Government affairs

While the Senate continued the impeachment trial this week, the President signed the USMCA into law, but most important to letter carriers, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) announced that the House of Representatives will vote on the USPS Fairness Act (H.R. 2382) in the coming days.

House Activity

On Friday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) announced that USPS Fairness Act (H.R. 2382) will come to a vote next week. This is a major achievement that could not have been possible without the hard work of letter carriers and other postal employees from across the country.

This bipartisan bill seeks to end to the disastrous mandate for the Postal Service to prefund retiree health care decades in advance. As letter carriers know, this mandate is largely responsible for our employer’s current financial situation and passage of H.R. 2382 is the first step toward its elimination.

With over 300 cosponsors, we are confident this important measure will pass the House so we can focus our efforts on the Senate bill. Passage is not a guarantee, though. NALC is asking all letter carriers in every state and every district to call and message their Member of Congress to ask them to support the U.S. Postal Service and its employees by voting for H.R. 2382, the USPS Fairness Act.

You can reach your Member of Congress by calling the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and be prepared to provide your ZIP code to connect through to the office.

• For our letter of support, click here.
• For ‘Quick Facts’ on prefunding repeal, click here.
• For a fact sheet on H.R. 2382, click here.
• To see if your Member of Congress is a supporter, click here.

 

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: 301 House (232 Democrats – 69 Republicans) – 2 Senate (2 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: 258 (206 Democrats – 52 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: 206 (180 Democrats – 26 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: 53 (40 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.