Government affairs

Legislative Updates

Week in review (December 9-13)

Lawmakers were incredibly busy this week, but bipartisan agreements on major legislation appear close. This year’s National Defense Authorization Act is nearly finalized after months of negotiations and an agreement in principle seems to have been reached among Congressional leadership for long-term government funding. A deal has also been reached on the US/Mexico/Canada Agreement to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement and will head to the House floor for a vote next week. Finally, NALC is reviewing a recently revised proposed rulemaking from the Postal Regulatory Commission.

Postal activity

Last week, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) issued a notification of a revised proposed rulemaking for the system that regulates the rates and classes of the Postal Service’s Market Dominant products. The proposal includes a rate increase to the Consumer Price Index of +3, which would equate to a tax increase on business mailers. This potential “tax” underscores the importance of repealing the prefunding mandate, which has been the overall driving force of postal losses since its enactment. NALC is reviewing the proposed rulemaking’s impact and will fully participate in this process with our continued goal of strengthening our nation’s universal postal service. Read more here.

Congressional activity

Ahead of the December 20 deadline at which point the current short-term funding bill runs out, Congressional leadership and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have been working to finalize a long-term spending deal through the end of fiscal year 2020 or pass another temporary measure to give them more time to complete their work. It is unclear at this time how the negotiations will play out, but leaders from both parties have issued optimistic statements and said that they have reached an agreement “in principle” on $1.37 trillion in government funding to avoid a shutdown.

After months of negotiation on the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act between Sens. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) and Jack Reed (D-RI) and Reps. Adam Smith (D-WA) and Mac Thornberry (R-TX), the respective chairmen and ranking members of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, a compromise has been reached and the $738 billion defense policy bill was released on Monday. Final language still needs to be agreed upon, but among the provisions included in the draft are measures that would provide a 3.1 percent pay raise for the military, 12 weeks of paid parental leave to the entire federal workforce, and adopt the Fair Chance Act, which prevents all branches of the federal government and federal contractors from requesting criminal history information at the start of the hiring process. The legislation is expected to be voted on next week.

On Wednesday, the House Ways and Means Committee unanimously approved the bipartisan Know Your Social Security Act (H.R. 5306), which would reinstate the printing and mailing the annual Social Security Statement until such time as a wage earner selects to receive it by electronic delivery. The Coalition for Paper Options, of which NALC is a member, supports this legislation and is encouraged by the growing support in Congress for this bill. Read more here.

On Thursday in an almost party-line 230-192 vote, the House of Representatives passed the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act (H.R. 3), which would lower drug prices through a variety of ways including requiring Medicare to negotiate drug prices on the 250 highest priced drugs; making the lower negotiated drug prices available to all insured Americans;  capping annual out of pocket expenses for Medicare beneficiaries at $2,000; and using the savings to expand Medicare coverage to include hearing, dental and vision. The Democratic House majority was joined by two Republicans in advancing the bill, which is unlikely to be taken up by the Senate.

NALC Priority Bills/Resolutions

H.R. 2382/S. 2965 – USPS Fairness Act
Status: Introduced by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT)
Co-sponsors: 298 House (233 Democrats – 65 Republicans) – 1 Senate (1 Democrats – 0 Republicans)

To repeal the requirement that the United States Postal Service prepay future retirement benefits.

House Resolution 23 (H. Res. 23) – Door Delivery
Status: Introduced by Reps. Susan Davis (D-CA) and Peter King (R-NY)
Co-sponsors: 257 (206 Democrats – 51 Republicans)

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States Postal Service should take all appropriate measures to ensure the continuation of door delivery for all business and residential customers.

House Resolution 33 (H. Res. 33) – Anti-privatization
Status: Introduced by Reps. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) and Rodney Davis (R-IL)
Co-sponsors: 267 (226 Democrats – 41 Republicans)

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that Congress should take all appropriate measures to ensure that the United States Postal Service remains an independent establishment of the Federal Government and is not subject to privatization.

House Resolution 54 (H. Res. 54) – Six-day Delivery
Status: Introduced by Reps. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) and Sam Graves (R-MO)
Co-sponsors: 291 (218 Democrats – 73 Republicans)

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States Postal Service should take all appropriate measures to ensure the continuation of its six-day mail delivery service.

House Resolution 60 (H. Res. 60) – Service Standards
Status: Introduced by Rep. David McKinley (R-WV) and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
Co-sponsors: 203 (178 Democrats – 25 Republicans)

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States Postal Service should take all appropriate measures to restore service standards in effect as of July 1, 2012.

Senate Resolution 99 (S. Res. 99) – Anti-privatization
Status: Introduced by Sens. Gary Peters and Jerry Moran (R-KS)
Co-sponsors: 53 (43 Democrats – 8 Republicans – 2 Independents)

Expressing the sense of the Senate that Congress should take all appropriate measures to ensure that the United States Postal Service remains an independent establishment of the Federal Government and is not subject to privatization in whole or in part.

H.R. 2478 – Fed Retirement Fairness Act
Status: Introduced by Reps. Derek Kilmer (D-WA) and Tom Cole (R-OK)
Co-sponsors: 52 (39 Democrats – 13 Republicans)

To provide certain federal employees the opportunity to make catch-up retirement contributions for time spent as temporary employees after Dec. 31, 1988, thus making such time creditable service under the Federal Employees Retirement System. Now applies to temporary postal employees, such as letter carriers who spent time as casuals, TEs, and CCAs.

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