Hoeven on Legislation to Reform USPS

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senator John Hoeven today helped pass the Postal Reform Act of 2022, legislation to reform the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), help address its financial losses and ensure reliable, high quality mail and parcel service across the nation, including in rural America.

“We’ve worked to ensure USPS maintains reliable service throughout North Dakota and have consistently pressed the agency’s leadership to invest in its facilities and personnel in our state,” said Hoeven. “This legislation starts the process of reforming the USPS to make it more fiscally responsible, while also improving the agency’s operations and requiring that it continue its six-day-a-week delivery standard. Doing so will help ensure our residents, including in rural areas, receive the mail and packages they need in a timely manner.”

Specifically, the legislation:

• Requires USPS maintain its standard of delivering mail and packages at least six days per week.
• Repeals the prefunding requirement for USPS’s future health care benefits.
  • Hoeven previously cosponsored the bipartisan USPS Fairness Act to remove the prefunding requirement.
  • This reform shifts USPS back to a pay-as-you-go model, which is based on actual health care premiums and is similar to how other federal agencies fund employee benefits.
  • The prefunding requirement has accounted for more than 92 percent of USPS’s net losses over the past 15 years.
• Increases transparency by requiring the online publication of easily accessible data regarding USPS operations.
• Requires a detailed report from USPS to Congress every six months on the agency’s finances and operations.

The legislation is supported by U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, the National Rural Letter Carriers Association, the North Dakota Pharmacists Association, the North Dakota Rural Health Association, the Package Coalition and Citizens Against Government Waste, among others.