United States President Joe Biden signed the U.S. Postal Service Reform bill into law on Wednesday, authorizing the modernization of the agency's processes and operations, by overhauling its finances.
During the bill signing ceremony held at the White House, Biden said that the USPS delivers democracy. He added that it was no exaggeration that the agency was essential to the United States.
Postal Service Reform Bill
The Democrat also noted that the signing of the bill into law sets the USPS on a more "sustainable and stable financial footing." The new measure will require returned postal employees to enroll in Medicare when they become eligible. It also repeals a previous mandate for the agency that forced it to cover healthcare costs upfront and several years in advance.
The two measures would already save the agency roughly $50 billion in the next 10 years, based on estimation by the House Oversight Committee. Furthermore, the new legislation requires the USPS to create a new online public dashboard that includes local and national delivery and performance data, as per CNN.
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The online dashboard should also allow the USPS to work with local governments to offer other helpful non-postal services to Americans. Biden, speaking to an audience filled with members of Congress from both parties, said that the signing of the law was a mark that they were acknowledging the agency as a fundamental part of the country's economy, democracy, health, and very sense as a nation.
Attendees of the signing ceremony included Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Rob Portman, House Majority Whip James Clyburn, Sen. Thom Tillis, and Sen. Gary Peters. The bill passed the Senate last month and the House in February with bipartisan majorities.
Long-Term Financial Struggles
According to The Hill, Biden said that the new measures were useful because they would let people see, in real-time, how well the USPS was delivering for them and their community. For more than a decade, the Postal Service has operated with a net annual loss as officials previously warned that without reforms the agency would go bankrupt by 2024.
A management professor at the University of Notre Dame, James O'Rourke, said that the United States Postal Service was deeply in debt before the reform bill. He said that the agency has an $80 billion long-term debt arrangement. O'Rourke also noted that the USPS's operating revenue is only about $18.5 billion per year.
He noted that, while the funds showed a slight increase from last year and the year before, profit was at very slim margins. O'Rourke said that in the last five years, the Postal Service has lost money consistently instead of earning it.
When the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 was signed into law, it mandated that the agency serve all Americans but also break even. Co-founder of the Save the Post Office Coalition, Porter McConnell, said that the act basically introduced an identity crisis that had very real consequences for the USPS's operations, USA Today reported.
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