On February 8th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Postal Service Reform Act, H.R. 3076, by a vote of 342 – 92. The Senate plans to put the House bill directly on the Floor and a vote could come as soon as Monday. The Alliance has also signed onto a Senate stakeholder letter of support encouraging an “aye” vote. Key provisions include:
- expansion of special rates for local newspaper distribution to promote local news organizations,
- service performance transparency including a new public-facing, online dashboard with national and local level service performance data updated each week to help promote compliance with on-time delivery of mail,
- repeal mandatory pre-funding of retiree health benefits to financially stabilize the Postal Service and curb rate increases,
- six-day integrated delivery, and
- study on operational inefficiencies in Postal Service flats and magazine processing
NMA will continue to keep you updated on developments.
Holly Lubart is Vice President, Government Affairs at the News/Media Alliance. Previously, she served as Vice President of Government Affairs for the PA NewsMedia Association and started her career as a journalist. Lubart has over 20 years of political and communications experience.
