Sen. Heitkamp introduces legislation to improve mail delivery

U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp introduced a bipartisan bill to improve U.S. Postal Service operations, service and transparency to stabilize and preserve the U.S. Postal Service—a critical component of the nation’s infrastructure and economy, particularly in North Dakota’s rural communities.

 Heitkamp’s legislation would put the Postal Service— which processes and delivers nearly half of the world’s mail without using any taxpayer dollars to operate— on a path to financial stability and help prevent a taxpayer-funded bailout of the agency. The bill also includes strong service protections that are needed for rural families, farms and businesses. Heitkamp introduced the Postal Service Reform Act with U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-KS), Tom Carper (D-DE) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO).

 The bill builds on Heitkamp’s Fix My Mail effort, which she launched in 2014 to gather feedback from North Dakotans about challenges with their mail delivery and service. Throughout the years-long effort, she has heard from hundreds of North Dakotans about problems with mail delivery, and she brought those stories to the Postal Service to push for changes, just as this bill would do.

 The Postal Service operates at the center of a $1.4 trillion industry that employs more than 7 million people, and remains a lifeline for rural residents in North Dakota and across the country. Residents depend on the Postal Service for mail, prescription drugs, bills and packages. According to a 2015 Inspector General for the Postal Service report, North Dakota had the lowest decline in originating First-Class single-piece mail volume in the nation from 1995 to 2013. This demonstrates rural North Dakota’s continued reliance on the Postal Service to support jobs, schools, family farms and businesses in rural communities.

 “There is no substitute for the Postal Service in rural America,” said Heitkamp. “From receiving daily newspapers and prescriptions, to shipping products around the nation, families and businesses in rural North Dakota rely on getting their mail on time in an accessible, affordable manner. Congress needs to act now to stabilize the Postal Service and give it the tools it needs to thrive – otherwise it will go insolvent, taking this critical service away from rural communities that need it. Across our state, I’ve heard about problems with mail delivery and service, and I’ve pushed for changes from the Postal Service through my Fix My Mail initiative. Now, our bipartisan bill would reform the Postal Service, put it on firmer financial footing and help improve mail delivery and service in our rural communities. Far too often, rural America gets the short end of the stick, and Congress needs to step up and pass our bill so the Postal Service can fully function and remain the great equalizer that enables Americans no matter where they live to get reliable, affordable mail delivery.”

“Reliable delivery of the local newspapers they create is perhaps the top concern for community newspapers across North Dakota,” said Steve Andrist, Executive Director of the North Dakota Newspaper Association. “It’s been troubling to watch the reliability of the Postal Service continue its downward spiral, and to see Congress sit idly by, year after year, and watch it happen without getting serious about real postal reform. Senator Heitkamp has been working for years to reform the Postal Service so it can continue to operate with reliable mail service – which is desperately needed for the delivery of North Dakota newspapers. We are hopeful that Senator Heitkamp and her colleagues will be able to make this the year that Congress finally returns reliability and financial sustainability to a critically important American institution.”

“The U.S. Postal Service plays an important role in connecting our rural communities and families, but for years, postal customers have experienced challenges with service and reliability,” said Brock Engstrom, National Postal Mail Handlers Union, North Dakota Executive Board. “It is so important that lawmakers like Senator Heitkamp understand the importance of the Postal Service to rural America, and the introduction of this wide-ranging bill is the first step in pushing critical Postal Service financial and mail service reforms across the finish line. We thank Senator Heitkamp for her hard work in writing, negotiating and introducing this bipartisan legislation to protect and improve mail service, support customers across rural America and stand up for postal employees who work hard every day to do their jobs.”

In 2006, Congress mandated that the Postal Service pre-fund retiree health benefits 75 years into the future – a requirement that no other public or private entity faces. Last year, the Postal Service reported a net loss of $2.7 billion. It was the 11th year in a row they reported net losses. The aggressive prefunding payment schedule, coupled with the Great Recession of 2007-2009, the growth of e-commerce and declining mail volume have all hit the Postal Service hard, putting them in a place where they must cut costs. These cuts have come at a price to the postal customer and have led to the continued degradations in mail delivery and services, especially in rural America.

The Postal Service Reform Act would make key changes to those prefunding requirements, as well as employee and retiree health care by creating a new health benefits plan for postal employees and retirees, and requiring Medicare-eligible retirees and employees to enroll in Medicare. These changes would save a significant amount of money over time, protect employee benefits in retirement, prevent the disruption of critical postal services in rural areas and protect the American taxpayer from a future bailout.

Specifically, Heitkamp’s bill would:

 • Prioritize strong service reforms that put the postal customer first by improving mail service performance across the country while also requiring transparency and enforcement to ensure the Postal Service’s accountability. Service performance would also be stabilized by preserving current service standards for at least two years. The Postal Service Reform Act also increases transparency of Postal Service delivery results and would require that all delivery and retail performance results are posted in a transparent and user-friendly way.

 • Protect the American taxpayer from a future bailout and protect postal employees’ health care and retirement benefits by creating a new Postal Service Health Benefits Program for postal employees, and requiring Medicare-eligible retirees and employees to enroll in Medicare. The bill would also eliminate the existing statutory prefunding payment schedule, cancels any outstanding payments and amortizes payments over 40 years. These changes are essential to providing the Postal Service with financial stability.

 • Innovate and modernize the existing business model by allowing the Postal Service to introduce new, non-postal products and services, such as shipping beer, wine and distilled spirits.

 Heitkamp’s Postal Service Reform Act is very similar to a bipartisan House bill with the same name that passed out of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in March of 2017 on a bipartisan voice vote. The Senate bill adds important provisions, such as strong service protections, that help protect rural communities.