In a good show of bipartisanship, the Senate passed the U.S. Postal Service Relief Bill, on Tuesday. It was passed with an overwhelming majority. The loss-making U.S. Postals Service (USPS) will receive roughly $50 billion in financial aid over 10 years. Future retirees would have to enroll in Medicare, an insurance plan that is government funded. The bill has been sent to President Biden’s desk for him to sign it into law.
The Postal Service Relief Bill had been supported by President Biden, the Democrats, several Republicans, the Postal Service, its workers’ unions and many others.
The final vote at the Senate was 79-19. Last month, the House of Representatives had passed the bill in a bipartisan manner as well with a 342-92 vote. The bill is called the Postal Reform Act. It has dropped an earlier mandate that required the USPC to cover health costs of its workers years in advance, which led to huge expenditure.
Dropping covering future health costs as well as enrolling its workers in Medicaid is expected to save roughly $50 billion in the next decade, according to the House Oversight Committee. The legislation also says that the USPC has to create an online dashboard that has both local as well as national delivery time data.
There will be no cut back on deliveries as of now, nor will there be privatization of some services. However, the ending of the requirement of the the UPSC to finance health care benefits of workers ahead of time for the next 75 years is a major step forward. No private company or federal agency had to face this obligation.
Many Americans depended on the USPS during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, officials had warned that the service would run out of cash in about a couple of years unless Congress took action.
Chick Schumer, a Democrat from New York and the Senate Majority Leader said that the post office “usually delivers for us, but today we’re going to deliver for them.”
Sen. Rob Portman , Republican from Ohio, who was one of the major crafters of the the bill said that it was not a bailout as the agency was not getting any new funding.
