WASHINGTON — Congress would lift onerous budget requirements that have helped push the Postal Service deeply into debt and would require it to continue delivering mail six days per week under bipartisan legislation the House approved Tuesday.
The election-year bill, coming at a time of widespread complaints about slower mail service, would also require the Postal Service to display online how efficiently it delivers mail to communities.
The Postal Service is supposed to sustain itself with postage sales and other services, but has suffered 14 straight years of losses. The reasons include growing workers’ compensation and benefit costs plus steady declines in mail volume, even as it delivers to 1 million additional locations every year.
Postal Service officials have said that without congressional action, it would run out of cash by 2024, a frequent warning from the service. It has estimated it will lose $160 billion over the coming decade.
Those pressures have brought the two parties together for a measure aimed at helping the Postal Service, its employees, businesses that use it and disgruntled voters who rely on it for delivery of prescription drugs, checks and other packages. Tuesday’s vote was 342-92, a rare show of partisan agreement, with all Democrats and most Republicans backing it.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, said the Postal Service “provides service to every American, no matter where they live, binding us together in a way no other organization does.”
The Postal Service is “truly one of our prized national assets,” but “the days of letters alone driving Postal Service revenue are not coming back,” said Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, top Republican on that committee. He said the bill will “help it succeed into the 21st century.”
Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said he expects his chamber to “move quickly” on the measure. The bill has 14 GOP sponsors and, with strong Democratic support expected, seems on track to gain the 60 votes most bills need for Senate passage.
Over the years, some lawmakers have wanted to impose tougher requirements for faster service by the Postal Service, while others have favored privatizing some services. The compromise omits controversial proposals.
There has been talk over the years of reducing deliveries to five days per week, which could save more than $1 billion annually, according to the Government Accountability Office, the accounting agency of Congress. That idea has proven politically toxic and has not been pursued.
The bill would also require the Postal Service to set up an online “dashboard” that would be searchable by zip code to show how long it takes to deliver letters and packages.
The measure is supported by President Joe Biden, the Postal Service, postal worker unions, industries that use the service and others.
