born.
*
In Kansas and across America the post office is integral to daily life, indispensible for meaningful communication and commerce. It is an enduring tributary for personal expressions of love, sorrow, joy. It gives significance and identity to even the most obscure patron. The mails have been one sure thing for this country in good times and bad.
A lot needs to happen in House and Senate for any meaningful reform to become law and to revive the postal service. Although the agency’s funding is without tax revenues, there is talk of congressional appropriations. From another corner, a plan for the post office to offer non-mail services to local government, such as the sale of hunting and fishing permits. A program for banking services, a faint offshoot of the old postal savings bank, has been discussed. And there are the sticky details of transparency for election mail processing. A related item, about $8 billion to jump-start an electric vehicle fleet, involves a pile of money that carries weight in any negotiation.
The post office, non-political, ever-reliable, was only recently the unwilling cat’s paw in a wicked election year campaign. It is now apt to become the pawn in a battle among strident and raucous agents. At stake for them is the next election, party status and power. For the rest of us, it’s today’s mail, and whether there will be mail tomorrow.
